Paper short abstract:

This paper defines and delimits the term lifestyle migration and identifies the spirit motivating these mobilities and behaviours, before going on to outline the historical and material preconditions which made space for and enabled this current rendering of what is actually an old theme.

Paper long abstract:

It is becoming increasingly evident that contemporary global perspectives on migration should again include affluent migrants, and not simply professional expatriates, students, intellectuals and football players. In the context of increased flows, and increasingly complex geographical mobility, the migration of elite groups is becoming increasingly prevalent and multifaceted. Of course, elite migrants remain a numerically small group but their mobility can have important impacts, especially in terms of a phenomenon this paper will describe as lifestyle migration, which links tourism, migration, counterurbanisation and the rural idyll. This paper defines and delimits what is meant by the term lifestyle migration and identifies the spirit, or driving force, motivating these mobilities and behaviours, before going on to outline the historical and material preconditions which made space for and enabled this current rendering of what is actually an old theme. Lifestyle migrants are relatively affluent individuals, moving, en masse, either part or full time, permanently or temporarily, to countries where the cost of living and/or the price of property is cheaper; places which, for various reasons, signify something loosely defined as quality of life.

E-paper: this Paper will not be presented, but read in advance and discussed

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