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Aging and Immigration: Who Are the Elderly?

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Abstract

Much U.S. research in aging and the social sciences of health compares beliefs, conditions, or behaviors of “racial” groups. In immigration studies, social identity is most often delineated by virtue of foreign origin with respect to a host country. Thus, nationality is often the marker of difference. The present article joins two generally separate streams of research, gerontologic and immigration research in the United States. The paper considers data from several studies of seniors in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1990s; the “Black and White Caregivers” and the “Use of Services of Black and White Elderly”. These are considered not in terms of their original research goals, but rather in terms of a reflective examination of assumptions regarding the identity of the elders and caregivers that framed the two studies. The results show that “racial” terms conceal, not reveal, the actual ethnic and therefore, cultural, affiliations of the seniors. We suggest that because “racial” classification is an impediment to, rather than a facilitator of, cultural comparisons, such terms should not be used to compare, predict or explain beliefs or behaviors. The revelation of distinct, highly varied ethnic groups within asserted homogeneous “racial” groups has implications for immigration studies. These are discussed in the final section as relates to psychiatric and social issues.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences; Department of Psychiatry, and the Center for Biomedical Ethics, School of Medicine, and Francis Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio

    Atwood D. Gaines (PhD, MPH, Professor of Anthropology, Professor of Bioethics, Professor of Psychiatry, and Professor of Nursing)

  2. Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, 44106

    Atwood D. Gaines (PhD, MPH, Professor of Anthropology, Professor of Bioethics, Professor of Psychiatry, and Professor of Nursing)

  3. Francis Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio

    Patricia E. McDonald

  4. Francis Payne Bolton School of Nursing; Director, Center on Aging and Health, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio

    May L. Wykle (Office of the Dean)

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  1. Atwood D. Gaines
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  2. Patricia E. McDonald
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  3. May L. Wykle
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Gaines, A.D., McDonald, P.E. & Wykle, M.L. Aging and Immigration: Who Are the Elderly?. Journal of Immigrant Health 1, 99–113 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021884406146

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