Many older immigrants in New York are having a hard time: 'I have no future'

Francisco Palacios, who grew up poor in Ecuador, came to New York City in 1986 so he could earn enough to retire someday.

But after getting stuck in low-paying jobs at restaurants, construction sites and a laundromat, Mr. Palacios, now 70, has no savings and is just trying to survive. Most weekdays, he waits on a street corner in Queens with other day laborers, hoping someone will hire him to paint houses. “I still feel like I have the energy and the strength to work,” he said in Spanish, through a translator, although he believes, “I have no future.”

Older immigrants like Mr. Palacios now make up just over half of New York City's population aged 65 and older. Their numbers have grown more than twice as fast as the number of U.S.-born seniors since 2010, largely due to an aging population of immigrants who came here decades ago as young adults and workers.

Many of these immigrants said they never expected to grow old in the city and that, after years of saying, “I'm leaving tomorrow,” they simply aren't prepared for that reality when it arrives. Some are still chasing the American dream long after their prime working years. Others have stayed because they can't bear to leave behind the children and grandchildren they have here, or the life they've built for themselves.

Older immigrants have largely driven the rapid growth of the population aged 65 and older to 1.4 million, according to a census analysis by Social explorer, a data research company. In 2022, there were 713,000 older immigrants, a 57 percent increase from 2010. During the same period, the number of U.S.-born older residents rose 25 percent to 678,000.

These older immigrants – from dozens of countries, including the Dominican Republic, China, Jamaica, Haiti and Colombia – have made the city's neighborhoods more diverse. They have helped keep the economy afloat, but their rapidly growing numbers also threaten to further strain limited social services and resources in a city already grappling with a migrant crisis.

While many seniors struggle with financial problems and social isolation, older immigrants can be among the worst off, immigration experts say. They tend to have less education than their U.S.-born peers and are less likely to have retirement or investment income, the census analysis shows. The average annual income for an older immigrant was $14,592, or about half of the $30,019 for a U.S.-born senior.

Many older immigrants run out of savings after years of working in low-paying jobs and often receive less Social Security income than U.S.-born residents. The undocumented among them are not eligible to collect any amount. Some older immigrants also receive limited assistance due to language and cultural barriers.

Cheung Gim Fung, 92, who worked as a cook in Chinese restaurants after emigrating from Hong Kong in the 1950s, feels increasingly isolated in his Sunset Park neighborhood in Brooklyn as newer waves of Chinese immigrants from Fujian have settled around him . “I do not speak English. I don't speak Mandarin. I don't speak Fujianese,” said Mr. Cheung, who visits a nearby bakery every day to sit with other Cantonese-speaking immigrants.

Some older immigrants have already fallen into poverty and homelessness and more will follow unless city leaders find ways to help them, said Jonathan Bowles, executive director of the Center for an Urban Future, a nonprofit organization that reported on older immigrants and the the state's rapidly aging population. In 2022, there were 163,000 older immigrants living at or below the poverty line, a 37 percent increase from a decade earlier, the center said.

“Immigrants have given so much to the city during their working lives,” Bowles said. “It would be simply unfathomable for the city to turn its back on immigrants as they grow older and their needs increase.”

Despite being disproportionately concentrated in low-wage jobs, immigrants are an important part of the local economy, responsible for about 31 percent of all goods and services produced in the New York metro area, according to David Dyssegaard Kallick, director of Immigration Research Initiativea non-profit research group.

Although retirement benefits are primarily determined by the federal government, city officials and social services have attempted to provide health care and support services to immigrants regardless of their legal status. NYC aginga city agency with an annual budget of $523 million, will continue to offer free meals and other programs to seniors even as the city faces a fiscal crisis, including the cost of hosting migrants seeking asylum, Edgar Yu said , a spokesperson.

But that's not enough to meet the needs of the rapidly growing older population, said Councilmember Crystal Hudson, a Brooklyn Democrat who, as chair of the council's aging committee, has pointed out that less than 1 percent of the city's total budget is spent on the elderly. adult services. She has that too worked to pass recent laws that expand legal protections and services for older adults, including requiring senior centers in immigrant communities to offer programming in multiple languages.

The struggle of older immigrants has also added another layer to the complicated immigration debate, with some critics saying it is the result of federal immigration policies that have failed to deter illegal immigration and attract more highly skilled workers.

Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels, who ran for mayor in 2021, has protested undocumented immigrants but said that “you're not going to deport them at 75 or 85,” especially when “many of them may not even have a degree.” place to return to.”

“The reality is that we are a caring people and we need to take care of them, but let this be a wake-up call,” said Mr Sliwa, who is 69.

But Daniel Di Martino, a graduate fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a public policy group, said extending special benefits or privileges to older undocumented immigrants would entail enormous costs and encourage more illegal immigration. “What message would that send to the world?” he said. “You can come to the United States illegally and they will arrange everything for you as an older person.”

Most of these older immigrants came in waves in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, after sweeping changes to a federal immigration law lifted longstanding quotas for many countries and ushered in a period of increased immigration from around the world, Jeanne said Batalova, a senior policy analyst at the Institute for Migration Policy, a research group in Washington. The majority of these former immigrants have since become American citizens.

Gustavo Rincón arrived in New York from Colombia in 1973 and later worked as a draftsman for Con Edison before retiring more than a decade ago. Mr. Rincón, now 69, thought about returning to Cartagena — “I love my roots, my culture,” he said — but found it was too hot and living standards “still have a long way to go.” .

Sara Melendez left her five children in Ecuador in 1991 to find work in New York to support them. “I lived day to day,” said Ms. Melendez, speaking through an interpreter in Spanish, as she recalled toiling as a seamstress in a garment factory. Today, four of her children still live in Ecuador, along with 11 grandchildren, but Ms. Melendez, now 89 and a U.S. citizen, lives alone in a subsidized housing project on the Lower East Side.

Ms. Melendez, who has diabetes, said she is staying because the medical care is better than in Ecuador. She also relies on a network of services for older adults provided by the Henry Street Settlementa social service, including a bilingual social worker, a home health aide, nutritional checks and an emotional support group for women called “Esperanza,” or hope in Spanish.

In recent years, some immigrants were older when they arrived. Many were brought over by their adult children, who have become U.S. citizens, often to help care for their grandchildren.

A dozen Chinese grandfathers recently gathered on folding chairs on a Brooklyn sidewalk to talk and play cards. Chen Renhou, 71, wore a baseball cap with the words “Proud American” as his wife showed photos of their village in China.

Sitting nearby, 71-year-old Jiang Aiguo said he was a farmer in Fujian province before moving in with his son's family eight years ago to become “the nanny.” Mr Jiang said he had adapted to city life but missed his home in China, where he had more space and privacy. Now he added: 'I always wait until I can go to the toilet.'

New Empowerment of the Immigrant Community, a Queens-based advocacy group that administers job training and development programs, has begun teaching immigrants financial, technical and life skills to help them prepare for the long term. “We see them getting older,” said Hildalyn Colón Hernández, the group's deputy director, adding that many of them “never think about the future.”

The organization has been trying to help Mr. Palacios, the elderly house painter, who waits at the curb with other day laborers even as his legs ache and go numb. Mr. Palacios, who is undocumented, said he has not been home to Ecuador since leaving nearly 40 years ago because he fears he will not be allowed to return to the United States. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he remembered never having the chance to see his parents again and having to miss both of their funerals.

“I came for the American dream,” he said, but ultimately “regretted that everything I tried to do here didn't work out.”

Audio produced by Adrienne Hurst.