Campaigning Together

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The Integration of Older Refugees Issues for
Central and Local Government and Non-Governmental
Organisations Jill Rutter, Senior Research
Fellow, Migration Team, Institute for Public
Policy Research
Campaigning Together
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The Integration of Older Refugees
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The Integration of Older Refugees
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The Integration of Older Refugees
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The Integration of Older Refugees

• Public policy makers need to ask five questions
  in relation to the integration of older refugees
  
• What is the demographic profile of older
  refugees? Who lives in my locality?
• What do older refugees see as their needs? How do
  they define their integration?
• How do public services and NGOs understand older
  refugees needs?
• How are public services and NGOs presently
  responding to refugees?
• What ought to be happening?

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What is the demographic profile of older refugees?

• Problems of definition of older and refugee.
• Older is culturally defined.
• Some older refugee migrate at a late age. Others
  grow older in the UK.
• Some older people who came to UK as refugees now
  see themselves as minority citizens.
• Not all older refugees who live in the UK apply
  for asylum. Some use other migration pathways
  family reunion, EU secondary migrants,
  returning Brits such as Zimbabweans.

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What is the demographic profile of older
refugees?

• Asylum statistics 2001-2006 show 5,617 asylum
  applications from men over 50 and 4,925 from
  women over 50. Higher proportion of women
  applicants among over 50s than among younger
  refugees.
• But much higher proportion of men among over 50
  refugee population than among overall UK
  population.
• Applications reflect main countries of origin of
  asylum-seekers
• Recognition rates much lower for over 50s.

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What is the demographic profile of older
refugees?

• Asylum data not ascribed to local authorities and
  lack of local demographic data.
• Census provides good data, but is soon out of
  date.
• Other methods of analysing local migrant
  population data - Labour Force Survey will not
  capture older refugee population due to sampling
  issues.
• Huge diversity of national origin, ethnicity,
  belief systems, prior education and employment,
  age of migration and experiences in UK.
• Ethnicity categories used by NHS and other public
  services are too broad to be useful. Better ways
  of recording data on ethnicity are needed.

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Older refugees understandings of their needs and
integration

• Many needs similar to younger refugee
  populations.
• Social care and healthcare needs are greater.
  Access to social care, healthcare, as well as
  poor housing conditions assumes greater
  significance in interviews with older refugees.

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Older Refugees Views of Integration

• Older refugees defined their integration as
  comprising their labour market experiences and
  their local social interactions.
• Many refugees felt isolated and felt that their
  neighbours were unwelcoming.
• Sense of isolation seemed less acute in older
  refugees than among younger refugees, as a result
  of high levels of volunteering.
• Refugees felt that the responsibility for
  integration was placed on them, however, they
  felt integration should be seen as a two way
  process.

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Older Refugees Views of Integration

• Both older and younger refugees felt that UK
  population did not respect the experience of
  older people. Older people, including older
  refugees were not valued a facet of poor
  integration and poor cohesion.
• Just respecting my parents is something I want
  to keep, I see a lot of people in here dont
  respect people older than them. Its not
  (distinctly) Turkish to respect your elders, its
  just about personality, the characteristics you
  have, but in Turkey they teach you that in school
  and in the mosques where you go. They teach you
  that its against Islam, so I had that experience
  in Turkey, they taught me, and when I came here I
  just wanted to preserve that. (20 year old
  Turkish refugee).

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Older Refugees Views of Integration

• Integration was not seen just as an individual
  process, but also involved inter-generational and
  spousal interactions.
• Many interviewees felt that long term contentment
  - happiness, fulfilment, a sense of security, the
  absence of anxiety and feelings of welcome and
  belonging should comprise part of what is seen
  as integration..
• Its about being happy and Im very happy here
  in Sheffield, in my home and in my garden.
  Older Afghan refugee, Sheffield.

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A new definition of integration

• Psycho-social contentment happiness, fulfilment,
  a sense of security, the absence of anxiety and
  feelings of welcome.
• Interaction between members of a household and
  wider society.
• Participation in civil society institutions, in
  public institutions, the workplace and in
  political life.
• Equality of access, for example to housing,
  education, healthcare and social welfare.
  Equality of treatment within the workplace and
  public institutions, as well as progress towards
  equality of outcome within education and
  employment.
• Respect for the rule of law and the liberal
  values that underpin society.
• Recognition of the skills and other contributions
  made by all members of a society and the
  celebration of diversity
• The possession of civil, political and social
  rights.

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Public Service Understandings of Older Refugees

• Tendency to under-estimate population sizes of
  older refugees
• Little understanding of local populations
• Poor analysis of existing data
• Invisibility of older refugees
• Assumptions made about older refugees, for
  example on extended family, levels of prior
  education.

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Existing provision

• Much excellent targeted social care for older
  refugees, provision that is often better quality
  than for non-refugee communities. This provision
  has usually been developed by larger, less
  dispersed, older established and more financially
  successful refugee communities.
• Some refugee communities less well-served in
  relation to targeted provision for older
  refugees.

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Existing provision

• Significant evidence of discrimination and
  differential treatment in adult social care
  system and NHS. Wrongful refusal of healthcare as
  a result of 2004 regulations on secondary
  healthcare.
• Lack of expertise among refugee groups about
  social care and benefit entitlements for older
  people.

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Existing provision

• Outreach ESOL not always reaching older refugees,
  who are sometimes not seen as a priority group.
• Double discrimination in an ageist job market,
  because of age and ethnicity/migrancy.
• Tendency among Job Centre Plus and other welfare
  to work initiatives to give up on older
  refugees, particularly women.

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Recommendations

• Rethinking of dispersal policies for older
  refugees
• Reversal of restrictions on healthcare for asylum
  overstayers as well as British citizens living
  abroad
• Index linking of pensions for those who return or
  move to another country.
• Government and refugee organisations should
  acknowledge the familial and inter-generational
  aspects of integration.
• Social cohesion plans and funding to reflect
  intergenerational issues

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• Government and refugee organisations should work
  together to develop national volunteering
  strategies for refugees. Such a strategy would
• Communicate to UK society the high level of
  active citizenship among refugees.
• Promote a wider range of organisations to include
  refugees and asylum-seekers as volunteers.
• Raise awareness about the aspirations of refugee
  volunteers to ensure that volunteering can
  contribute to meeting these aspirations.
• Disseminate good practice in relation to refugee
  volunteering and volunteer management.

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Recommendations

• Central and local government, as well as refugee
  organisations need to better communicate the
  two-way nature of integration to the whole UK
  population.
• Better communication of positives among refugee
  communities better intergenerational
  communications among refugee communities.
• Social Care Green paper 2008 opportunities for
  lobbying
• Research on older asylum-seekers experiences of
  asylum determination procedures. Research on
  migrants pathways of older forced migrants.

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Recommendations

• Need better demographic data London Census, APS,
  extended ethnicity codes as used in schools
  BSOM.
• Better analysis of existing NHS and adult social
  care datasets, including administrative data such
  as language Line inquiries.
• Better ethnic monitoring, perhaps using extended
  ethnicity codes such as those used in schools, eg
  BSOM Black Somali
• Regional quantitative and qualitative population
  analysis of refugee populations, including older
  refugees disseminated to service providers.

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Recommendations

• Needs of older refugees need to be acknowledged
  in work of all Strategic Migration Partnerships
• Policy makers need to listen to older refugees
• Greater skilling of RCOs in relation to welfare
  rights and social care advocacy.