Urgent action is needed to prevent a looming crisis in provision for Europe’s minority ethnic elderly, according to the first report of a major Europe-wide research project, covering ten countries, into the problems of ageing and ethnicity.
Launched at the European Parliament, Brussels, on 8 May, the report Minority Elderly Care in Europe shows how, in a number of European countries including the UK, immigrants who entered to work and settle in the 1960s and 1970s are now of retirement age and in need of increased social care. As well as the usual problems of ageing, the research shows that they also face greater poverty and more health problems, in addition to racial discrimination. The report, said MEP Stephen Hughes, was a ‘wake-up call for policymakers in all EU institutions’.
The research was headed and published by the UK-based Policy Research Institute on Ageing and Ethnicity and edited by its director Naina Patel OBE.