From life-stage to lifestyle migration: British

international retirement migration to the Mediterranean

Russell King

Willy Brandt Guest Professor of Migration Studies, Malmö University

MIM Research Seminar 5: 15 November 2012

Chasing the Dream

Advert in The Times, 1995

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Fleeing ‘Bad Britain’

Well, one of the reasons we moved down here is the fact that Britain has so many immigrants – we no longer feel at home there (Arthur and Jean, retired British couple, interviewed in southern Spain, 1996)

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Outline of Seminar

• Three contexts for studying IRM: European integration; new forms and motives for migration; increasing social importance of older people

• Research questions; research design; research methods. Main tools were a self-completed questionnaire (N=1066) and face-to-face interviews with retirees (N=160)

• Results: Who are the retirees? Social, demographic and household characteristics

• Motives for moving • How is IRM embedded in lifetime

migration/mobility patterns? • How do retirees evaluate their migration decisions?

Disappointments and pleasant surprises • Conclusions

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Funding and Key Outputs Funded by UK Economic and Social Research Council, 1995-99. Russell King PI; Tony Warnes and Allan Williams CoIs; Guy Patterson RA Main Publications: • King, R., Warnes, A.M. and Williams, A.M. (1998)

‘International retirement migration in Europe’, International Journal of Population Geography, 4(2): 91-111.

• King, R. and Patterson, G. (1998) ‘Diverse paths: the elderly British in Tuscany’, International Journal of Population Geography, 4(2): 157-182

• Warnes, A.M., King, R., Williams, A.M. and Patterson, G. (1999) ‘The well-being of British expatriate retirees in Southern Europe’, Ageing and Society, 19(6): 717-740

• King, R., Warnes, A.M. and Williams, A.M. (2000) Sunset Lives: British Retirement Migration to the Mediterranean. Oxford: Berg

• King, R. (2012) ‘Sunset migration’, in Martiniello, M. and Rath, J. (eds) An Introduction to Migration Studies: European Perspectives. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 179-302 4

Three Contexts for IRM: 1 – The European Context

• EU integration and the creation of the ‘free market’

This means the ethos of ‘free movement’; the ‘removal of barriers’, especially in regard to travel, migration, residence, ownership of property, movement of personal effects, transferability of pensions, access to health and welfare services etc., all on a par with citizens of the country moved to within the EU

• New forms of (European) migration Shift away from labour migration to other

forms of motivation for migration. Some of these are linked to life-stage: eg. student migration, retirement migration. Some are linked to life-style: migration as consumption, linked to climate, landscape, amenity, leisure etc.

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Context 2 – ‘The Elderly’ • Increasing numerical importance of older people

in European populations – demography of ageing populations: falling

birth-rate, increasing longevity – how to define ‘older people’: flexibilisation of

the notion of ‘retirement’ (early retirement vs. people wanting or being forced to work longer)

– distinction between ‘young old’ and the ‘old old’

• Historical generational effect: the ‘baby boomer’ generation – increasing wealth and self-confidence (higher

education, occupational pensions, inheritance, property assets)

– experiences of travel and tourism, following on from the growth of mass tourism post-1960s

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Context 3 – Lifestyle Migration

• Lifestyle migration is a ‘new’ sociological phenomenon of ‘late’ or ‘post’-modernity; people moving internally or internationally for non-economic reasons, looking for a ‘better way of life’

• But there are historical precedents: the ‘Grand Tour’; colonial migrations (Indian hill-stations, the ‘White Highlands’ of Kenya); and artists (painters, writers, poets) moving to new places (climate, landscape, culture) to stimulate creativity

• Links in the modern era are to tourism, second-home ownership, leisure activities, and counterurbanisation

• Benson and O’Reilly (in Sociological Review, 2009) identify three sub-types of lifestyle migrant: – the residential tourist: tourism becomes a permanent

way of life – the rural idyllist: going back in time to a more ‘genuine’

way of life’ – the bourgeois bohemian: seeking alternative lifestyles in

interesting places

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Key Questions

1. What are the trends of the North → South

sun-seeking migration to Europe? 2. Who are the older migrants who retire to or in

the sun? 3. What are the factors influencing their

retirement migration moves? What kinds of ‘places’ are they looking for?

4. How is the retirement migration embedded in their lifetime patterns of spatial mobility; and what new forms of spatial mobility are triggered by their status as retired persons living abroad?

5. How do they evaluate their retirement migration decisions?

6. How do they envisage the future, when they are older and frailer?

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Two Hypothetical Scenarios

• Retirement migration to another European

country is short-sighted and problematic. It is a high-risk strategy that can lead to vulnerability and even disaster if/when health fails, partner dies etc. Migrants hence become isolated from family, carers, and suffer reduced welfare at the hands of local social and health services. Some well-publicised repatriations of sick and destitute retirees have led to the advancement (and exaggeration?) of this view.

• Retirement to a new environment (but which also

retirees have some familiarities with through previous visits) is a positive experience: improved health (due to a warmer climate) and social life (relaxation, activities), a lower cost of living. Phenomenon is leading to a new multi-ethnic Europe of the elderly, with a new identity as citizens of the EU. Stimulates the development of services in the area of settlement, to the benefit of all local people.

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Research Design

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Tourism Studies WILLIAMS

Migration Studies KING

IRM

Social Gerontology WARNES

Four field locations Costa del Sol – Algarve – Tuscany – Malta PATTERSON WILLIAMS KING WARNES

Four Fieldwork Regions

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Research Methods

• Four regions selected for the fieldwork: Malta, Tuscany,

the Costa del Sol, and the Algarve

• Historical and travel-writer accounts of the key destinations in the past – from 18th-century ‘Grand Tour’ accounts of Florence and Tuscany to descriptions of Torremolinos in the 1960s.

• Census and other data for micro-level mapping

• Questionnaires sent out to known British retirees: 2980

sent out, 1066 returned

• Follow-up depth interviews with 160 retired migrants

• Key-informant interviews with 60 individuals (clergy, local administrators, estate agents, health-care personnel etc.)

• Participant observation: church services, clubs, social events, informal gatherings etc.

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Micro-Mapping of British Nationals in Tuscany, 1991

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Questionnaire Results: Marital

Status and Household Size

% data TUSCANY

MALTA COSTA DEL SOL

ALGARVE

TOTAL

MARITAL STATUS (n=956)

never married 9.2 6.4 5.2 3.2 5.5

married 67.9 63.9 69.1 71.0 67.9

widowed, sep, div.

22.9 29.6 25.7 25.8 26.6

HOUSEHOLD SIZE (n=953)

one person 23.9 29.9 25.4 20.9 25.5

two 63.3 60.8 70.8 72.3 67.4

three 8.3 6.5 2.6 4.5 4.8

four or more 4.6 2.9 1.2 2.4 2.3

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Questionnaire Results: Social Class

% data TUSCANY

MALTA

COSTA DEL SOL

ALGARVE

TOTAL

1 and 2 70.1 54.9 67.7 72.4 65.7

3N 19.4 24.9 24.4 18.4 22.6

3M 4.3 8.6 2.9 4.6 5.1

4 and 5 - 6.5 1.6 2.0 2.9

Armed services

5.4 5.2 3.3 2.6 3.9

no. 93 233 307 196 829

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1 and 2 Professional, managerial and others with higher education 3N Clerical 3M Skilled manual 4 and 5 Intermediate and unskilled manual

Questionnaire Results: Main Reason for Moving

% data TUSCANY

MALTA COSTA DEL SOL

ALGARVE

TOTAL

Climate (and other envir. factors)

15.4 37.5 48.1 44.2 40.4

Low cost of living (incl. tax)

2.9 8.6 6.2 6.9 6.7

Health, pace of life

10.6 14.6 18.4 15.2 15.7

Antipathy to UK 14.4 3.0 6.8 11.1 7.6

Admiration of destination country

11.5 7.9 5.0 3.7 6.3

Work links 18.3 6.0 2.7 8.8 6.8

Family links 19.2 15.0 8.9 8.8 11.8

Other 7.7 7.5 3.9 1.4 4.8

no. 104 267 337 217 925

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Interview Data: Climate, Health, Pace of Life

Climate plays a big part (of moving here). The dampness in England is terrible and that makes you old. Most of my friends in England are not healthy – they seem lifeless, they walk around like really old men! I feel much fitter than them and remain active. I swim a lot here... (Godfrey, retired army officer, Malta).

If I’m not working in the flat, I can sit outside in the sun, go for a swim, or wander down to the seafront and sit with a coffee... You live longer in Spain. Since moving here I’ve taken up dancing, weight-lifting and jogging – I’ve run three marathons! [...] Life is easier all round... no stress and strain. You don’t fret if people are late or arrangements are changed – that’s how it is here... I don’t even wear a watch any more (Cyril, retired mental health worker, Torremolinos).

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Politics, Food, Landscape, Property

The most important reason (for the move to Tuscany) was the Britain of Thatcher and post-Thatcher society. Also the climate, the food and wine, and the likelihood of being on the route of holidaying British friends... Above all it was the house that decided us: it was old, it was secluded, it had olive trees, it looked like paradise (Vernon, retired consulting engineer, southern Tuscany) Well, when I walked into the rooms, I felt I had been born here! It was quite habitable but primitive – there was no sanitation or running water or electricity... the foundations were dug out of bedrock, worn away over the years. We have restored the place to how it was 300 years ago... it has been a labour of love (Vanessa, inland from the Algarve coast).

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Key Questions

1. What are the trends of the North → South

sun-seeking migration to Europe? 2. Who are the older migrants who retire to or in

the sun? 3. What are the factors influencing their

retirement migration moves? What kinds of ‘places’ are they looking for?

4. How is the retirement migration embedded in their lifetime patterns of spatial mobility; and what new forms of spatial mobility are triggered by their status as retired persons living abroad?

5. How do they evaluate their retirement migration decisions?

6. How do they envisage the future, when they are older and frailer?

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Where did you spend the last 5 years before

retirement?

% data TUSCANY

MALTA

COSTA DEL SOL

ALGARVE

TOTAL

Exclusively in the UK

37.1 66.3 68.1 61.6 62.6

In UK and abroad

23.8 10.4 16.2 15.6 15.2

Exclusively abroad

39.1 23.3 15.6 22.7 22.2

no. 105 270 339 211 925

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Number of weeks spent in retirement destination per year

% data TUSCANY

MALTA

COSTA DEL SOL

ALGARVE

TOTAL

less than 40

17.9 21.0 28.0 26.3 24.4

40-50 36.8 41.1 41.1 42.1 40.9

50-52 45.3 37.8 30.8 31.7 34.7

no. 106 275 328 221 930

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Self-assessment of host-country language

% data TUSCANY

MALTA COSTA DEL SOL

ALGARVE

TOTAL

Very fluent 29.0 2.5 4.4 2.3 6.1

Quite fluent 45.8 4.0 21.5 24.5 19.8

Some knowledge

22.4 29.1 63.4 54.1 46.6

A few words 2.8 49.6 10.8 17.7 22.9

None 0.0 14.7 0.0 1.4 4.6

no. 107 278 344 220 949

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Main Disadvantages of Retirement Abroad

% data TUSCANY MALTA COSTA DEL SOL

ALGARVE TOTAL

Language 7.9 2.9 34.3 15.1 17.9

Bureaucracy 31.5 2.9 12.1 30.2 16.5

Sep. From family 16.9 9.6 17.9 9.0 13.3

Medical services 11.2 5.3 3.2 16.6 8.1

Exchange rate 1.1 20.1 6.4 0.5 8.0

Mental atrophy 3.4 3.3 7.9 5.5 5.5

Air travel cost 0.0 13.4 1.1 2.5 4.6

Rising living costs 6.7 5.7 3.6 2.5 4.2

Others* 21.3 36.8 13.5 18.1 21.9

no. 89 209 280 199 777

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* poor roads, dangerous driving (esp. Malta, Portugal); summer heat (esp. Malta, Spain); winter cold (Tuscany); poor utilities/public services.

Language

I would get much more out of living here if I could learn the language. We’ve tried lessons but I’m too long in the tooth for classes now. You have to be dedicated... it requires a lot of effort. We get by... my wife understands more than I do (Henry, Portimão, Algarve) I don’t manage the language very well. I was never any good at languages at school. I did attend evening classes before I came out here but I didn’t have the ability to learn... Now, I have a few words; I can just about make myself understood, but can’t understand the answers! (Albert, left school at 16, retired policeman, Lucca, Tuscany). Here in Fuengirola, the second language is English – they are used to hearing English spoken... When you go to Malaga, it’s all Spanish, they don’t understand you (Moira, Costa del Sol).

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Bureaucracy

The bureaucracy is terrible here... you can’t move without bits of paper. For example, I took my dog to the vet to be treated. He gave me some documents and told me to carry them with me every time I took the dog for a walk! There are rules for everything, bureaucracy is endemic. The locals complain too, of course – it’s part of their society and political system. But the locals know how to take short cuts – so you need Italian friends when you live here (Colin, Tuscany). Portugal is a third world country... the bureaucracy is terrible. You wait ages in the queue in a bank... They tell you to pay car tax, and then they change it and don’t tell you. Then they stop you on the road and you get fined... Now we have our ‘Mr. Fixit’, he’s been here eight years and speaks the language. He’s helping us out with out car MOT. He charges, which is fair enough (Leonard, Algarve).

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Areas where retirement abroad has exceeded

expectations % data TUSCAN

Y MALTA COSTA

DEL SOL ALGARV

E TOTAL

Friendly locals 38.9 25.9 30.4 23.2 28.4

Relaxed lifestyle

7.4 8.9 15.2 14.4 12.5

Good social life 5.6 15.6 10.3 12.0 11.6

Climate 1.9 8.1 8.8 12.8 8.9

Environmental attractions

13.0 1.5 5.4 8.0 5.8

Local produce, food, wine etc.

5.6 3.0 4.9 9.6 5.6

no. 54 134 204 125 518

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Friendly Locals

I must say the Spanish around here have been marvellous to us... We haven’t come up against resentment, personally. A lot depends on our attitude to them, of course (Dick, Mijas, Costa del Sol) The Maltese like to have British friends and introduce them to their families... We visited our neighbour’s relatives and happened to tell them that our daughter was expecting a baby. The next time we went back and saw them, they had crocheted a matinée coat for the baby! It reminds me of the time when people used to be happy to do things for one another (Stan and Edith, Qawra, Malta).

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Respect for elderly, and a bit of history

The Maltese get on fine with the British, and it gets better as you get older. In England you are ostracised if you are old, you are reduced to the armchair, the TV and garden. Here there’s respect for the elderly... I am impressed by the younger generation here. By and large they are very respectful and life revolves around the family, unlike the UK (Michael, St. Julians, Malta). Malta is steeped in history; it is very cultural. I have Maltese friends here and we go to the Russian ballets and operas which come every year... I do love the history here and I regard this place as a home from home (Erica, Sliema, Malta).

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Conclusions and Further Questions

• IRM is a growing yet under-researched component of the evolving European (and global) map of migration/mobility.

• Future statistical trends? Baby-boomer generation will drive this upwards, but dampening effects of world economic recession. New patterns of origin (Russia and other ‘cold’ countries) and destination (Turkey, Morocco, Red Sea, Thailand…). There is another type of IRM – retired labour migrants returning to their countries of origin

• Impacts on local societies and environments: patterns of (non-)integration; reactions of ‘locals’; new forms of settlement and living (Spanish ‘urbanizaciones’); impacts on local economy (housing market, services etc.). Phenomenon of ‘derivative migration’ (Casado Diaz et al. 2004) – same-nationality younger migrants servicing the retirement community.

• The end-game. What happens when people get too frail? Three-stage model of ageing (Litwak and Longino 1987): active old age; mobility impaired; chronic infirmity physical and/or mental. For the final stage there are maybe four options: return to UK, follow-on migration of children to provide hands-on care, local institutional care; locally hired live-in carer.

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