White Paper - New York State Office for the Aging

ANALYSIS AND SUMMARY OF 36 STATE AGENCY BRIEFS
• Agencies emphasized the vulnerability of immigrant, ethnic, and minority
populations. For example, many lack education or relevant job training and will take
lower-paying jobs or jobs that are more dangerous or involve adverse exposure to
hazardous materials. This will increase issues of environmental protection and require
new ways of communicating information and assuring job safety. Immigrant
populations, unfamiliar with the language and customs of their communities, are more
vulnerable to deceptive and fraudulent business and other practices; and many immigrant
and minority families are poor. This will increase the need for new areas of consumer
protections and consumer education about service-related rights and responsibilities; and
environmental justice issues may increase in minority and economically disadvantaged
communities.
• Conversely, an increasing number of immigrants and members of minority groups
are skilled and are establishing new businesses, needing greater information,
consultation, and services in relevant languages and cultural contexts to successfully
access credit and financing opportunities and to understand business, tax, and regulatory
requirements. As the employment and economic status of immigrant, ethnic, and
minority population groups increase, their involvement may increase in activities not
traditionally utilized, such as the State's outdoor, recreational, and vacation facilities,
requiring greater attention to matching activities and services to cultural characteristics.
• Cultural and religious competence may not be sufficiently instituted throughout
the State's community-based networks and systems providing health, mental health, and
social services. This will require increased attention in order to respond effectively to the
varying cultural, educational, economic, health, and lifestyle circumstances
characterizing New York's population.
• The significant out-migration of New York's educated young adults, as well as a
net out-migration among the general workforce population aged 30-64, is expected to
continue. This will affect the ability of the public and private sectors to attract and retain
a sufficient number of qualified workers and will increase the gap in workers for the
manufacturing, skilled trade, and technician fields. There is underutilization of the
accumulated talents and skills of retirees and insufficient education, training, and use of
workers from population groups not traditionally considered in the primary workforce
base (for example, immigrants, older people, people with disabilities, ethnic and minority
subgroups, volunteers, part-time workers).
• In tandem with the talent-drain associated with the out-migration of the State's
educated young population, there is a wealth-drain associated with the substantial outmigration
of affluent well-elderly retirees and financially secure veterans, to western and
Sunbelt states. Poorer veterans tend to remain in the State, and many frail elderly persons
return to New York for health and long term care services and to be near family
members.
• Both in-migration and internal migration patterns are changing the State's
urban/nonmetropolitan composition, with various implications. For example, the
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