Abstract
Retirement time is the period between labour market exit and the end of the life course. Scholarship on the inequality of retirement time has primarily focused on its distribution among racialized and non-racialized retirees in the United States. This paper explores the findings of the first qualitative study addressing the inequality of retirement time among ageing Jamaican Canadians following their long-term participation in the Canadian labour market. It utilizes data from a grounded theory study of 20 Jamaican Canadian retirees (aged 60 and older) that followed their retirement time experiences after long-term labour market participation. Participants’ migratory life courses and transnational and diasporic perspectives, provide insight into the interconnections of earlier life course trajectories, livelihood strategies and fears of perceived improvidence, as key factors circumscribing retirement time, retirement risk and well-being. Findings revealed that the inequality of retirement time is a mirror of identity-based inequalities that permeate the life course. For example, the study’s ground-breaking documentation and analysis of the retirement experiences provides key scholarly insights into the intersections of age, race, gender, class and immigration. Further, it foregrounds migrants’ precarity and agency and problematizes their fears of improvidence. The latter is often tethered to discourses and misperceptions that pit migrant and non-migrant populations against one another, and obscures the sources of perilous later life outcomes. The research expands understanding of this lesser-researched phase of the migratory life course and brings into view the immediacy of economic security among immigrant retirees.
Presenters
Shamette HepburnAssociate Professor, School of Social Work, York University, Ontario, Canada
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Economic and Demographic Perspectives on Aging
KEYWORDS
Retirement Time Inequality, Agency, Precarity, Improvidence, Immigrants, Canada
