Transnational family research has produced a wealth of empirical studies on the relationship between spatial rupture and the organization and negotiation of family relationships and practices (Baldassar & Merla 2014; Bernhard et al. 2008). These studies reveal the resilient and creative measures that transnational families adopt to sustain family relations and manage the constraints of their situation. They stress how, through a variety of bordercrossing activities, transnational families fulfil their family responsibilities and intergenerational commitments. Financial and social remittances (Boccagni & Decimo 2013; Singh et al. 2012; Levitt & Lamba-Nieves 2011), virtual communication (Baldassar 2008b; Madianou & Miller 2012) and migrant visits to the country of origin (Baldassar 2001) are well-known strategies. Scholars have highlighted the function of migrant visits to the country of origin for sustaining transnational family ties (Duval 2004; Mason 2004) and being vital to the migrants’ emotional well-being (King & Lulle 2015).

At the same time, it has been argued that transnational activities and relationships affect migrants differently at different stages in their lives (Kobayashi & Preston 2007). Transitions and changing family obligations during the course of a life may indeed have an impact on the type and intensity of migrants’ transnational involvement. In other words, migrants’ family visits could be expected to vary depending on the stage in their life course. However, the relationship between age and migrant visits to the country of origin has not yet been systematically analysed. With this chapter, I seek to advance this discussion theoretically and empirically by applying a life-course perspective to the study of Peruvian migrants’ propensity to visit family members in Peru. Building on Carling and Hoelscher's (2013) framework of capacity and desire, I analyse how the migrants’ age, integration and transnational ties relate to each other and to family visits to Peru.

More precisely, I study how phases in the life course relate to family visits and how integration and transnational ties are associated with this relationship. For the study, I draw on data from a Worldwide Survey on the Peruvian Community Abroad (WSPCA), Encuesta mundial a la comunidad peruana en el exterior, conducted in 49 countries in 2012.