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Abstract
This article is based on ethnographic research conducted in the USA with migrants who use an act of relocation as a means of deliberately constructing identity as well as seeking greater ‘balance’ and ‘control’ in their lives. Specifically, it examines how ‘second’ homes can serve as a transitional or ‘potential space’ in the lives of these migrants not only between different geographic places but also what are taken to be distinct identities and ideals associated with these places and the lives lived in them. Such behaviour is not simply about coping and adapting to a new environment; rather, it is about using qualities of destination places to reconcile different visions of self and family purposefully set apart by relocation and a particular notion of ‘the good’ that underlies a ‘lifestyle commitment’ attached to the new place. The author highlights how research into the changing dynamics of work and family can help us understand, generally, effects of an emergent, economic order on working families and, specifically, how associated social and cultural changes shape this migration behaviour. Through analysis of lifestyle migration, this article contributes to discussion of the ways in which cultural values of work and family interrelate in migrancy as well as of challenges and opportunities facing migrants who purposefully attend to leisure activities and places associated with leisure as proper domains for essential identity work and to lifestyle as the means of realising what we may call the ‘potential self’.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. The majority of data collection took place from early 2000 to early 2002 in the adjoining counties of Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Antrim and Benzie that together incorporate an area known as Grand Traverse that extends roughly 40 km in radius from the social and economic hub at Traverse City, Michigan. Follow-ups with original study participants have continued. Foundational data for this article were gathered through in-depth, open-ended ethnographic interviews with 128 in-migrants to these counties. Interviews emphasised personal background, reasons for leaving a job and relocating, the process of relocation decision-making and the consequences of this move for individual and family identity. Free-form conversations with minimal interruption allowed migrants to present detailed narrative constructions, often in extended monologues. The large number of stories gathered in this manner allowed me to consider a wide range of personal backgrounds and relocation experiences. From this large set, I eventually focused on 12 representative cases. Over the past 15 years, I deepened my understanding of lifestyle migration through ongoing contact with four individuals and eight families. This involved extended follow-up conversations as well as participant observation in everyday work and family life, spending time in the workplaces and homes of this core group of participants. Pseudonyms are used for participants.