Close but Far Away: Intergenerational Relationships between Retirement Migrants and Their Adult Children

Juul Spaan , NIDI
Matthijs Kalmijn, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Research Institute NIDI/University of Groningen
Kène Henkens, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI)

The dispersal of families over greater distances has altered intergenerational relationships between parents and adult children. International retirement migrants migrate away from their children in a life stage that is often characterized by more exchanges of support. Prior studies have described retirement migrants’ family ties, but often using non-representative samples and without linking their findings to factors that could explain variations. We collected data from a representative sample of Dutch nationals aged 66-90 who were born in the Netherlands and migrated after age fifty. We consider three types of intergenerational solidarity: (1) face-to-face contact, (2) digital contact and (3) emotional closeness. We explain differences in the parent-adult child relationships of retirement migrants by examining contact opportunities, contact needs, family structures, cultural norms and migration specific factors. Ordered logistic regression models show that people who live at a greater geographical distance and with a lower socioeconomic status are less likely to have more frequent face-to-face contact with adult children, but they are not less emotionally close. Female and married retirement migrants were more likely to have stronger parent-child ties than males and divorced or remarried migrants. This study provides important insights into transnational family ties and gendered kinship practices.

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 Presented in Session 25. Migration and Spatial Aspects of Ageing