As the doors to the U.S. have swung open, many families have been re-united, many more immigrants have found a home, and among them, many elderly are searching for calm in their remaining years. We are planning a workshop to talk about how to report on this issue. Look for our list of workshops that will be posted later this week.
In the meantime, here’s an excellent story from the New York Times about what is happening here in Chicago and around the U.S.
Steve
Multimedia
A group of Indian immigrants gathers at a mall in Fremont, Calif.
Zia Mustafa moved to Fremont from Afghanistan with her son.
Devendra Singh grew up in an Indian household with 14 family members. He now lives alone.
Together, they fend off the well of loneliness and isolation that so often accompany the move to this country late in life from distant places, some culturally light years away.
“If I don’t come here, I have sealed lips, nobody to talk to,” said Devendra Singh, a 79-year-old widower. Meeting beside the parking lot, the men were oblivious to their fellow mall rats, backpack-carrying teenagers swigging energy drinks.
In this country of twittering youth, Mr. Singh and his friends form a gathering force: the elderly, who now make up America’s fastest-growing immigrant group. Since 1990, the number of foreign-born people over 65 has grown from 2.7 million to 4.3 million — or about 11 percent of the country’s recently arrived immigrants. Their ranks are expected to swell to 16 million by 2050. In California, one in nearly three seniors is now foreign born, according to a 2007 census survey.
click here for the whole story:
