Taxpaying Migrants Can't Afford to Retire

"A growing number of undocumented immigrants are hitting retirement age without savings or the cushion of Social Security or Medicare, making up a contingent of baby boomers who are financially insecure and poised to strain community services.

Many opt to continue working until they are physically unable, while others rely on help from younger family members. Some are making plans to head back to their native countries.

"I laugh when people ask me at what age I'm going to retire," said Marta Salazar, 66 years old, who lives in Pasadena, Calif., and arrived illegally from Mexico 22 years ago. "I know I have to work until my body gives out."

The population of immigrants in the U.S. without legal status stood at about 10.5 million in 2021, according to a Pew Research Center report last year. A large portion have lived in the U.S. for years, and often decades, building lives, buying homes and having children.

While many work under the table, some find jobs in the formal sector, often using fake documents or borrowed identities. Those who do generally pay Social Security and Medicare taxes.

Among immigrants living in the U.S. unlawfully, about 99,000 were 65 or older in 2022, according to the Center for Migration Studies of New York, a think tank that promotes migrants' rights.

Unauthorized migrants made a net contribution of about $12 billion to the Social Security system in 2010, the most recent year in which such an analysis was conducted, according to the Social Security Administration. But they are barred by law from receiving benefits. 

Several states, including California, Colorado and Illinois, provide Medicaid or other health coverage to unauthorized migrants who are low-income senior citizens.

Immigrant advocates argue that people who have lived and worked in the U.S. for decades deserve assistance in their older years, regardless of legal status. Advocates of stricter immigration controls say people in the U.S. illegally don't deserve public assistance, even if they pay Social Security and other taxes. They argue those contributions are more than repaid before retirement by benefits such as emergency services and education for their children.

A 2017 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found that first-generation U.S. immigrants cost governments more than native-born people. They tend to have lower incomes, resulting in smaller tax payments, while having more children and using state and local resources, the study said.

But immigrants' offspring are among the nation's strongest economic contributors, it said, in part because they contribute more in tax revenues and have fewer children.

As unauthorized migrants age, their healthcare needs can be significant, said Yanira Cruz, president of the National Hispanic Council on Aging. They likely haven't had much preventive care because they typically lack health insurance and often suffer from chronic illnesses.

Maria Bravo, 62, who arrived illegally from Mexico 31 years ago and worked at manufacturing and poultry plants in Gainesville, Ga., said she has diabetes and a faulty heart valve. She has received medical attention through a charity care program at a local hospital but needs to generate income to cover medication expenses. So she plans to work as long as she can.

"There is no retirement plan," she said.

Nor is there one for Salazar, the Pasadena worker. She has scant savings after working a string of low-paying jobs washing dishes, mopping floors and caring for the elderly. Worried about being a burden to an adult son, she plans to continue working -- as soon as she recovers from surgery after a co-worker dropped a box on her neck.

Available work tends to wane as unauthorized migrants age, said Maria Marroquin, executive director of the Day Worker Center of Mountain View, in California, which supports day laborers with job search and meals. More seniors have been showing up, but regularly lose offers to younger competitors, she said.

Manuel Lara, a 70-year-old from Mexico who visits the center, has done day work for much of his past 20 years in the U.S. He said he has had periods of homelessness and now typically lands only two to four hours of work a week.

Some advocates are pushing for the governments of immigrants' home countries to foot at least part of the bill to assist them. In April, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network launched a campaign to try to persuade the Mexican government to broaden its new universal pension program to cover its citizens living in the U.S. without legal status.

Backers argue that migrants have sent back billions of dollars to support the economies of their home countries. Workers' remittances to Mexico totaled $63.3 billion in 2023, nearly double the 2018 amount, according to Mexico's central bank. The effort failed to gain traction in the Mexican legislature before the session ended in April, but lawmakers are expected to take it up again in the fall.

Many unauthorized migrants try to remain in the U.S. for their twilight years, after having put down roots for decades. But some decide they are better off heading back to their native countries.

Francisco Solano, 70, said he plans to return to Veracruz, Mexico, in the next few years after living without legal status in the U.S. for more than 25 years, working in asbestos removal, construction and gardening. He said that he has been living with his son in Mountain View, Calif., and picking up day labor when possible, but that employers increasingly shun him because of his age.

Solano said he would have liked to retire in the U.S. if he had qualified for benefits from the Social Security system he said he contributed to. In Veracruz, he said, he owns a house and a plot of land where he plans to grow and sell oranges.

"It isn't much, but it is something to be able to live off," Solano said." [1]

Lithuania, excluding double citizenship, will be flooded with baby boomers returnees, needing support in disease and old age. People returning with another citizenship and retirement income would support the economy of our country. It is time to drop the enforcement of the naive and damaging Lithuanian government's rules. The US before also didn't allow dual citizenship, but the US bureaucracy does not enforce this requirement now. Let's not be holier than the pope.

1.  U.S. News: Taxpaying Migrants Can't Afford to Retire. Flores, Adolfo; Campo-Flores, Arian.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 15 July 2024: A.6.