Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p>Purpose Internal migration in India includes marriage, employment, family movement and displacement, but health studies often collapse these processes into a single migrant category. We examined whether the latest inferable move, its intra- or interstate character, and its timing relative to first marriage were associated with health and social-protection indicators among midlife and older adults. Methods We analysed Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) Wave 1 data for 60,733 adults aged 45–79 with valid residence history, first-marriage age and national individual weights. Years continuously resident in the current area identified the latest inferable move; previous and current state distinguished intrastate from interstate movement. Move age was classified as before, within two years of, or after first marriage. Outcomes were fair/poor self-rated health, elevated depressive symptoms, any activity-of-daily-living limitation, no health insurance and inability to eat enough preferred food. Weighted prevalence estimates and current-state-adjusted linear probability models controlled age, sex, schooling, rural residence and caste, with state-clustered standard errors. Results The sample included 29,609 nonmovers, 25,711 intrastate movers and 5,413 interstate movers. Unadjusted health profiles varied across groups, but adjusted migration-group differences were small and imprecise. For interstate versus nonmovers, adjusted differences in fair/poor self-rated health, depressive symptoms, ADL limitation, uninsurance and food inadequacy were − 0.1, -2.8, 3.6, -2.8 and − 5.6 percentage points, respectively; every confidence interval included zero. Exploratory timing models suggested heterogeneity rather than a common migration penalty. Women whose latest inferred move preceded marriage had higher food inadequacy than nonmovers (11.2 points; 95% CI 1.1 to 21.3), while most other timing contrasts were imprecise. Conclusions Later-life disadvantage cannot be read directly from interstate or intrastate migrant labels. Broad categories conceal marriage-linked selection, move timing and destination context. Surveys and programmes need reason-specific, repeated origin-destination histories and direct measures of effective benefit portability and continuity of care.</p>