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AbstractThis paper explores a new perspective on middle‐aged migrant women. Midlife has long been presumed to be the most networked stage of life for sedentary populations, but it has not been examined critically in the context of migration. This is an empty space that warrants research attention, because middle‐aged migrants often have lives that are temporally and spatially distinctive. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Latvia and the United Kingdom (2018–2023), I argue that the lifecourses of middle‐aged migrant women resemble the transitions that young people go through for work but differ in terms of care. Although strong ties relatives and friends have long been thought to be key for transnational care relations, weak ties also become instrumental through shared notions of self‐actualization in midlife. I provide a novel understanding of how the concepts of linked lives and networks can be applied to processes that are pertinent to middle‐aged women.

There is a paradox: While life courses are de facto pluralising, the pull to conform to an imagined standard is strong. In this thematic issue, we unpack the question: To whose standards do people cohere over the course of their lives? We seek the answers through the idea of life course justice, by which we mean a critical inquiry into how wealth, opportunities, and privilege are distributed and constrained in certain life stages and situations, and geographically. The dual focus of this thematic issue is thus on how people forge new ways to learn and work and how they try to resolve life course differences.

This paper is closed access until 4 June 2020. ; In this paper I propose a critical comparative reflection on migration as a factor of peripheralization processes in the Western Balkan and Baltic regions. In their respective geographical positions, the Western Balkans and the Baltics stand at different ends of the European map: south-east and north-east. Regarding their historical and political positions, however, these are very diverse: the Western Balkans were part of Yugoslavia (except Albania) while the Baltic republics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) were annexed to the Soviet Union after the Second World War. Currently, two Western Balkan countries – Slovenia and Croatia – are already members of the European Union, as the three Baltic countries are, while the rest of Western Balkans are not. I argue that apart from economic and geographical factors, usually taken into account in describing peripheries and cores, migration processes and discourses powerfully construct some places as dynamically moving towards a 'core' while others remain confined to a 'periphery'. By paying special attention to 'scientific discourses', I aim to broaden our understanding of theories and practices of peripheralization, where migration tends to be under-theorized.

This article addresses intersections of migration and economic development as one of the most topical contemporary challenges inthe Baltic states. It uses empirical approach to compare governmental responses to recent economic crisis starting in 2008. Articleanalyses, how these responses were reflected in statistics revealing socio economic dynamics within years of crisis and beyond.Methods of comparing statistical and analysing secondary data are applied. All three states have similar future challenges of agingand declining population and see return migration as one of possible solutions to address this challenge. However, the processesin Estonia provide a better ground for its government to claim that the country makes effort to ensure more stable development.Also, the results demonstrate that Estonia displays more different trends, while Lithuania and Latvia are closer to each other in outmigrationtrends.KEYWORDS: Baltic states, migration, crisis, development.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15181/rfds.v11i3.616

This volume explores how the real conditions and subjective conceptions of ageing and well-being are transformed when people move from one country to another. Focusing on ageing female migrants from Latvia in the UK and other European countries, it is based on fifty life-history interviews with women aged 40s-60s. Empirical chapters concentrate on functional well-being in migration, which includes access to the economic citizenship of work, income, pensions, and accommodation, and on psychosocial well-being, and explores Latvian women's experiences of intimate citizenship in migration.