Category: Immigration, Population, Aging, and Demography

Social Exercise and Healthy Aging

On By econnellIn Immigration, Population, Aging, and Demography, Karen SternheimerLeave a comment

By Karen Sternheimer

According to a recently published study of older adults at risk for cognitive decline, increased social engagement was one of four factors that led to cognitive improvement during a two-year period (the others were exercise, healthy diet, and cognitive challenges). In other words, beyond physical and mental exercise, we need “social exercise” too.

The experimental group in this study not only had a structured exercise program and diet to follow, but they also had to participate in mandatory social activities. “Socializing is one of the best ways to keep your brain young,” an NPR story on this study concludes. But why?

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Are we Being Replaced? Fertility, Mortality, and Demography

On By econnellIn Immigration, Population, Aging, and Demography, Karen Sternheimer, Relationships, Marriage and Family1 Comment

By Karen Sternheimer

During a trip to Milan, one of the first places I visited was the Cimitero Monumentale, a cemetery famous for its ornate sculptures. We noticed a lot of funeral homes on our walk to this famous landmark, and flowers for sale for visitors to place on graves. This wasn’t surprising. But what was surprising were the many ads for funeral services on street signs in other parts of town.

Cemetery featuring sculptures and cryptsThe signs caught me a bit off guard, but they shouldn’t have. Italy’s population is aging; nearly a quarter of Italians are 65 or older (by contrast, only about 17 percent of the U.S. population is 65 or older). Funerals are a growing business.

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Magnified Trauma: Losing Your Home While Elderly

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Immigration, Population, Aging, and Demography, Karen Sternheimer1 Comment

By Karen Sternheimer

This year has been particularly challenging for the elderly people in my neighborhood, or I should say my former—and hopefully future—neighborhood. The Los Angeles firestorm earlier this year wiped out more than 16,000 structures, including my own. It also destroyed my 87-year-old mother-in-law’s home of 60 years.

While it’s impossible to know exactly how many people aged 65 or older lost their homes, we do know that older people were more likely to die as the result of the fires. Of the 30 deaths listed on the Los Angeles County Coroner’s website, 23—nearly 77 percent of victims—were 65 or older. Mobility issues can make evacuation more difficult, especially for people who don’t drive.

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Until His Dying Day: Elders’ Fear of Crime

On By econnellIn Crime and Deviance, Immigration, Population, Aging, and Demography, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change, Stacy TorresLeave a comment

By Stacy Torres

Until his dying day, my father ordered, “Don’t open the door to no one,” as though I was still 11 years old, not in my early 40s. In retirement, Dad had more time to warn me about scary news items. Most daily calls involved consulting me about his heavy load of anxieties related to money, health, and physical safety that he dragged around like an overstuffed suitcase. As he aged, his radius shrunk as he transitioned from late nights at the Copacabana Club to making his neighborhood rounds within a few blocks of home, only on good weather days and during daylight hours.

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Social Aging: Lessons from my Grandmother

On By econnellIn Immigration, Population, Aging, and Demography, Karen Sternheimer1 Comment

Karen sternheimer 72523By Karen Sternheimer

As we approach the seventeenth anniversary of my grandmother’s death at age 96, (something I wrote about when this blog was in its infancy), I have been thinking about the many lessons she taught me about getting older.

She didn’t read self-help books, go to seminars, nor did she live long enough to get online wisdom from “influencers” (YouTube was founded when she was 94, and she had no use for computers). But her approach to aging reflected what is now conventional wisdom: older adults need social interaction for their overall health and wellbeing.

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Sharing Popular Culture: From Syndication to Streaming

On By econnellIn Immigration, Population, Aging, and Demography, Karen Sternheimer, Popular Culture and ConsumptionLeave a comment

Karen sternheimer 72523By Karen Sternheimer

Although I grew up in the era before streaming video was possible, let alone the dominant way that most consumers and I now watch content. (We used to call it “watching television” or “watching TV,” but that’s not always the device of choice to watch video now.) Canceling our cable was freeing a few years ago, and we realized that between YouTube and PBS Passport we were all set (we’ve had Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+ over the years too). This appeals to my minimalist sensibility.

I was a child when cable television became widely available in the 1980s, and I had to convince my parents to subscribe after most of my friends’ families already had. My siblings and I had to pay for the installation and do extra chores as part of the agreement to subscribe. I think they wanted to be sure we wouldn’t spent too much time sitting in front of the TV.

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“You Want to Work or You Want to Steal?” The Impossible Choices Migrants Face Without Work Authorization

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Immigration, Population, Aging, and Demography, Social Institutions: Work, Education, and Medicine, Stacy Torres2 Comments

Stacy Torres author photoBy Stacy Torres

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes,” said Mark Twain. And history is once again rhyming in the current migrant crisis. The most visible consequences of our broken immigration system have unfolded on New York City streets, where this summer hundreds of asylum seekers slept outside a midtown Manhattan hotel doubling as humanitarian relief center and overcrowded shelter. But this national issue transcends any single region, and the growing desperation offers a cautionary tale for communities across the country.

More than 100,000 migrants have arrived in New York City since spring 2022, with more coming daily.  The city reports housing more than 82,000 people, including nearly 30,000 children, with the mayor estimating shelter costs to reach $12 billion by 2025.

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Life Expectancy: Explaining Declines in the U.S.

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, COVID-19, Immigration, Population, Aging, and Demography, Karen Sternheimer3 Comments

Author photoBy Karen Sternheimer

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a report last year indicating that life expectancy in the United States dropped about 2.7 years between 2020 and 2021, “the biggest two-year decline in life expectancy since 1921-1923.”

What is life expectancy, how does it vary, and why has it declined?

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Age and the Great Resignation

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Immigration, Population, Aging, and Demography, Karen Sternheimer, Social Institutions: Work, Education, and Medicine3 Comments

Author photoBy Karen Sternheimer

You have probably heard that many people have been voluntarily leaving their jobs in 2021 and 2022, often called “the great resignation.” Much has been made about people deciding that they prefer to work from home and maybe even change where home is, sometimes relocating to lower-cost, slower paced communities during the pandemic. Perhaps people have decided that their work wasn’t fulfilling and they are looking for a permanent change, having been “awakened” by the sudden change thanks to the pandemic.

There is an almost romantic story being told about people “finding themselves” as those looking to hire wring their hands about the lack of labor supply. The data tell another story. As Forbes reported in January 2022:

Fully two-thirds of the folks leaving jobs this past August weren’t actually ‘quitting.’ They were retiring. One million were ‘normal’ retirements, an additional 1.5 million opted for early retirement. That’s a whole different story.

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Far from “Post-Racial”: Color-Blind Racism, Group Threat, and Anti-Asian Prejudice

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Crime and Deviance, Immigration, Population, Aging, and Demography, Jenny Enos, Race and Ethnicity4 Comments

Jenny Enos author photoBy Jenny Enos

Since the election of President Obama in 2008, many Americans have claimed that we live in a “post-racial society” in which race no longer matters. After all, if we elected a Black man to be president – the ultimate position of power in the country – how can people still claim that racism exists?

Some telling societal metrics also speak to an increasingly leveled playing field between the races; for example, the difference in college enrollment rates for White and Black 18-to 24-year-olds has decreased from 8 percentage points in 2000 to 5 percentage points in 2018. At the very least, might these numbers suggest that we are headed in the right direction?

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