Retirement migration and transnational grandparental support: a Spanish case study

Abstract

People who migrate in retirement often do so to join younger generations who have already migrated, and to help with grandchildren. But what about those retirees who migrate away from their families? Do they still provide grandparental support? To address this question, we examine retirement migrants who reside permanently in their new country, Spain. We find that they are aware of grandparental support expectations, and that their migration decision sometimes creates conflict with their offspring. At the same time, these retirement migrants reshape the meaning of grandparental support. Care considerations influence their destination and housing choices, and they continue to provide care. They feel that their familial relationships are now of a higher quality, despite the distance. At the same time, gender still emerges as a key dimension of grandparental support. The grandparenting of these retirement migrants challenges facile depictions of their motivations and of the equation of quantity and quality of contacts.

Migrating to a new country in late life: A review of the literature on international retirement migration

“…Some individuals held onto the house in their home country to go back to frequently or stayed with family and friends there (Bahar et al 2009;Green 2015;King, Warnes, and Williams 1998). Some chose destinations at a shorter distance from their origin countries to have more frequent contact with their friends and family (Lardiés-Bosque, Guillén, and Montes-de-Oca 2016), and some continued to provide transnational grandparent support (Repetti and Calasanti 2020). Huber and O'Reilly (2004) showed that Swiss migrants retained links with their former home in several ways.…”

A relational analysis of migration in old age: How transnational ties affect migration decisions

“…Such forms of togetherness are reinforced through personal visits. These involve on the one hand older migrants' regular return visits, and on the other hand, routine visits from family members and friends that have been left behind (Buffel, 2017; Casado‐Díaz et al., 2014; Lardiés‐Bosque et al., 2016; Repetti & Calasanti, 2020; Savaş et al., 2023). However, there are also those older adults who choose not to relocate to another country, but to move back‐and‐forth between two countries.…”

“…Additionally, descendants influence mobility. Bi‐local older adults stay in Switzerland for important holidays or birthdays (Repetti & Calasanti, 2020) and spend the summers in Spain so that descendants can spend their holidays with them. The literature on the transnational mobility of older adults has largely overlooked this second aspect.…”

Ageing Abroad. The Case of Swiss Nationals in Morocco and Spain

“…Les conflits familiaux, l'absence de relations familiales ou le souhait de s'émanciper d'obligations familiales devenues trop oppressantes sont aussi des facteurs de migration tardive (Bolzman 2018 ;Bender et al 2018). À l'inverse, certaines personnes sélectionnent un nouveau lieu de vie à l'étranger, parfois pour des raisons économiques, mais souhaitent pourtant rester relativement proches de leurs familles afin d'entretenir avec elles des relations fréquentes (Repetti et Calasanti 2019). Enfin, la migration tardive peut être motivée par la recherche d'un certain idéal, le souhait d'accomplissement personnel, ou l'espoir de réaliser un rêve (Benson and O'Reilly 2009).…”