Empirical research on transnational families has blossomed during the past 10 years or so. However, it is only recently that the units of analysis have become more diversified. Particularly, earlier studies focused largely on the phenomenon of transnational parenthood, especially motherhood (Carling et al. 2012b; Ehrenreich & Hochschild 2003; Erel 2002; Hondagneu-Sotelo & Avila 1997), and to a lesser extent on the children these women ‘left behind’ (Faulstich Orellana et al. 2001; Parrenas 2005; Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco 2001; for more recent studies, see Assmuth et al. 2018; Cebotari et al. 2015; Poeze & Mazzucato 2014). In contrast, studies on transnational fatherhood appeared only very sporadically (Hoang & Yeoh 2011; Palenga-Mollenbeck & Lutz 2016; Pribilsky 2004) and the topic remains at the margin of transnational family scholarship. Similarly, research on transnational grandparenthood has long been limited to a few studies (Lie 2010; Plaza 2000; Da 2003), but is currently experiencing a significant increase in interest, as the rapidly growing number of contributions shows (Klok et al. 2017a; Pribilsky 2015 Tiaynen-Qadir 2015; Zickgraf 2016). Within this strand of literature, four different, although not clear-cut, categories of older family members can be identified.

A first category is older family members with kin living abroad, referred to as the stayers or ‘left behind’ (Baldock 2000; Reynolds 2011; van der Geest et al. 2004). A second category refers to older family members who travel back and forth between different countries and who have been described as ‘flying grandmothers’ (Goulbourne & Chamberlain 2001), ‘transnational travellers’ (Deneva 2012) or ‘zero generation’ (Nedelcu 2009). A third category are older family members who reunite with their emigrated children abroad (Lamb 2002; Zhou 2012), called late in life family joiners. Finally, a fourth category refers to older family members who age as migrants in the receiving country, the so-called first-generation migrants (Dietzel-Papakyriakou 2005; Soom Ammann & van Holten 2013; Strumpen 2012; Zontini 2015). The following subsections give an overview of research on older family members belonging to these four categories and show how this study adds to the current state of the field.

The Stayers

Approaches to older family members in the country of origin often refer to the negative consequences of being ‘left behind’.