Transnational migration studies experienced a veritable boom during the past few decades. Several strands of related research emerged in different academic fields, studying a multitude of migrants’ economic, cultural, social and political practices and relationships across national borders (Levitt & Jaworsky 2007). At least until recently, the primary focus of these studies was on relatively younger people, especially (unskilled) labour migrants from the so-called Global South. In contrast, the question of how old age and different degrees of mobility relate to transnational practices and orientations has only been addressed very sporadically (Da 2003; King et al. 2014; Nedelcu 2009; Plaza 2000). Similarly, scholars looking at processes of aging rarely approached the lives of older people from a transnational vantage point (Montes de Oca et al. 2009; Lamb 2002; Treas & Mazumdar 2004; Zechner 2008). Various researchers, however, emphasize that a transnational perspective on age and aging substantially contributes not only to our understanding of older peoples’ ways of life, but also to our knowledge about globalization and transnationalism (Gustafson 2001; Kobayashi & Preston 2007; Treas 2008).

A series of symposia, several conference panels and a rapidly increasing number of book chapters (Torres 2013; Tiaynen-Qadir 2015), journal chapters (King & Lulle 2016; Zickgraf 2017; Zontini 2015) and special issues (Baldassar et al. 2017; Ciobanu & Hunter 2017; Horn et al. 2013; Nare et al. 2017) demonstrate that this call has been heard by the wider research community. The appearance of (at least) five edited books within the past three years is another indicator of the growing academic interest in transnational aging phenomena (Dossa & Coe 2017; Horn & Schweppe 2015; Hromadžić & Palmberger 2018; Karl & Torres 2016; Walsh & Nare 2016). In a literature review, Horn and Schweppe (2015) identified four broad and often overlapping strands of research: a first strand focusing on aging labor migrants in wealthier countries (Bolzman et al. 2006; De Coulon & Wolff 2010; De Haas & Fokkema 2010); a second strand, emerging in the field of international retirement migration (Ackers & Dwyer 2002; Gustafson 2008; Lardies et al. 2016; Toyota & Xiang 2012); a third strand comprising studies on transnational mobilities of care (Bender et al. 2014; Degiuli 2007; Huang et al. 2012); and a fourth strand coming from transnational family research (Baldock 2000; Deneva 2012; Diaz Gorfinkiel & Escriva 2012; Yarris 2017).