The last few decades have seen an increase in the migration of ageing people from richer Northern and Western countries to poorer Southern and Eastern countries. This book seeks to understand the motivation behind retirement migration and how precarity in later life contributes to this trend.
Drawing on accounts of retirees from different nations, the book examines how welfare policies in their home country and their country of migration interact to shape their experiences of migration. It shows how ageism impacts social precarity across different social classes, and across economic, social and health dimensions. It also evaluates how local and global systems of inequalities influence retirement migrants' experience, providing both opportunities and constraints that differ across countries.

1. Introduction

2. Retirement migration

3. Precarity and the welfare state in home and host countries

4. Escaping economic precarity

5. Escaping ageism

6. Relying on global privileges

7. Health and assistance precarity in later life

8. Retirement migration, precarity and age

Marion Repetti is Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland HES-SO Valais-Wallis.

Toni Calasanti is Professor of Sociology at Virginia Tech.