England is home to a growing, ethnically diverse older population. Yet we know remarkably little about minority older adults’ experiences of housing.

The Amar bari, amar jibon (My Home, My Life) study set out to make this visible, co-producing research with 76 older Bangladeshi adults, ‘probins’ in Bengali , aged 50 and over, living across four East London boroughs. The age cut-off of 50 reflects shorter healthy life expectancy and earlier exit from paid employment among Bangladeshi communities. Having arrived from an agricultural region of Bangladesh in response to demand for unskilled labour from the 1950s onwards, they are now reaching older age in significant numbers for the first time. Not only are Bangladeshi communities among the most housing-deprived groups in England, but nearly four in 10 live in social housing. This article reports on probins’ experiences in general needs social housing.

Read the full article from HQM here.