Close but far away: Intergenerational relationships between retirement migrants and adult children

Objective: This paper examines variations in how international retirement migrants maintain intergenerational relationships with adult children residing in the country of origin. Background: Despite a greater need for support from family members in the later life course, many retirement migrants move away from their adult children. Prior studies have described retirement migrants’ family ties, but often using non-representative samples and without examining factors that could explain variations. Method: We collected data on a stratified representative random sample of Dutch nationals aged 66-90 who migrated after age fifty to one of 40 different destination countries (N = 2,849). Ordered logistic regression models are performed on three dimensions of retirement migrants’ relationship with adult children. Results: Retirement migrants are emotionally close to their adult children despite little face-to-face contact and not particularly frequent digital contact. Female and married retirement migrants have more contact and closeness with adult children than males and divorced or widowed people. Fewer opportunities for contact, such as a greater geographical distance and a lower socioeconomic status, mainly predict lower contact frequencies but not variation in emotional closeness. Evidence for the need for contact is mixed and the role of cultural norms is limited. Conclusion: The maintenance of family ties over longer distances challenges the view that frequency of contact is a prerequisite for emotional closeness and shows how parents adapt to a new family context.