In today’s current economic climate, with uncertainty keeping pace with the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus, Older workers (those aged 55 and over) face higher unemployment. In a 2020 study from AARP, there was plenty of evidence of concern over the economic impact of the virus on older workers. “When people over 50 lose their jobs, it typically takes them twice as long to find work as it does for younger workers.” AARP vice president of financial resilience programming voiced her concerns: “The pandemic may be something that is pushing people out of the workforce, and they never get back in.” The fact that COVID-19 presents stronger health risks for our aging population, alongside the digital divide that many older Americans face that makes technology a daunting task and remote work nearly impossible, and the aging population faces a road of twists, turns, and potential dead ends into employment.
For the aging immigrant population, this road is even harder to travel. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2019, there were 28.4 million immigrants working in the US, making up 17.4 percent of the total active workforce. In the same report, it states that foreign-born men made up more of the workforce (78%) than native born men (67.4%), and that foreign-born workers were more likely employed in service occupations, construction and maintenance, and transportation jobs than their native-born counterparts. Unfortunately for our immigrant workers in this country, those exact industries whose ranks they filled were among the first to grind to a halt when the pandemic first hit and have been the slowest to start back up as the pandemic looms on around us.
The employment challenges faced by older workers is nearly tripled when laid upon our aging immigrant population – with the digital divide often comes language barriers, with the risk of COVID-19 to older native-born citizens comes nearly double that risk for our immigrant population, and with the decline in retirement benefits for our older native-born population comes the fact that there are little to no benefits available for most of the older immigrant population. Cuts to Social Security and pensions added to the increasing costs of health care often forces our aging workers to continue seeking employment because they simply cannot afford to retire. In fact, according to AARP, “This situation could have deep ramifications for older workers close to retirement because their final years on the job are critical for those who have not saved enough for their retirement and expect to work longer to shore up retirement funds.” For so many, there is no shoring up of resources, when there lacks the basic ability to stay employed enough to put food on the table, let alone add some cash flow to savings.
A 2020 article in Urban Wire, “As unemployment surges, older workers need more help” bring the stark reality that many of our aging immigrant population face: “History tells us that once the labor market picks up and employers begin rehiring, older workers will find themselves near the back of the line.” There are three factors that are believed to drive older workers to the back of that line – employers often believe that older workers are more expensive to employ due to increased healthcare costs, they believe that older worker lack skills they need to succeed on the job, and they believe they will retire quicker which does not justify their cost to hire and train them. For older immigrant workers, these issues are exacerbated, leading to an increased struggle in obtaining and retaining employment. It is believed by experts in workforce development that due to the pandemic and the need to cut losses and reduce employment costs, “discrimination rules are not being tightly enforced,” leading to a double bind for our aging immigrant population – where both agism and discrimination can be barriers added to the already heavy burden of finding employment that fulfills both their wallets and their livelihoods.
Fortunately, Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), funded by the US Department of Labor and the Ohio Department of Aging, can help eliminate barriers, build up job skills, and bolster confidence for aging workers of all backgrounds who are seeking employment and increased self sufficiency. SCSEP is a community service and workforce training program for older Americans that provides training for low-income, unemployed seniors. As SCSEP is authorized by the federal Older Americans Act, it provides services to seniors regardless of race, ethnicity, gender presentation, sexual orientation, veteran status, or religion. This makes SCSEP an ideal and accessible program for older immigrants seeking work – it truly is a safe place for them to go to learn the skills needed for work and to get help obtaining work after their training completes. Participants can gain work experience in a variety of community service settings including schools, day care centers, senior centers, and nonprofit organizations. Working an average of 20 hours a week, SCSEP participants gain experience, confidence, and knowledge into more full-time employment opportunities as they arise. This allows workers to ease into the workforce, moving at their own pace and with their own wellbeing in mind.
For those interested in participating in SCSEP, enrollment priority is given to many factors, including disability and veteran status. As older immigrant workers often face increased risk of low literacy skills, limited English proficiency, low employment prospects for various reasons, and live in rural areas, SCSEP is a great place for support for those individuals as these factors also lead to priority enrollment. SCSEP understands that our older adults are talented, hard-working, professional, reliable, and deserving of an equal ability to learn and earn, regardless of where they were born. That is why VANTAGE Aging’s SCSEP program works as hard as it does to “make a positive financial and emotional difference in the lives of thousands of people by improving the job-readiness of older adults while expanding services to the community.”
In a 2020 article by the Kellogg Insight, “Immigrants to the US Create More Jobs Than They Take,” the author asserts, “People who are willing to pick up and move to another country – into the unknown – are risk takers. They are going to be masters of their own destinies.” With SCSCEP, workers of all backgrounds can find the means to truly become the masters of their own destinies. SCSEP can open doors once believed to be locked to older immigrants seeking work in this country. Consider allowing yourself, or the older adults in your life, obtain the keys needed to open said doors and walk the rest of the road of their lives with dignity, grace, and a little lighter weight to their pace.