Ethnic Diversity Among Older Adults: Older adults becoming more diverse

By 2050 out of 439 million Americans, minorities—those Americans who identify themselves as Hispanic, Black, Asian, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander or mixed race—will account for 54 percent of the U.S. population (currently 34%). Among the nation’s children, the trend is even more pronounced—jumping to 62 percent by 2050 (compared to 44 percent today). It will no longer be accurate to refer to these ethnically diverse groups as minorities.

Immigration plays a leading role in both the growth and changing composition of the U.S. population. Immigration is the single reason why the United States has not aged as fast as most European countries.

The Pew Research Center finds that immigrants and their descendants will account for 82 percent of the projected population increase from 2005 to 2050. Nearly 20 percent of Americans will be foreign-born in 2050, compared with 12 percent in 2005, the Center projects. On the other side of the age continuum, by 2050 one in five people will be 65 and older and 59 percent will be White. That same year, when 19 million people will be age 85 and older, 67 percent will be White.

These changes signal that America is changing color while aging. Although older adults are becoming more diverse, for the next four decades, we will have a predominantly White older group, and a predominantly ethnically diverse younger group following. This seems to create social tension, especially when older adults express less tolerant views of an ethnically diverse population.

A popular view holds that older adults hold more narrow views than younger adults because they grew up in a less tolerant era. However, recent research shows that—even though they might have ethnic biases—older adults are less able to regulate associations. For older adults, implicit racial biases—which we all have—are likely to be acted upon.

Although older adults might be perceived as biased against ethnically diverse younger populations, they must, at the same time, rely on these same populations to generate the funds for their federal benefits. Especially, in light of the fact that both Social Security and Medicare rely exclusively on younger workers’ contributions.

In what we euphemistically term “pay-as-you-go,” today’s younger workers—including undocumented workers—contribute to the benefits of current retirees. In a now outdated but pertinent 1994 study, Donald Huddle estimated that total revenues from undocumented workers was $10 billion, including $7 billion in Social Security taxes.

Because of proposed changes under discussion for Social Security and Medicare, any changes to these federal benefit systems will have grave impact on younger workers who are currently supporting today’s older adults. And these workers will predominantly be ethnically diverse. The “pay-as-you-go” system might become a “pay-and-go” system. Older adults have an obligations to maintain current privileges to younger Americans.

Mario Garrett, Ph.D., is a professor of gerontology at San Diego State University and is currently on sabbatical at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He can be reached at mariusgarrett@yahoo.com