CHARLES LONGINO, JR., PH.D., ASSESSES MIGRATION OF OLDER AMERICANS

CONTACT:
Mike Lurie
Office: 410-455-6380
Cellphone: 443-695-0262
mlurie@umbc.edu

July 25, 2006

BALTIMORE – The Erickson School of Aging Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) introduces its “Hot Topics” series, an ongoing resource regarding aging issues and trends available for easy access by researchers and the general public. The series can be accessed at anytime at www.umbc.edu/erickson.

The inaugural “Hot Topics” installment, Migration of Older Americans: Where and Why, is offered by Charles F. Longino, Jr., Ph.D., and Visiting Professor to the Erickson School. Longino’s research has unearthed trends in the movement of older Americans that should be of interest to developers, planners and bankers, politicians and scholars.

A thorough understanding of migration trends among the aging population, Longino argues, depends on knowing who moves and why they move.

Widely known and celebrated for his work on the migration of people ages 60 and older, Longino assesses the threads common to older people more likely to make an interstate move. They are independent, have moved previously for career-related reasons and now make a relocation decision focused more on the place than the people.

The reasons older members of the population relocate for retirement, Longino says, “depend on the jelling of four factors: 1) demographic particulars (age, gender, race); 2) economic and health resources; 3) previous experience traveling; and 4) ties to people and places at the origin and the destination.

Longino argues that planners are well-advised to be armed with a realistic appraisal of the attractiveness of existing and planned communities and an understanding of the older people they can hope to attract and keep. With that knowledge, planners can be assured that retirement housing and related services can provide an environmentally friendly industry and the income, jobs and new citizens likely to help enrich their new community.

Longino is the president of the Gerontological Society of America, past president of the Association of Gerontology in Higher Education and served for four years as the editor of the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences. The second edition of Longino’s book Retirement Migration in America is due to be published in the near future. The publisher of more than 140 scholarly articles, Longino is the Washington M. Wingate Professor of Sociology at Wake Forest University where he directs the Reynolda Gerontology Program.

About The Erickson School of Aging Studies:
The Erickson School of Aging Studies at UMBC was established in April 2004 with a $5 million commitment from John Erickson, CEO and founder of Erickson Retirement Communities. The school focuses on credit and non-credit professional education, research, and policy in aging services and care.

For further details, please call the Erickson School of Aging Studies at UMBC at 443-543-5622.

More information online at:
http://www.umbc.edu/erickson

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