Continuities in Providing for Old Age: Cross‐national and Cross‐cultural Comparisons
Drawing on a purposive sample of 25 interviews supplemented by secondary source material, this comparative study explores the options available to elderly immigrants in two quite similar countries to achieve social security in their old age. The focus is the culturally determined perspectives and practices of aging Italian-born and Indian-born immigrants in the context of public and private sector social welfare policies and provisions in Australia and Canada. Government transfers, occupational superannuation, tax-deductible personal savings, housing, and formal and informal supports are discussed. What is important to the sense of social security of the older people and how well-off or disadvantaged they seem to be are among the questions raised. The design affords an opportunity to test the complex combination of cross-national and cross-cultural comparison. In the certainty that the income deficiencies of today's elderly immigrants cannot be remedied easily or quickly enough to benefit those affected, intervention strategies can be aimed at expanding ethno-specific community supports and quality residential care; such a direction is supported by assessment of service availability in relation to estimates of aging among particular foreign-born immigrant groups. Suggestions are made for future research at the levels of theory and application. Copyright 1993 by The Policy Studies Organization.
ACCOMMODATION ISSUES FOR ELDERLY PEOPLE: STATE GOVERNMENT PERSPECTIVES*
Speech given at the Fifth National Congress of Australian Nursing Homes, Sydney, July 31, 1986 by Adam Graycar, Commissioner for the Ageing. This speech is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Noncontributory pensions for less developed countries: Rehabilitating an old idea
Less developed countries are facing choices in policies for retirement income support that bear similarities to the choices made in more developed countries 50 to 100 years ago. About 100 years ago, Australia and New Zealand developed a noncontributory pension system which continues to the present day. This system delivers basic, economic well-being at relatively low cost. Within less developed countries, values and goals for retirement income support vary widely. These are explored in the history of the development of the Australian and New Zealand systems. This paper also examines the impact of these unique systems on several indicators of well-being. Poverty is well controlled in this system but adequate income replacement is dependent upon private, individual saving. Because of efficiency and effectiveness, this unique noncontributory system is argued to provide an important, if old, idea for less developed countries.