Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the complex shifting reality of British migrant retirees in Spain and their privileged relationship with mobility and bureaucracy can later on be affected by old age, generating situations of precariousness and social exclusion.

Paper long abstract:

Grounded on an on-going ethnographic research about the (re)construction of identities of Northern European migrant retirees living on the coasts of Spain, this paper explores the complex relationship between mobility, shifting privilege, and old age in the British migrant retiree experience. Due to the Article of Free Movement of Persons, Northern European migrants move across Spain’s borders with ease but must formalize their residency through bureaucratic measures. Be it due to lack of knowledge or general disinterest by retiree migrants and aided by a lack of enforceability by the Spanish authorities, these migrants find themselves in a legal limbo many use to their advantage when avoiding taxation and other government fees. This limbo generates a disconnect between the Spanish government and Northern European retirees, which proves to be problematic when old age intersects, leading to precarious situations and varying degrees of social exclusion. In the wake of Brexit, this legal and social limbo was made visible by the flood of appointments at local police stations and Town Halls in which British retiree migrants requested basic information on bureaucratic processes. Not only has Brexit given new meaning to borders for subjects whom moved seamlessly through them, but also when intersected with old age their reality is pushed towards situations of anxiety. Therefore, British migrants are experiencing how their relative legal invisibility and apparent impunity, in relation to their non-European counterparts, is now somewhat endangered. This paper aims to explore through the analysis of ethnographic vignettes how British retiree migrants cope with their shifting privilege, giving a glimpse into the webs of power and oppression at work in migration policies within Europe.