Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the ways that British migrants living in rural France seek to distance themselves from negative associations by rejecting their transnational status and instead, emplacing themselves in the local.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the ways in which British lifestyle migrants living in rural France variously lay claim to (albeit idealized) sense of belonging in the local. In their daily lives they actively reject stereotypes of expatriates, stressing the ways in which they are different, and are actively involved in, and in some cases, have revived, the local community. Simultaneously, they distance themselves from their transnational ties, often underplaying the extent to which these are a feature of their lives. But further to this, they highlight their cognizance of local history, architecture, and landscape, often stressing that this is knowledge that they have gained through their extensive interactions with the local French. And armed with this knowledge, they become fervent advocates for the preservation of local stories, architecture, and landscape, alongside many local actors.

This desire to preserve the local cannot simply be explained, as others have argued, as the preservation of incomers' ideals. Rather, their belief that they have transcended the boundary between incomer and local operates to distance migrants from negative associations with 'expatriates', while at the same time, drawing the similarities between the lives that they lead and those of their French neighbours. In this manner, these Britons justify their continued presence in rural France and reinforce their initial reasons for migrating, 'to become as much French as we can'.