How Older Latinxs Navigate Social Services in the United States

Background and Purpose: The share of older Latinxs in the U.S. is projected to double in the next few decades. Older Latinxs are not only growing faster than other groups in America, they also live longer. However, they reach later life with more functional limitations and with fewer resources to face long-term care than any other group of America’s elderly. How do they manage? The purpose of this study was to investigate how older Latino immigrants navigate social services.

Methods: Fourteen in-depth interviews lasting between 60 and 120 minutes plus two focus groups lasting between 60 and 90 minutes were conducted in 2017 during the months of March to July in Boston and in New Brunswick among Latinx immigrants 60 years of age and older. Dedoose was used for coding and data analysis. We searched for recurrent themes related to participants’ encounters with the age protection system. These themes constituted our analytic codes. Additionally, we coded each individual respondent with attribute codes which allowed the association of themes with attributes of the individual such as city of residence, national origin, gender, time in the U.S. and other individual level variables. The final thematic map of the data was developed through periodic discussions between the researchers.

Results: This study challenges the narrative that Latinos, and more broadly ethnic minority older adults, prefer to rely on informal networks of support due to cultural norms, rather than to have access to formal services to meet their needs. It draws attention to the ways informal networks (family, friends, neighbors, religious groups, and self-help groups) function as a necessary pathway to access to services among older Latinx immigrants.

Conclusions and Implications: Our study shows that older Latinx rely on informal networks of support due to structural limitations than preclude them from accessing social services. Language barriers were particularly salient in preventing seniors from successfully navigating the age protection system. Assuring cultural and linguistically accessible services and information among older Latinx immigrants is more important than ever.