How return migration becomes a viable option in older age

Abstract

By building on the concept of preparedness, I demonstrate that return migration in older age requires a home, meaningful social relationships and pension income. More so, a framework for pension portability and taxation should be interpreted as morally just by returnees. The moral dimension encompasses meanings of fair taxation, the value of an older returnee and intergenerational solidarity within migrant communities and returnees' homes. Morality also interweaves multiple scales from transnational agreements to national return migration ideologies and everyday relationships at the micro scale. Accordingly, based on ethnography (2021–2023) with older returnees in Latvia, this research extends return migration theory and ageing studies through the scalar and moral lenses.