Older Immigrants – What Will Be Their Need for Care Services?

Marianne Tønnessen , Oslo Metropolitan University
Astri Syse , Norwegian Institute of Public Health

The number of older immigrants in Europe will increase in the future. As immigrants reach the oldest ages, their need for long-term care (LTC) services will increase. This article outlines possible characteristics of the future older immigrants in Norway and discusses implications for their future uptake of public LTC services. We derive projections of older immigrants in Norway until 2060 by gender, age and country background from Statistics Norway's population projections. Next, we complement the information with population-wide detailed register data on immigrants' education, reason for migration, family relations and use of long-term care services, and discuss how these characteristics will evolve in the future. The number of immigrants over the age of 80 in Norway is projected to increase fourfold within 20 years. A pronounced share is likely to have a low level of education, which is strongly linked to health. This might imply a higher future need for LTC services among older immigrants. The element of informal care may, however, be somewhat greater, since many live with a partner and are from areas where family care is relatively common.

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 Presented in Session 42. Health and ageing of immigrants