Middle-aged Migrants: Expanding an Understanding of Lifecourses and Linked Lives

This paper explores a new perspective on middle-aged migrantwomen. Midlife has long been presumed to be the most net-worked stage of life for sedentary populations, but it has notbeen examined critically in the context of migration. This isan empty space that warrants research attention, becausemiddle-aged migrants often have lives that are temporallyand spatially distinctive. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork inLatvia and the United Kingdom (2018–2023), I argue that thelifecourses of middle-aged migrant women resemble the transi-tions that young people go through for work but differ in termsof care. Although strong ties relatives and friends have longbeen thought to be key for transnational care relations, weakties also become instrumental through shared notions of self-actualization in midlife. I provide a novel understanding of howthe concepts of linked lives and networks can be applied toprocesses that are pertinent to middle-aged women.