Why do some of the UK’s older migrant groups have very low-level labour market/formal economic engagement despite the abolishment of default retirement age, and the introduction of extended working lives policies? I first became interested in investigating this issue in 2016, as I found that current research mostly focused on the working lives of ‘native’ white older groups, with older migrant groups remaining significantly underexplored in current labour market research.
Why does this issue matter?
There is a growing number of older migrant/migrant-citizen groups in the UK, and pension spending is the biggest single component of the nation’s welfare budget. Thus, older migrants/migrant-citizen groups cannot afford to remain on the periphery of the economy and active ageing debates any longer. Since extended working lives remain a relatively new phenomena only emerging in recent decades, the number of migrants who are outside formal labour markets has only begun to receive attention from policymakers. So far, their relatively smaller number and representation among the general population have rendered them invisible.
It is not novel to suggest that many migrants age differently to their native counterparts. However, little is known about their diverse ageing processes within labour market contexts. Common reasons for older migrants remaining outside labour markets include low-levels of English language proficiency, social isolation, and health issues. Existing research has comprehensively investigated issues relating to health, social care, and social inequalities, but far less is known about how this plays out within the context of extended working lives, and the implications this may have for future labour market policies.
How are we to discover more about these situations?
One starting point might be to seek to understand how diverse socio-economic realities shape migrants’ attitudes to later life work-extended lives and what those attitudes consist of. My research with older South Asian British Muslim women explored these very attitudes.
Why South Asian British Muslim women?
Of all minority groups, the South Asian British Muslim group (mainly British-Bangladeshis and British-Pakistanis) remains strategically important for the UK labour market for several reasons including the large size of these diasporic communities and their significantly different socio-cultural perspectives. Besides this, their contributions to the economy involve a huge amount of hidden/informal work including unpaid women’s labour. This group also has the highest unemployment rate among Britain’s older migrant population groups. The UK government’s extended working lives policies have already created controversies for their lack of inclusivity and a lack of attention to nuances regarding diverse ageing among different population groups, particularly women (see the WASPI movement). The situation seems to be even more precarious for older Muslim women, since they also have the lowest level of economic activity in the UK (South Asian British Muslim women sit at the intersection of being women, Muslim, and old, and have been previously categorised as being furthest from the UK labour market).
My research explored these women’s late-life work attitudes using an intersectional cumulative lens which sought to understand their work-life trajectories across borders, time, and socio-economic contexts. In-depth interviews conducted in 2018-19, with a cohort aged between 50 and 66, living in the Greater Manchester area revealed complex patterns in their life-long, (non-)participatory labour market activity. Their behavioural patterns and attitudes to later life wage work can be grouped into five foundational principles. What I have outlined below not only shows the relevance of each principle for women’s motivation, agency and actions, but also highlights the complexities and heterogeneity within the group, which for the most part has been overly homogenised, essentially situating them on the margins.
Five principles of participation
Principle of employability:
There is a positive relationship between perceived employability and agency exercised in later life wage work participation. Factors such as language proficiency and self-perceptions of (social/working) age, coupled with structural factors, directly influenced the cohort’s sense of employability and motivation to engage in late-life wage work. Those who perceive themselves as employable in the current job market tended to exhibit higher levels of motivation, dedicating more time and effort to upskilling, job searching and active participation. Yet, their motivation for paid work was moderated by levels of caregiving responsibilities (for example, caring for sick partners and grandchildren), as well as personal health issues.
Principle of integration:
A strong positive correlation exists between levels of life-long integration within the UK society, its labour market, and the cohort’s labour participation in older age. The more integrated they were, the greater the likelihood of participation in wage work in later life. However, positive attitudes often do not translate into active labour market participation. This is because the cohort’s preferences and choices regarding work in later life, influenced by factors such as flexibility and religiosity in old age (i.e., piety and philanthropy), may not align with the available opportunities for them in labour markets. There is evidence that these factors significantly contribute to migrant women’s work ageing processes[i] diverging from their native counterparts.
Principle of trust:
A paradoxical twist unfolds in migrant women’s patterns of, and attitudes towards, later life work, whereby even a highly integrated individual may have plans of retirement in their homeland and not extend their working lives in the UK. Overall, the cohort showed a low-level of trust in UK institutions and also a low level of expectations regarding reliance on the UK’s welfare and benefit systems. For the low to moderately integrated people from these cohorts, these are the results of various social discriminatory experiences based on disparities in age, race, gender, religion, and social class throughout their lives.
Principle of dependence:
Such low-level confidence concerning the UK’s welfare and benefit systems inversely correlates with their dependence on family members and local communities. Interestingly, despite high levels of dependence on their families, there is not always a consistent push to actively pursue wage work later in life, diverging from those often found in Western social expectations. Instead, their understanding of old age dignity is deeply rooted in the idea of being cared for by their families and their children.
Principle of awareness:
There is a mutually reinforcing relationship between research participants’ limited awareness of the UK’s welfare systems and their motivation for wage work in later life. These women remain oblivious to the economic arguments of extended working lives/Old-age dependence ratio (OADR) factor and its relationship with the ‘healthy ageing’ agenda. This is further entangled with their own understandings of dependence on the state and low expectations from formal welfare systems. In the event of non-participation, they mainly consider themselves to be the responsibility of their families, not the state. Additionally, due to their families reaffirming socio-cultural ageing norms of gradual social withdrawal when entering later life, there is little scope for agency.
Policy recommendations
From my study there emerges a call to action—to bridge the gaps between the UK government’s expectations and the socio-political and socio-economic realities of those who participated in my interviews. There may not be immediate solutions to their non-participation, but as we chart a course towards extending working lives further, the government can use the abovementioned principles to set realistic expectations for ageing migrants, paving the way for inclusive and pragmatic policies and practices. The lessons learned from understanding the importance of complexities of integration, perception, trust, and awareness must be applied to address any gaps in the future (re)design of labour market regulations, welfare systems, and migration policies which currently have age-based unequal provisions embedded within them.
[i] Ferdous, S., 2024. ‘Divergent Work Ageing’ and Older Migrants’ (Un)extended Working Lives. Work, Employment and Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/09500170231218201.
About the Author
Dr Sajia Ferdous is Visiting Academic in the Institute on Ageing Population. She is a Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour at Queen’s Management School, Queen’s University Belfast. Before joining Queen’s, Sajia held teaching positions at The University of Manchester. She completed her PhD in Business and Management from Alliance Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester.
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