From Migration to Retirement

As immigrant populations age across Western welfare states, understanding how they exit the labor market becomes increasingly important. This study compares natives and immigrants in retirement pathways, distinguishing between regular retirement and health-related retirement. Using Danish population-wide register data for cohorts born between 1950 and 1962 (N = 876,785; 2000–2022) and discrete-time event history models, we analyze how institutional eligibility, health, socioeconomic position, and country-of-origin statutory pension age shape the timing and type of these transitions. The results reveal substantial differences in the timing, the type, and determinants of retirement. Non-Western migrants are more likely to retire during their fifties and early sixties than Western immigrants and natives. Concerning retirement type, immigrants, particularly from refugee-sending countries, are less likely than natives to enter regular retirement but more likely to exit through health-related pathways. Differences in health-related retirement are largely explained by accumulated disadvantages, including low socioeconomic position and poor health. A contrasting pattern emerges for regular retirement: controlling for socioeconomic position and health widens the gap between immigrants and natives. This indicates that immigrants are less able to translate similar socioeconomic resources and labor market positions into access to regular retirement pathways. Further analyses among immigrants show that immigrants from countries with higher pension ages are less likely to transition into regular retirement once they become eligible in Denmark, suggesting that retirement behavior reflects institutional environments and incentives linked to pension systems across national contexts. Together, the findings highlight that later-life inequality reflects both differential exposure to disadvantage and unequal access to retirement institutions.