Intergenerational relations of older immigrants in the United States

The rapid aging of the immigrant population in the United States has drawn increasing scholarly attention to studying the kinship support networks of older immigrants. Despite the common stereotype of older immigrants as passive dependents of their families and the receiving society, this review highlights their active negotiations of ties to adult children as they manage family relations and secure old-age support. After a brief description of the demographic profiles of the older immigrant population in contemporary United States, this article shows how international migration challenges the patterns and power dynamics of two major aspects of intergenerational relationships in adulthood—intergenerational exchanges and intergenerational conflicts. By presenting the diversity and variations of intergenerational relations in aging immigrant families, the author argues that research on older immigrants' family relations holds great potentials to contribute to the literature on immigration, family, and aging studies.