Wednesday, July 8, 2015
New York Women's Foundation-Backed Report Sees Aging Immigrant Women as the 'Invisible Population'
For many women in their 60s and older, Social Security checks are the all-important means of survival.
But for older female immigrants those benefits often don't exist. After spending their working lives taking care of their families or working off-the-books in low-wage jobs, they don't qualify.
So what do they do? The answer, according to a recent study by a New York group, is many just keep on working.
"These women are an invisible population," says Ana Oliveira, president and CEO of the New York Women's Foundation, an alliance that seeks to improve the financial well-being of women and girls, the group that produced the report. "Unless one stands in school yards to note how many grandmothers are picking up their grandchildren who depend on them, it can be all too easy to assume that these women are enjoying a well-deserved rest after years of family raising responsibilities...."