Between 2009 and 2011, fieldwork was undertaken for the first wave of the
Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA). Extensive information was collected
on about 8,500 individuals aged 50 and over and living in Ireland, covering topics
such as economic circumstances and health. One of the features of Ireland’s older
population is the remarkably high proportion of returned migrants, that is, former
emigrants who have returned to live in Ireland. This is reflected in the TILDA sample
with over 20 % being returned migrants. Given the large number of returned migrants
in the TILDA sample and the fact that the respondents are older, it has been possible
to use the data to provide insights into different dimensions of migration at different
points in the life-cycle. This paper provides a review of this work to date. Three issues
are addressed. First, what circumstances contributed to the decision to emigrate?
Second, was there evidence that living away produced psychological stress? Third, do
return migrants suffer from social isolation on their return? The data suggest that the
return migrants were more likely to have suffered abuse as children, to have been
more prone to alcohol problems and to be more socially isolated currently