5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

As twin vectors of demographic change, ageing and international migration have far-reaching implications for economic growth, societal cohesion and individual wellbeing. A glance at the latest global population reports drafted by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) reveals the magnitude of these intersecting trends. As with population trends, so with research trends. Thus, it is no surprise that academic interest in the intersection of migration and ageing has grown considerably since scholars first began to explore this terrain in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In organising this session for the ISA FORUM in Rabat, we depart from the ageing-migration nexus framework, which proposes a holistic view of ageing and migration as ‘entwined trajectories’, expanding the range of actors who are implicated in this field beyond the purview of older migrants per se, e.g. older people ‘left behind’ by migrating family members, as well as the demand for migrant eldercare workers, which is likely to remain a structural feature of economic relations between the Global North and Global South for the foreseeable future. Importantly, the phenomenon of population ageing is no longer restricted to the Global North; indeed the greatest number of migrants in the 50+ age category can be found in the Global South. Research also draws attention to the diversity of social locations found at the nexus of ageing and migration, spanning some of the most excluded in society, as well as some of the most advantaged.