The Linkage of Life Course, Migration, Health, and Aging

Abstract

Migration is a phenomenon that impacts individuals throughout the life course. Particularly, Mexican elderly migrants show evidence of lifetime accumulations of the effects of migration on health conditions. Objectives: Examine how the relationship between historical time and individual time explains different factors impacting the health of Mexican adult and elderly migrants in Mexico and the United States. Method: Data from in-depth interviews with Mexican migrants living in selected locations in Mexico and the United States were used to illustrate the links between life course conditions, aging, migration, and health outcomes. Results and Discussion: According to this theoretical perspective and the data, historical time, age at migration, and the conditions under which the migration trajectory developed, show different impacts on the health and quality of life of the elderly, as revealed through analysis of labor experience, disease and accidents, medical service, health treatment, transnational networks, and family formation.