Paper short abstract:

The paper discusses the mobility routines of the lifestyle migrant families in Goa. It also elaborates on their transnationally mobile, yet locally immobile lives and discusses how the families' rhythms and timings of mobility change when children grow older.

Paper long abstract:

Increasing numbers of "Western" families spend several months a year in Goa, India, and the rest of the year in the parents' native countries or elsewhere. These "lifestyle migrants" are motivated by a search for a better quality of life. The lifestyle is clearly transnationally mobile, yet, the families' lives in Goa are strikingly immobile as they move within a relatively small area there. Moreover, although their moving to Goa is voluntary, the lifestyle involves an aspect of forced mobility, in terms of timing at least, because of the frequent "visa runs" that people must do. In principle, the transnational mobility of the lifestyle migrants in Goa is seasonal, following the weather conditions and tourist seasons (that provide income), yet, children's schooling set certain limitations to the families' mobilities, especially when children grow older. The yearly routines of the families' lives in Goa are to a great extent characterised by seasons of arrivals and departures; those who stay longer (e.g. because of children's schooling) need to adjust to the reality that many lifestyle migrants with whom they socialise leave earlier and arrive later than them. This paper is based on an extensive ethnographic research among lifestyle migrant families in Goa. The paper discusses the yearly, weekly and daily mobility routines of the lifestyle migrant families and elaborates on the children's experiences of the culture of frequent arrivals and departures. The paper also discusses how the families' rhythms and timings of mobility change when children grow older.