Older Migrants, Work, and Enclaves

Within the context of rising pension ages, there has been growing interest in how precarious workers find and sustain employment. One group which has been under-explored is “aged-in-place” (AIP) migrants: people who have spent most of their lives away from their home countries and have lifetimes of experience of economic exclusion. This scoping review aims to explore the experiences of older AIP migrants in work and propose an agenda for research and policy to support their realization of work that they value. We reviewed literature on migrants’ experiences in employment and aging. A prevalent focus is on ethnic enclaves: neighborhoods as spaces for mutual economic and social support. Although enclaves are contested constructs, they are spaces in which migrants collaborate to overcome exclusion resulting from factors like discrimination and language barriers. We argue that such collaboration both shapes older migrants’ understanding of work in later life and provides the political, social, and economic agency to co-construct work which they value.