Latinos & Economic Security

LES Research Team Presents Project Outcomes at UCLA-CPRA Symposium

-- The U.S. has an aging population that is largely white and a growing Latino workforce that is supporting current retirees

-- Latinos 65+ depend heavily on Social Security for their retirement income

-- Education and citizenship are key to economic security

-- Investing in the education and development of the workers of tomorrow is critical for the well-being of the U.S

To view the LES researchers' Powerpoint presentation, please click here. »

UCLA's Center on Policy Research on Aging Marks 15th Anniversary with Groundbreaking Symposium: "Aging in Majority-Minority Nation: Interracial and Intergenerational Tensions and Opportunities"

Aging and the 2012 Election With Fernando Torres-Gil

The Great Retirement Squeeze—Pension Cuts Mean Poverty for Future Elders

Why Latinos Aren't Saving for Retirement

The Next Immigration Challenge

Education Impacts Work-Life Earnings 5x More Than Other Demographic Factors, Census Bureau Reports

Rep. Roybal-Allard Co-Hosts Briefing Entitled “Reframing The Generational Divide: Baby Boomers Vs. Young Latinos.”

Re-Framing the Generational Divide:
Baby Boomers vs. Young Latinos

Illegal Immigrants’ Children Suffer, Study Finds

Eulogia was scared and adrift. At 25, she was poor, pregnant and an illegal immigrant. She worried about how she would pay for medical care and raise her baby, and even whether a trip to the hospital might prompt her deportation to Mexico. Read More »

America Is at the Nexus of Aging and Multiculturalism

The United States, like other nations, is now experiencing a “silver” tsunami. And, as has occurred in other countries, we’ve seen this tidal force coming, but are not prepared for it. Read More »

California Budget Cuts at Odds With State’s New Alzheimer’s Plan

Felipe Garcia, 79, looks up with a ready smile as his two-year-old granddaughter, Marina, orbits his shuffling legs—her mother Elena keeping a sharp eye on the toddler to avoid any mishaps around the family’s modest home in Silicon Valley. Elena says Marina doesn’t quite understand yet that her abuelo (grandpa) has Alzheimer’s disease and can’t concentrate on her for long periods of time. Read More »

Latino Family Joins Forces in Alzheimer’s Care to Make Memories

When brothers Marco and Oscar Garcia made the unusual decision several years ago to merge their two households and move in with their elderly parents, they had no idea how challenging it would be. Read More »

Paul Ryan's Budget Blueprint Would Push the Aged Into Poverty

Op-Ed By: Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times

His proposal to abolish Medicare and gut Medicaid would send tens of millions of people living on fixed incomes over the financial brink. Read More »

Overview of Race and Hispanic Origin: 2010

2010 Census Briefs

Issued: March 25, 2011
By: Karen R. Humes, Nicholas A. Jones, and Roberto R. Ramirez

This report looks at our nation’s changing racial and ethnic diversity. It is part of a series that analyzes population and housing data collected from the 2010 Census, and it provides a snapshot of race and Hispanic origin in the United States. Racial and ethnic population group distributions and growth at the national level and at lower levels of geography are presented. This report also provides an overview of race and ethnicity concepts and definitions used in the 2010 Census. The data for this report are based on the 2010 Census Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171) Summary File, which is among the first 2010 Census data products to be released and is provided to each state for use in drawing boundaries for legislative districts. Read More »

The #Hashtag Generation: Young Latinos and America's Future

By: Max Benavidez, Ph.D.

Thursday, 4pm: we log on to read Kim Kardashian's tweets. Or Snooki's. Or, now, even Charlie Sheen's. It doesn't matter... I'm amazed by the junk that's out there and our willingness to consume it. But I think Americans are actually tired of "fast-food" culture and need something more substantial. I think we hunger for a new kind of voice -- one with guts and creativity, not just vapid narcissistic tweets. Read More »

Rising Young Hispanics in Texas Poised to Pick Up Aging Tab

Whites who dominated Texas’s population for generations are growing older and more dependent on the earning power and taxes of younger Hispanics, now poised to take over as the state’s largest demographic group. Read More »

Comfortable retirement eludes Hispanics

Orbelina Reyes spends much of her time watching television at home. The 67-year-old Salvadoran doesn’t miss any episodes of her favorite novelas, or soap operas, now that she works only once a week.

But it’s not because she wants it that way. Read More »

Baby Boomers Near 65 with Retirements in Jeopardy

Through a combination of procrastination and bad timing, many baby boomers are facing a personal finance disaster just as they're hoping to retire. Starting in January, more than 10,000 baby boomers a day will turn 65, a pattern that will continue for the next 19 years. Read More »

What to Do with Abuelita Challenges Traditions, Wallet

When Helen Von Hapsburg asked her 76-year-old mother to consider talking to an elder law attorney about preparing for the next phase of her life, the conversation didn’t go so well.

Her mother, Macrina, immediately jumped to conclusions: This was the beginning of the end; her family was going to put her into a nursing home. Read More »

The Gray And The Brown: The Generational Mismatch

In an age of diminished resources, the United States may be heading for an intensifying confrontation between the gray and the brown.

Two of the biggest demographic trends reshaping the nation in the 21st century increasingly appear to be on a collision course that could rattle American politics for decades. From one direction, racial diversity in the United States is growing, particularly among the young. Minorities now make up more than two-fifths of all children under 18, and they will represent a majority of all American children by as soon as 2023, demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution predicts. Read More »

UCLA Project Researches Latino baby Boomers & Recommends Actions

During the past year, a new research project sprouted into being to gather and disseminate information on Latinos and their financial Successes into the future. The project, Latinos and Economic Security (LES), is already on its fifth policy brief, released this past May. Read More »

Latino Baby Boomers and CNBC’s “Tom Brokaw Reports: Baby Boomer$”

Tonight CNBC will air “Tom Brokaw Reports: Baby Boomer$,” a special documentary on the 80 million American Baby boomers. We applaud CNBC and Mr. Brokaw for reporting on this trend-setting generation. We also want people to know that Latinos comprise 10% of all Baby boomers—8 million people. Read More »

A Roadmap for killing Social Security

Like a zombie tromping through a Hollywood gorefest, the idea of privatizing Social Security still walks among us.

The last promoter of the idea that people should personally invest their Social Security assets in the stock market was President George W. Bush, in 2001. With the dot-com crash still ringing in people's memories, the idea died in 2005. Read More »

Retirement Needs of Latino Baby Boomers

Latino baby boomers in the United States make up a population group so diverse and heterogeneous that the common practice of lumping them into a disadvantaged underclass is entirely inappropriate, according to a new report from the USC Davis School of Gerontology and the UCLA Center for Policy Research on Aging. Read More »

The Latino Imperative Is the Answer to Future U.S. Prosperity

The future economic prosperity of the United States will depend on how well we educate the emerging Latino majority. However, as things look at the moment, our prosperity has a huge question mark over it. That's because the current public image of Latinos is one of an impoverished underclass with skyrocketing high school dropout rates, income levels below the poverty line, poor health, and wealth levels lower than any other group in the country. Read More »

Latinos and the Future of Social Security

Recent debates about the Social Security system have failed to take into account the impact of the current system on Latinos and how proposed changes could affect them. Latinos are the largest minority group and fastest growing population in the United States. Research demonstrates that when compared with the U.S. population as a whole, Latinos benefit more from Social Security and therefore rely on it for a greater share of their income in retirement. Read More »

New Issue of Generations Journal Highlights The Nexus of Immigration and Aging

The new issue of Generations, the Journal of the American Society on Aging (ASA), highlights the nexus of immigration and aging. It will be released at the "Aging In America" Conference, taking place in Las Vegas from March 15-19, and is devoted entirely to this timely topic. In the course of 14 thought-provoking articles, the journal delves into three interrelated areas: Policy Issues and Political Dilemmas; Older Immigrants; and The Nexus of Immigration and Aging. Read More »

Latino Boomers flying under radar

America is witnessing a historic moment: the convergence of aging Baby Boomers with a burgeoning Latino population. That fact draws our attention to the people who fall into both categories: the Latino Baby Boomers, a population that is largely invisible.
Read More »

New report defines Phantom Population: the Latino baby boomers

A national research project-A New Latino Agenda: Realities on Aging, Diversity, & Latino Financial Security-has released its latest policy report, "Who Are the Latino Baby Boomers? Examining the Demographic and Economic Characteristics of a Hidden Population." Authored by researchers Zachary D. Gassoumis, Kathleen H. Wilber and Fernando Torres-Gil, the report looks at the historic convergence of aging baby boomers and the burgeoning Latino population. Read More »

National Expert on Latinos and Aging to Deliver Policy Address: "The Nexus of Aging & Diversity: Latinos and the New Aging".

Dr. Fernando Torres-Gil, the nation's leading expert on Latinos and Aging, will address the National Health Policy Forum on May 9, 2008 at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. This policy address is part of the Ford Foundation-funded project, "A New Latino Agenda: Realities on Aging, Diversity, & Latino Financial Security."
Read More »