Connected Life Courses: Influences on and Experiences of ‘Midlife’ In‐Migration to Rural Areas

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute to the theorisation of midlife migration into rural areas. Although the factors influencing migration are known to be variable at different stages of a person's life, much less well understood is how migration decisions at different stages of the life course are connected and how post‐migration experiences may be influenced by an earlier life course stage. We argue that midlife migration decisions are the product of the migrant's lifetime experiences and influences up until that stage in their life alongside their expectations and aspirations for future life course stages. Using a case study of the Glens of Antrim (Northern Ireland), this paper specifically demonstrates the role of childhood memories to explain midlife migration to a rural area. In doing so, it argues that some findings more commonly associated with second‐generation transnational migration are also equally relevant to migration within the UK. Roots migration and place attachment alongside the midlife migrant's post‐migration sense of belonging and permanency are found to be influenced by the migrant's earlier memories, behaviours, and experiences. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Does Second-Home Ownership Trigger Migration in Later Life?

“…If so, we would expect the migration rate to be higher among non‐second‐home owners who do not have access to rural amenities through second‐home ownership. Instead, we find that second‐home owners are more prone to migrate compared with non‐second‐home owners, which is understandable from a life course perspective in that experience of places throughout the life course affects mobility decisions (Millington, ; Robison & Moen, ; Geist & McManus, ; Stockdale et al ., ). It could also be the case that second‐home ownership is part of a long‐term plan for retirement when a second home is purchased with the intension of retiring to that place.…”

“…The essence of a life course perspective can be summarized in Stockdale's words (2012, p. 8): ‘It [migration decision‐making] is likely to represent a product of that individual's, or couple's shared, life time experiences up to that point in their life and their expectations and aspirations for future life course stages.’ Previous experiences can be former places of residence or places frequently visited. Childhood memories in particular have been acknowledged as important for place attachment and migration decisions (Potter et al ., ; Stockdale et al ., ). Spending time in a second home during the life course could also cultivate place attachment that generates migration in later life, or even after death.…”

Contemporary and ‘Messy’ Rural In-migration Processes: Comparing Counterurban and Lateral Rural Migration

“…These interviews adopted a life history approach by chronologically identifying moves related to specific life events (such as childhood, employment, marriage, family formation, empty‐nest, retirement, and widowhood) and sought to more fully understand the households' migration histories at different stages of the life course (including the move to their current address). This qualitative data is more fully analysed elsewhere (Stockdale & McLeod, ; Stockdale et al ., ; Stockdale, ), with interview excerpts incorporated in the discussion that follows to illustrate and shed deeper understanding on the multiple migration processes at work.…”

“…Specific to English rural in‐migration, in numerical terms, this is as significant as counterurban (and more significant than lateral rural) migration in these study areas. English in‐migration (Stockdale, ), return migration (Stockdale et al ., ), and retirement migration (Stockdale & McLeod, ) are explored further elsewhere. Here, the attention focuses on a comparison between counterurban and lateral rural in‐migrant households (as measured by last change of address).…”

Forced migration in the United Kingdom: women's journeys to escape domestic violence

“…I come from a small town -[East Anglian town]and Wood Green is crushed with people. [Cathy] The tendency to want to migrate to a similar type of place to the one left is different from much other migration where people are trying to change place (though later-life migration may relate to a return to familiar types of places (Stockdale et al 2013). However, it is a distinctive feature of these domestic violence journeys, both within women's accounts and in statistical analysis of the administrative data.…”