At age 66, Suad Hirmiz found herself on the hunt for a new house to rent.
With her only income being Centrelink disability payments and her husband's age pension, she resorted to selling her gold jewellery and offered to pay four months' rent up front.
"No real estate agents would accept our applications," Ms Hirmiz told the ABC.
"So I sold my gold. I just went down to Sydney Road [in Melbourne] and sold it."
The couple are on a housing commission waiting list, but in the meantime nearly half of their fortnightly government payments go towards rent.
And with the cost of living rising, Ms Hirmiz is having to re-think every purchase they make.
"I just returned from Aldi to buy food, but nowadays everything is so expensive," she said.
Ms Hirmiz and her husband arrived in Australia six years ago from Iraq where they were working as account managers in the irrigation industry.
But due to their age, health issues and limited English they were unable to find work.
Now they often rely on the community and family members to support them when medical bills or unforeseen costs arise.
Ms Hirmiz said every few weeks they went to the Brotherhood of St Laurence community house in Reservoir, a suburb in Melbourne's north, to take some fruit, vegetables and meat.
While she is thankful for so much local support and what she can access in Australia, Ms Hirmiz admits as prices rise "it's very hard" and she is worried about the future.
Ms Hirmiz's story is common among migrants in Australia who face significant barriers when it comes to retirement and in older age.
Many have little or no superannuation, need to support family, or cannot access aged care that suits their cultural and language needs.
What's needed for a 'dignified retirement'
For Australians to retire comfortably, couples aged 65 need to spend around $63,799 a year, and singles $45,239, according to estimates from the Australian Super Fund Association (ASFA).
This translates to having a lump sum of about $640,000 for a couple and $545,000 for singles, assuming they own a home, ASFA CEO Martin Fahy told the ABC.
"Given household budgets for a couple that own their home, that's the number that we think you need to have a dignified retirement where you can run a car and pay for health insurance, have an occasional meal out, etc," he said.
"That's something that we think people can aspire to."
Men have a median superannuation balance of about $178,800 at age 60–64, and for women that amount is about $137,000, according to the latest ASFA report.
While these balances fall short of the comfortable standard, Mr Fahy is confident in the current rate of super balance growth.
However, there are large disparities in the super balances of Australians from non-English speaking countries, compared to the population as a whole.
According to the 2016 census, one in five Australians aged 65 and over were born in non-English speaking countries.
The latest figures from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey show the median super balance for men aged over 55 from that demographic is $50,000, and for women it is about $28,500.
This has been attributed to a number of factors, including differences in average wages, labour force participation and time in Australia as a wage earner.
Mr Fahy said it was important to consider that Australia had a "very generous" age pension by international standards.
And when it comes to super, "every dollar makes a difference", so people should ensure they are aware of their entitlements and start making contributions as early as possible, he added.
Children take on retirement responsibilities
Monica Omtha and her siblings chip in for her parents where they can and are trying to set them up for retirement.
The family arrived in Sydney from Myanmar as asylum seekers 13 years ago and superannuation has been the last thing on her parents' minds.
"I am stressed about my parents' future," the 25-year-old told the ABC.
Ms Omtha's dad is a driving instructor but has been cutting back on his shifts because of back pain.
Her mum was working as a fruit picker and now as a child minder.
Now in their late 40s, neither have enough money to put aside for super because they were simply focusing on "finding their feet".
"He [dad] doesn't put money aside for super because the money he earns pays for the kids' school fees or their soccer tournaments," Ms Omtha said.
Her parents borrowed money from family members and the Myanmar community in Australia to buy a home outside of the city for under $300,000.
They then used their house as collateral to buy another property to help settle more family members arriving from Myanmar.
Ms Omtha and her brothers hope to help pay off the mortgages, but she still worries what kind of future they will have without superannuation.
Calls for targeted action
Nyadol Nyuon, the chair of Harmony Alliance, said more needed to be done to address the specific needs of Australia's migrant community.
"I come from a community where one of my biggest worries is that I know there is a lot of older people that are not going to have much to rely on when they retire."
The increased cost of living was also being felt, and many people had the "hidden burden" of having to support family back in their home countries, Ms Nyuon added.
Harmony Alliance, an advocacy group for migrant and refugee women, has made submissions to the government's Retirement Income Review and reached out to politicians in the lead-up to the election.
But the community's needs continued to be overlooked, Ms Nyuon said.
Speaking before the election, she said she wanted the new government to provide a systematic response rather than leaving migrant communities to "peddle through the mud".
She said that could be increasing the pension amount, building more social housing, changing the design of aged care facilities, or increasing the diversity of workers in those aged care facilities.
Lack of diversity in aged care
While it is tradition in many cultures for children to look after their parents in old age, this is becoming increasingly difficult for migrants in Australia – and a suitable alternative isn't always available.
Selcan Kurnali's father-in-law suffered a stroke four years ago which resulted in him developing dementia.
Her family isn't in a position to look after him at home.
"Turkish people are not used to going to nursing homes, it's kind of been in the culture to look after the elderly," she said.
Due to his illness, Ms Kurnali's father-in-law lost the ability to speak English fluently.
She said even just finding information on Turkish-speaking aged care facilities has been a challenge.
The 40-year-old's in-laws have lived in Australia since the 1970s but don't have superannuation — her father-in-law withdrew his superannuation early when faced with financial hardship — leaving them to rely on their pension to pay for his expenses.
The community-run Ottoman Village Aged Care is the only facility in Melbourne with Turkish services that the family can afford, but it only has 32 beds.
"The Ottoman Village Aged Care had a very long waitlist ... there wasn't any space for him," Ms Kurnali said.
She said this was becoming a common issue as the elderly Turkish population grew.
She hopes there will be more targeted funding so people from non-English speaking backgrounds won't become increasingly isolated.
The Minister for Aged Care Anika Wells said the Labor government had committed to a range of measures to improve access to culturally appropriate aged care services.
She said this included building multiple multicultural aged care facilities across north-west Sydney, supporting a group in Darwin to develop a business case for a Greek seniors retirement village, and investing in other aged care centres for the Lebanese and Italian communities.
The ABC has also approached the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs Andrew Giles for comment.
