Immigrants and Retirement Resources

Using data from the Health and Retirement Study linked with restricted data from the Social Security Administration, this article compares retirement resources of immigrant and native-born workers. Results suggest that although immigrants have lower levels of Social Security benefits than workers born in the United States, when holding demographic characteristics constant, immigrants have higher levels of net worth. The estimated immigrant differentials vary a great deal by number of years in the United States, with the most recent immigrants being the least prepared for retirement.