The Fastest-Growing (and Loneliest) Group in America

"Many are aging parents of naturalized American citizens, reuniting with their families. Yet experts say that America’s ethnic elderly are among the most isolated people in America. Seventy percent of recent older immigrants speak little or no English. Most do not drive. Some studies suggest depression and psychological problems are widespread, the result of language barriers, a lack of social connections and values that sometimes conflict with the dominant American culture, including those of their assimilated children.

The lives of transplanted elders are largely untracked, unknown outside their ethnic or religious communities. 'They never win spelling bees,' said Judith Treas, a sociology professor and demographer at the University of California, Irvine. 'They do not join criminal gangs. And nobody worries about Americans losing jobs to Korean grandmothers.'"