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Ethnic Minorities Report 1998

Original title: Rapportage minderheden 1998.

Until recently, elderly members of ethnic minorities were a very small group. However, since the early 1990s their number has grown markedly. These are people who settled in the Netherlands as primary immigrants in the 1960s and 70s and for whom the 'third age' is now dawning. Their special situation begs the question of how they have fared in the rapidly changing Dutch society of the 1980s and 90s. What is their status in society and what are their personal lives like? What resources do they have to help them deal with the privations that old age brings? What is their health status? Are they able to make optimum use of health care services, and do they manage to find their way through the complex system of care services for the elderly? What is their position in the policy on minorities, or policy on the elderly? More generally, to what extent is government policy adequate for dealing with the problems faced by these elderly persons?

This report brings together and analyses the dispersed information needed to answer these questions. A separate chapter describes and assesses the government policy that is of relevance for elderly members of ethnic minorities.

The Report on Minorities 1998 is the sixth in the series of annual reports on ethnic minorities compiled by the Netherlands Institute for Social Research/SCP at the request of the Dutch Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.