BACKGROUND Rapid population aging and increasing racial/ethnic and immigrant/native diversity make a broad documentation of U.S. health patterns during both mid- and late life particularly important. OBJECTIVE We aim to better understand age- and gender-specific racial/ethnic and nativity differences in physical functioning and disability among adults aged 50 and above. METHODS We aggregate 14 years of data from the National Health Interview Survey and calculate age- and gender-specific proportions of physical functioning and two types of disability for each population subgroup. RESULTS Middle-aged foreign-born individuals in nearly every subgroup exhibit lower proportions of functional limitations and disability than U.S.-born whites. This pattern of immigrant advantage is generally reversed in later life. Moreover, most U.S.-born minority groups have significantly higher levels of functional limitations and disability than U.S.-born whites in both mid- and late life. CONCLUSIONS Higher levels of functional limitations and disability among U.S.-born minority groups and immigrant populations in older adulthood pose serious challenges for health providers and policymakers in a rapidly diversifying and aging population.

Objective This study examines the potential effects of nativity and acculturation on active life expectancy (ALE) among Mexican-origin elders. Method We employ 17 years of data from the Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly to calculate ALE at age 65 with and without disabilities. Results Native-born males and foreign-born females spend a larger fraction of their elderly years with activities of daily living (ADL) disability. Conversely, both foreign-born males and females spend a larger fraction of their remaining years with instrumental activities of daily life (IADL) disability than the native-born. In descriptive analysis, women with low acculturation report higher ADL and IADL disability. Men manifest similar patterns for IADLs. Discussion Although foreign-born elders live slightly longer lives, they do so with more years spent in a disabled state. Given the rapid aging of the Mexican-origin population, the prevention and treatment of disabilities, particularly among the foreign born, should be a major public health priority.

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SDG Goal 10 seeks to reduce inequality by limiting the costs of remittances to less than 3% and eliminating corridors, which cost more than 5% by 2030. Making remittances affordable is timely given that they were three times higher than official development assistance to the developing world in 2016. This comparison between remittances and aid tacitly recognises these migrants as important actors in development. The absence of other references to remittances in the SDGs demands analysis of how remittance senders are conceptualised by other 'development actors'. This paper examines the complexities and contradictions that obscure the conceptualisation and mobilisation of Sub-Saharan African remittance senders in sustainable development. It is informed by in-depth interviews with officials from a bilateral donor agency and diaspora organisations. It applies a social constructionist framework to understand how the role of remittance senders can be reconceptualised to examine how their interventions impact sustainable development in Africa.