Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T09:23:45.076Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The State, the Voluntary Sector and New Developments in Provision for the Old of Minority Racial Groups

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Kenneth Blakemore
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Social Studies, Coventry (Lanchester) Polytechnic, Priory St., Coventry CV1 5FB, England.

Abstract

In many urban communities the fastest-growing groups of old people are those from the various minority racial and ethnic groups. This paper reviews the progress of a range of the new services, clubs and social centres which have been recently developed to meet the needs of the minorities. The services are examined in terms of their objectives, degree of specialisation (by ethnic group, gender and age) and adequacy of resources. As most of these projects have been initiated by voluntary groups and have experienced difficult development problems, the implications of this pattern of growth are assessed. In particular, reasons for the lack of sustained support from government and statutory organisations are discussed. Racial disadvantage affects all the minority groups, though different ethnic groups appear to be developing different strategies for the care of the old. However, prospects for either fully developed alternative services for the minorities or for multicultural services appear to be bleak in the forseeable future.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

1 National Seminar on Elders in Ethnic Minorities, University of Keele, 28–30 03, 1980.

2 Bhalla, A. and Blakemore, K., Elders of the Minority Ethnic Groups, All Faiths For One Race, Lozells, Birmingham, 1981.Google Scholar

3 Barker, J., Black and Asian Old People in Britian, (Research Perspectives on Ageing), Age Concern England, Mitcham, Surrey, 1984.Google Scholar

4 Lalljie, R., Black Elders–a Discussion Paper, Nottingham County Council Social Services Department (Research Section), 1983.Google Scholar

5 Norman, A., Triple Jeopardy: Growing Old in a Second Homeland, Centre for Policy on Ageing, London, 1985.Google Scholar

6 Foner, N.Jamaica Farewell. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1979, p. 84 and p. 172.Google Scholar

7 op cit., Bhalla, A. and Blakemore, K.Google Scholar

8 op cit., Barker, J., p. 19.Google Scholar

9 Central Statistics Office, Social Trends, 9 (1979), p. 70.Google Scholar

10 Gaullier, X., ‘Economic Crisis and Old Age: Old Age Policies in France’. Ageing and Society, 2, 2 (1982), 165182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 op cit., Norman, A.Google Scholar

12 Tomlinson, S.Inexplicit policies in race and education’. Educational Policy Bulletin, 9, 2 (1981) 149165.Google Scholar

13 Rose, E. J. et al. , Colour and Citizenship, Oxford University Press, 1969, p. 289.Google Scholar

14 Social Work Service, Department of Health and Social Security, Seminar on the Elderly of Ethnic Minorities, 03 1984.

15 Johnson, Jackson J., Minorities and Ageing, Wadsworth, Belmont, California, 1980.Google Scholar

16 Snyder, D. C., in Gelfand, D. E. and Kutzick, A. J. (ed.), Ethnicity and Ageing. Springer, New York, 1979, pp. 291307.Google Scholar