“…In the last decade, the notion of lifestyle migration – migration motivated by life quality related concerns – has enriched migration research (Benson and O'Reilly, ; O'Reilly and Benson, ). This research has mostly focused on affluent Western migrants moving to the sunbelts of sub‐tropical locales (Oliver and O'Reilly, ; Benson, ; Korpela, ; Åkerlund and Sandberg, ). These affluent migrants talk about their migration in terms of factors such as more amenable climate, a slower pace of life, more recreational opportunities etc (see Torkington, ).…”
This article makes the case for using the concept of lifestyle migration to understand return migration. The key argument is that there are several advantages for engaging with lifestyle migration literature when analysing people's return, of which the prime reason is to draw attention away from the affective and emotional aspects of return migration and view it as a conscious decision related to future planning. A combination of statistical data and interviews with highly skilled Estonian migrants in the UK shows how the return of these migrants is often related to moving from one life stage to another. In the conscious process of planning for a family, several aspects related to both countries were evaluated and the return was often explained as benefitting the (potential) family. The article also claims that there is a need for lifestyle migration research to engage more actively on interlinkages between lifestyle and life stage.
“…In the last decade, the notion of lifestyle migration – migration motivated by life quality related concerns – has enriched migration research (Benson and O'Reilly, ; O'Reilly and Benson, ). This research has mostly focused on affluent Western migrants moving to the sunbelts of sub‐tropical locales (Oliver and O'Reilly, ; Benson, ; Korpela, ; Åkerlund and Sandberg, ). These affluent migrants talk about their migration in terms of factors such as more amenable climate, a slower pace of life, more recreational opportunities etc (see Torkington, ).…”
This article makes the case for using the concept of lifestyle migration to understand return migration. The key argument is that there are several advantages for engaging with lifestyle migration literature when analysing people's return, of which the prime reason is to draw attention away from the affective and emotional aspects of return migration and view it as a conscious decision related to future planning. A combination of statistical data and interviews with highly skilled Estonian migrants in the UK shows how the return of these migrants is often related to moving from one life stage to another. In the conscious process of planning for a family, several aspects related to both countries were evaluated and the return was often explained as benefitting the (potential) family. The article also claims that there is a need for lifestyle migration research to engage more actively on interlinkages between lifestyle and life stage.
“…For lifestyle migrants, geographical relocation often holds a prospect for freedom and starting afresh in a new geographical and emotional setting. Starting over in a new place offers the opportunity of being “anonymous” again and breaking free from the shackles of the past (Korpela, ). The feeling of regaining a sense of control over one's life and the very notion of “me time” can be inextricably linked to individuals’ self‐realisation and life satisfaction (Hoey, ; Oliver, ).…”
Section: Ageing Lifestyle and Place: Crossings And Intersectionsmentioning
International retirement migration has been typically regarded as a couple's project. Much less is known about single lifestyle migrants who settle and age abroad and those who, after the loss of their spouse, decide to stay put. Informed by a larger pool of 36 life‐narrative interviews with later‐life lifestyle migrants in the Azores, and structured around four selected portrayals, this paper seeks to explore meanings of place in later life and to unpack the complex set of negotiations that the ageing self undergoes in a context of migration. Drawing on relational and unbound understandings of place, I question traditional assumptions that see single older migrants abroad as vulnerable and dependent, emphasising a more complex set of needs, desires and expectations in (and for) later‐life. For these migrants, emplaced living and ageing experiences are ambiguously mixed. The islands are described as places of freedom and self‐actualisation, and also “safe ports” in later‐life. Yet, this does not prevent intermittent feelings of isolation and loneliness, including the desire to restore some sense of companionship and romantic life.
“…Our second point relates to the tendency to begin research into something like lifestyle migration from the standpoint of agency, overlooking the extent to which structural conditions maintain some control over what individuals can do. Despite admitting that lifestyle migrants are ‘ideal individualised subjects’, Korpela (: 41–42) has recently re‐evaluated the discourse of choice within lifestyle migration: … reflections on individuality can easily make it sound as if individuals were independent actors pursuing the good in life as best they can. One must not, however, forget that individuals act within existing structures.…”
“…This argument is well embedded into lifestyle migration literature especially in the work of O'Reilly (2014: 222) who demonstrates the manner in which the social imaginary can be ascribed to a particular 'habitus' within certain classes (see also Benson, 2011aBenson, , 2012. Korpela (2014) is right to assume that there are a number of structural conditions which determine our choices for us, something amenity migration literature also recognizes (see Gosnell and Abrams, 2009). However, a significant consequence of the turn towards understanding social and cultural phenomena through the lens of theories promoting individualism is that the host of structures that continue to dictate choice to individuals (and which frame migrant lives) are not given as much attention as they deserve.…”
This article places under critical and reflexive examination the theoretical underpinnings of the concept of lifestyle migration. Developed to explain the migration of the relatively affluent in search of a better way of life, this concept draws attention to the role of lifestyle within migration, alongside understandings of migration as one stage within the ongoing lifestyle choices and trajectories of individual migrants. Through a focus on two paradigms that are currently at work within theorizations of this social phenomenon – individualization and mobilities – we evaluate their contribution to this flourishing field of research. In this way, we demonstrate the limitations and constraints of these for understanding lifestyle migration; engaging with long‐standing debates around structure and agency to make a case for the recognition of history in understanding the pursuit of ‘a better way of life’; questioning the extent to which meaning is made through movement, and the politics and ethics of replacing migration with mobilities. Through this systematic consideration, we pave the way for re‐invigorated theorizing on this topic, and the development of a critical sociology of lifestyle migration.
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