Toward a Critical Sociology of Lifestyle Migration: Reconceptualizing Migration and the Search for a Better Way of Life

Benson, Michaela; Osbaldiston, Nick

doi:10.1111/1467-954x.12370

Cited by 70 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 63 publications

(145 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…There has been significant scholarly attention paid to understanding the diverse motivations, experiences, and patterns of migration in later life from the United Kingdom to southern European countries, including France and Spain (Benson, ; Oliver, ; O'Reilly, ). These migrants are understood as “retirement migrants” (King, Warnes, & Williams, ), or more broadly “lifestyle migrants,” those predominantly motivated by a search for a “better” and more fulfilling life (Benson & O'Reilly, ; Benson & Osbaldiston, ). This work includes investigations of lifestyle migrants' senses of place and place identity (Torkington, ), the motivations for return migration (Giner‐Monfort, Hall, & Betty, ), and the implications of growing older and becoming more dependant as a migrant (Hall & Hardill, ).…”

Section: Older British Migrants In the Costa Del Solmentioning

confidence: 99%

(Un)settling home during the Brexit process

Miller

2018

Population Space and Place

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Building upon extensive literature on the concept of home, this article uses narrative interviews to argue that home can be (un)settled. The process of (un)settling home can occur in relation to various circumstances such as widowhood, ill health, or geopolitical changes. This article presents (un)settling home as a process constituted by three intertwined dimensions; practical and material, emotional, and temporal. This article explores how the Brexit process is (un)settling home for older British migrants, a population of lifestyle migrants, living in Spain. This geopolitical event has an ongoing destabilising and unsettling effect upon individual's sense of home and belonging. Brexit is a process experienced simultaneously by older British migrants living across the European Union. Consequently, this article provides useful insights into how these relatively privileged migrants negotiate an unprecedented shift in their status, their uncertain future as lifestyle migrants, and their understandings of home in this shifting geopolitical context.

show abstract

Section: Older British Migrants In the Costa Del Solmentioning

confidence: 99%

(Un)settling home during the Brexit process

Miller

2018

Population Space and Place

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Lifestyle migration has come to be understood as involving ‘relatively affluent individuals, moving either part‐time or full‐time, permanently or temporarily, to places which, for various reasons, signify something loosely defined as quality of life’ (Benson and O'Reilly : 621). There is by now a substantial literature drawing on social theory to explore the many lessons that can be learned from this expanding phenomenon of globalized late modernity (see Benson and O'Reilly ; Benson and Osbaldiston , ). The current paper aims to both extend and deepen this project.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

One world is not enough: the structured phenomenology of lifestyle migrants in East Asia

Stones

Botterill

Lee

et al. 2018

British Journal of Sociology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The paper is based on original empirical research into the lifestyle migration of European migrants, primarily British, to Thailand and Malaysia, and of Hong Kong Chinese migrants to Mainland China. We combine strong structuration theory (SST) with Heideggerian phenomenology to develop a distinctive approach to the interplay between social structures and the lived experience of migrants. The approach enables a rich engagement with the subjectivities of migrants, an engagement that is powerfully enhanced by close attention to how these inner lives are deeply interwoven with relevant structural contexts. The approach is presented as one that could be fruitfully adopted to explore parallel issues within all types of migration. As is intrinsic to lifestyle migration, commitment to a better quality of life is central to the East Asian migrants, but they seek an uncomplicated, physically enhanced texture of life, framed more by a phenomenology of prosaic well-being than of self-realization or transcendence. In spite of possessing economic and status privileges due to their relatively elite position within global structures the reality for a good number of the lifestyle migrants falls short of their prior expectations. They are subject to particular kinds of socio-structural marginaliszation as a consequence of the character of their migration, and they find themselves relatively isolated and facing a distinct range of challenges. A comparison with research into various groups of migrants to the USA brings into relief the specificities of the socio-structural positioning of the lifestyle migrants of the study. Those East Asian migrants who express the greatest sense of ease and contentment seem to be those who have responded creatively to the specific challenges of their socio-structural situation. Often, this appears to have been achieved through understated but active involvements with their new settings and through sustaining focused transnational connections and relationships.

show abstract

“…The concept has been open to a variety of critiques and questions in part because of the fluidity and multidimensionality of migration itself. Benson and Osbaldiston (2016) review critical commentary on the concept and conclude that lifestyle migration may best be understood as an "ideal type." American citizens live abroad.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Imaginaries of North American lifestyle migrants in Costa Rica

Morrissey

2018

Population Space and Place

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The world is currently experiencing an unprecedented wave of migration. Much scholarly and popular attention has been paid to refugees and migrants crossing borders for political and economic reasons. Of increasing interest to investigators is “lifestyle migration,” the movement of individuals from economically advantaged settings in search of improved quality of life. Costa Rica has a relatively large and fluid population of “lifestyle migrants” from the United States and Canada. This paper examines their generalised images and understandings of Costa Rica that combined with personal ones are referred to as imaginaries in the scholarly literature. I consider in particular how these imaginaries are expressed in the publicly available blogs, discussion forums, and Facebook posts of North American lifestyle migrants. Three critical points in the migrant experience are examined: preparation and arrival, the adaptation process, and reconciliation with a new cultural setting or departure.

show abstract

Toward a Critical Sociology of Lifestyle Migration: Reconceptualizing Migration and the Search for a Better Way of Life

Cited by 70 publications

References 63 publications

(Un)settling home during the Brexit process

(Un)settling home during the Brexit process

One world is not enough: the structured phenomenology of lifestyle migrants in East Asia

Imaginaries of North American lifestyle migrants in Costa Rica

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About