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Social exclusion and insecurity among older Europeans: the influence of welfare regimes
- Author:
- OGG Jim
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 25(1), January 2005, pp.69-90.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
Explores social exclusion among older Europeans from 10 countries with 3 types of welfare regime, Nordic, Mediterranean and post-socialist. Data from the first round of the new European Social Survey are used to explore indicators of social exclusion. A measure of social exclusion and insecurity is constructed from indicators of regularity of meeting with friends and relatives, taking part in social activities, self-rated physical and mental health and income, and local area quality. Results confirm the findings of previous research showing a link between developed welfare regimes and low rates of social exclusion in old age. At the same time, more developed welfare regimes appear to deal less well with effects of separation and divorce. Mediterranean regimes show distinctive signs of stress, suggesting the supplementation or replacement of weakened immediate and extended family ties has not taken place. In all countries a higher level of education appears to play a crucial role in reducing the chances of being insecure or socially excluded in old age.
The influence of the welfare state on the number of young old persons
- Authors:
- KOMP Kathrin, VAN TILBURG Theo, van GROENOU Marjolein Broese
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 29(4), May 2009, pp.609-624.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
This article focuses on the influence of the welfare state on the number of ‘young old’ people. It describes different ways in which the welfare state influences the number of young old persons, and investigates whether variations in the regulations for the ages of normal, early and late retirement are the prime cause. The paper also estimates the share of the young old among those aged 50–90 years in 10 European countries in 2004 using comparable survey data. These shares ranged between 36 and 49 per cent for men and between 35 and 52 per cent for women. High shares were found in continental European countries, and low shares in Scandinavian countries and the United Kingdom. The shares in southern European countries varied among the countries and by gender. To explain the variations in the share, country differences in retirement regulations proved helpful but insufficient. When the overall influence of the welfare state on the share of young old persons in the population was analysed, a country-characteristic pattern emerged.
Financial support and practical help between older parents and their middle-aged children in Europe
- Authors:
- DEINDL Christian, BRANDT Martina
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 31(4), May 2011, pp.645-662.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
This paper takes a close look at financial support and practical help between older parents and their middle-aged children across Europe. Northern and Western Europe are characterised by a high likelihood of practical help to and financial transfers from parents, while in Southern and Eastern Europe these kinds of support are much less likely. Financial transfers to parents show an almost opposite distribution, with more children supporting a parent in Southern and Eastern welfare regimes. The study draws on data from the second wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which collected information in 2006-7 in 14 European countries on transfers of help and money between middle-aged children aged 50 and over and their older parents aged 64 and over. The findings show that patterns of intergenerational support differ considerably between countries and strongly relate to social policy. Controlling for different aspects of country composition in terms of individual characteristics and family structures impacting on intergenerational support, it was found that the more services and transfers provided publicly, the more people aged 50 or more years helped their older parents sporadically, and the less monetary support they provided. On the other hand, generous public transfers enabled parents aged 64 or more years to support their offspring financially.
Older migrants in Europe: a new focus for migration studies
- Authors:
- WARNES Anthony M., WILLIAMS Allan
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32(8), November 2006, pp.1257-1281.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
The article aims to provide a summary account of the diversity of older migrants in contemporary Europe. A key distinction is between older people who migrate, and former labour migrants and those who accompanied them who have ‘aged in place’. The second aim is to synthesise the principal personal, societal and welfare implications of the growing number of ‘older migrants’ across Europe, emphasising that there are both similarities and surprising differences amongst diverse groups of migrants.
Care and social integration in European societies
- Editors:
- PFAU-EFFINGER Birgit, GEISSLER Birgit, (eds.)
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- Publication year:
- 2005
- Pagination:
- 324p.
- Place of publication:
- Bristol
This book provides descriptions and comparative analyses of the now complex and highly varied arrangements for the care of children, disabled and older people in Europe, set within the context of changing labour markets and welfare systems. It includes analyses of the modernisation of informal care and new forms of informal care, topics often neglected in the literature. Issues of gender, family change, social integration and citizenship are all explored in a series of chapters that report on original empirical, cross-national research. All contributors are high-ranking experts involved in the COST A13 Action Programme, funded by the European Union.
Ageing, health inequalities and the welfare state: a multilevel analysis
- Authors:
- HOGBERT Bjorn, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of European Social Policy, 28(4), 2018, pp.311-325.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Comparative studies of health inequalities have largely neglected age and ageing aspects, while ageing research has often paid little attention to questions of social inequalities. This article investigates cross-country differences in gradients in self-rated health and limiting long-standing illness (LLSI) in middle-aged and in older people (aged 50–64 and 65–80 years) linked to social class, and degrees to which the social health gradients are associated with minimum pension levels and expenditure on elderly care. For these purposes, data from the European Social Survey (2002–2010) are analysed using multilevel regression techniques. The authors find significant cross-level interaction effects between class and welfare policies: higher expenditure on elderly care and particularly more generous minimum pensions are associated with smaller health inequalities in the older age group (65–80 years). It is concluded that welfare policies moderate the association between social class and health, highlighting the importance of welfare state efforts for older persons, who are strongly reliant on the welfare state and welfare state arrangements such as pensions and care policies. (Edited publisher abstract)
The transformation of care in European societies
- Editor:
- LEÓN Margarita
- Publisher:
- Palgrave Macmillan
- Publication year:
- 2014
- Pagination:
- 364
- Place of publication:
- Basingstoke
By bringing together the work of leading international scholars in the field of care, this book aims to explore the nature and extent of the 'care deficit' problem in European societies and how effective the different care systems are in dealing with these problems through policy innovation. This volume combines theoretical and conceptual debates, cross-national comparisons and analytically-driven case studies. Using interdisciplinary approaches and methodologies, it explores the similar challenges which various European countries currently face, and the wide variety of responses that are being offered. Sections cover: universalism, migrant care work, variation in childcare provision, older people care, early childhood education and the care labour market. (Edited publisher abstract)
Care between work and welfare in European societies
- Editors:
- PFAU-EFFINGER Birgit, ROSTGAARD Tine, (eds.)
- Publisher:
- Palgrave Macmillan
- Publication year:
- 2011
- Pagination:
- 272p.
- Place of publication:
- Basingstoke
This book provides insights into the theoretical framework of 'tensions' related to care for children and the elderly in the context of recent welfare state reforms. It brings together experts in the field of research on welfare and work from different disciplines and from different European countries. The different chapters introduce the current debates on tensions related to care and discuss specific types of new tensions that have developed in the context of welfare state reform. Analyses relate to new tensions that are connected with different types of formal and informal child and elderly care, and with migration related to care. Also, tensions within care cultures, and between the cultural and the institutional framework of care are analysed. Moreover, it is shown if and under which conditions welfare state reforms have contributed to strengthen existing tensions or even to create new tensions, and under which conditions they have contributed to relax such tensions.
The last year of life in Europe: regional variations in functional status and sources of support
- Authors:
- HANK Karsten, JURGES Hendrik
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 30(6), August 2010, pp.1041-1054.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
This article provides an initial account of the life circumstances of older people in 11 continental European countries during the year prior to their deaths. It focuses on regional variations in functional limitations and sources of support. The analysis is based on unique data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), where the second wave in 2006-2007 included an end-of-life interview about the first-wave respondents who had died since the baseline data collection in 2004-05. The interviews were provided by proxy respondents, 80% of whom were spouses. Using logistic regression, data from the 523 end-of-life interviews was analysed. The prevalence of functional limitations was found to be fairly consistent across Northern, Central and Southern Europe. Significant regional differences existed, however, with regard to the deceased respondents' main sources of support and the locations of their deaths. Northern Europeans were the least likely to receive help from their family only and the most likely to be supported by non-kin. They also exhibited the highest risk of dying in a nursing home. In Mediterranean countries, a pattern of exclusive family support and dying at home prevailed. The findings support the notion of a ‘mixed responsibility’ of families and welfare states as providers of support for older people in the last year of life.
Do public pensions matter for health and wellbeing among retired persons? Basic and income security pensions across 13 Western European countries
- Authors:
- ESSER Ingrid, PALME Joakim
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Social Welfare, 19(Supplement 1), July 2010, pp.s103-s120.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Coinciding with economic development and the expansion of public social security, mortality rates suggest that elderly people in the advanced welfare democracies have experienced dramatically improved health over the past decades. This study investigated the importance of public pensions for self-reported health and wellbeing among retired people in 13 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries between 2002 and 2005. Public pension data make it possible to differentiate between two basic qualities of pension systems: 'basic security' for those who have no or a short work history; and 'income security' for those with a more extensive contribution record. For enhanced cross-national comparison, relative measures of ill-health and wellbeing were used to account for cultural bias in responses to survey questions and heterogeneity among countries in the general level of population health. Results, overall, indicate that better health was found in countries with more generous public pensions, although the results were gendered – for women's health, high basic security of the pension system appears to be particularly important. Women's wellbeing also tends to be more dependent on the quality of basic security.