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It's not late entry: Human capital, welfare states and the pension penalty experienced by post-war migrants who retired in the European Economic Area

It's not late entry: Human capital, welfare states and the pension penalty experienced by post-war migrants who retired in the European Economic Area
It's not late entry: Human capital, welfare states and the pension penalty experienced by post-war migrants who retired in the European Economic Area
Since the 2000s, migration within and into the European Economic Area (EEA) has increased significantly. Some migrants will retire in their destination countries. This makes questions about their retirement protection increasingly relevant for social policy. To address this, we examine past experience. Using the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we compared the pensions of post-1945 migrants, who settled in their host country, with non-migrants. We considered migrants who moved into and within the EEA, from poorer and richer countries. Where pensions were lower we sought to explain this in relation to the migration literature. As expected, we found some evidence that migrants’ pensions were lower, although significant variations were observed between EEA migrants and non-EEA migrants. However, surprisingly there were few indications that migrant pensions were lower because migrants as a whole were disadvantaged through late labour market entry or employment discrimination. Instead educational disadvantage mattered most, particularly for the highly educated: all highly educated migrants received lower rewards for their human capital than comparable non-migrants. Migrants who settled in countries with less-protective pension systems were also disadvantaged. Making retirement outcomes for migrants more equal would, thus, mean improving career opportunities for highly educated migrants and steps towards more-inclusive pension systems everywhere.
Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) dataset, First-wave Europea Union migration, Immigration, Labour market integration, Migrant pensions, Non-migrant pensions, Pensions and retirement, Survey of Health, Welfare systems
0144-686X
1-33
Bridgen, Paul
6a2060f6-cbab-47d4-a831-ff82350055c9
Meyer, Traute
ee469bf0-ab32-43ac-9f25-1261c24123fe
Davison, Lisa
ce57bda0-27a8-47ca-9318-cecc8b63be45
Bridgen, Paul
6a2060f6-cbab-47d4-a831-ff82350055c9
Meyer, Traute
ee469bf0-ab32-43ac-9f25-1261c24123fe
Davison, Lisa
ce57bda0-27a8-47ca-9318-cecc8b63be45

Bridgen, Paul, Meyer, Traute and Davison, Lisa (2022) It's not late entry: Human capital, welfare states and the pension penalty experienced by post-war migrants who retired in the European Economic Area. Ageing & Society, 1-33. (doi:10.1017/S0144686X21001811).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Since the 2000s, migration within and into the European Economic Area (EEA) has increased significantly. Some migrants will retire in their destination countries. This makes questions about their retirement protection increasingly relevant for social policy. To address this, we examine past experience. Using the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we compared the pensions of post-1945 migrants, who settled in their host country, with non-migrants. We considered migrants who moved into and within the EEA, from poorer and richer countries. Where pensions were lower we sought to explain this in relation to the migration literature. As expected, we found some evidence that migrants’ pensions were lower, although significant variations were observed between EEA migrants and non-EEA migrants. However, surprisingly there were few indications that migrant pensions were lower because migrants as a whole were disadvantaged through late labour market entry or employment discrimination. Instead educational disadvantage mattered most, particularly for the highly educated: all highly educated migrants received lower rewards for their human capital than comparable non-migrants. Migrants who settled in countries with less-protective pension systems were also disadvantaged. Making retirement outcomes for migrants more equal would, thus, mean improving career opportunities for highly educated migrants and steps towards more-inclusive pension systems everywhere.

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Accepted/In Press date: 8 November 2021
e-pub ahead of print date: 27 January 2022
Published date: 27 January 2022
Keywords: Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) dataset, First-wave Europea Union migration, Immigration, Labour market integration, Migrant pensions, Non-migrant pensions, Pensions and retirement, Survey of Health, Welfare systems

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 456622
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/456622
ISSN: 0144-686X
PURE UUID: 580ee3cb-a874-42ba-84ef-b4ce63003813
ORCID for Paul Bridgen: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-6039-3254
ORCID for Traute Meyer: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-0767-8351

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 05 May 2022 16:56
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 02:51

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Contributors

Author: Paul Bridgen ORCID iD
Author: Traute Meyer ORCID iD
Author: Lisa Davison

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