Intergenerational relations of older immigrants in the United States

Abstract

The rapid aging of the immigrant population in the United States has drawn increasing scholarly attention to studying the kinship support networks of older immigrants. Despite the common stereotype of older immigrants as passive dependents of their families and the receiving society, this review highlights their active negotiations of ties to adult children as they manage family relations and secure old‐age support. After a brief description of the demographic profiles of the older immigrant population in contemporary United States, this article shows how international migration challenges the patterns and power dynamics of two major aspects of intergenerational relationships in adulthood—intergenerational exchanges and intergenerational conflicts. By presenting the diversity and variations of intergenerational relations in aging immigrant families, the author argues that research on older immigrants' family relations holds great potentials to contribute to the literature on immigration, family, and aging studies.

Consequences of deferred action for childhood arrivals for parent health: Applying a social foreground perspective

“…It is possible that because DACA allows for greater financial security and consequently, residential independence for those who are DACA‐eligible, among the select few who do coreside with parents, DACA may also enable recipients to support parents with greater health needs compared to those who are DACA‐ineligible. This pattern is in line with research suggesting that immigrant children use their socioeconomic success to uphold their end of the “immigrant bargain” (Cao, 2021).…”

“…Pointedly, findings from our work add to growing research on the health consequences of immigration policy and pushes academics and practitioners to further consider how these policies affect individuals who themselves are not the direct targets of such programs. For older immigrant parents, who in general face greater economic precarity and less access to public supports than the native-born, the collective resources of family members may be especially important (Cao, 2021). This is particularly true of undocumented older adults, of whom, surprisingly, there has been less research on in part due to data constraints (Enriquez & Flores Morales, 2022).…”

“…Family members who live near one another are more attuned to each other's needs and face fewer barriers in providing instrumental and financial transfers. Family proximity may be particularly salient for immigrant families, who rely more on kin because of socioeconomic disadvantages built in to local, state, and federal policies (Cao, 2021). Thus, whereas our initial hypotheses that DACA benefits the health of parents was not supported, our findings hint at how DACA may be associated with increased support of older, less‐healthy parents by way of changes in the patterns of intergenerational coresidence.…”