The Achievement and Potential of International Retirement Migration Research: The Need for Disciplinary Exchange

Abstract

The recent surge of research on international retirement migration (IRM) in Europe has examined interlocking topics of interest to several fields of social research. The researchers, drawn mainly from population and social geography, social gerontology and sociology, have focused on the geographical distribution of international retirement migrants, their motivations, social circumstances and integration with local populations, and the health and welfare outcomes. Recent contributions have, however, begun to explore other aspects of the IRM phenomenon, particularly processes of transnational identity formation, the mental construction of home, Heimat and community, and the meaning of supra-national (i.e. European Union) citizenship. This paper argues that IRM research offers many other possibilities for the interchange and fusion of social research concepts and methodologies. Several dimensions of IRM, such as the sustainability of transnational mobility and lifestyles and the elaboration of supra-national citizenship, are closely related to the current interests of transnationalism studies. Concepts and research questions from transnational studies could and should be added to research on IRM, while some interests of IRM studies, such as the distinctions made between a dwelling and a home and the mental construction of ‘home away from home’, engage with diaspora studies and offer a potential for productive comparative research. The transfer and exchange of concepts would sharpen and develop both research fields.

Keywords:

• International Retirement Migration
• Transnationalism
• Diaspora
• Supra-National Citizenship

Notes

1. It could be argued that, with fewer than 30 peer-reviewed papers from disparate disciplines in the last five years, IRM is hardly an established research field. It is nonetheless recognised as a distinct ‘social form’ and the published studies reveal a clear tendency to address similar gerontological, demographic, spatial and welfare issues.

2. See the special issue of Ageing & Society, 24(3), 2004.

3. It is not implied that the existing research at the intersection of migration studies, tourism and social gerontology is saturated or that IRM research should abandon those interests, rather that the new topics should supplement the IRM portfolio.

4. Smith (2001) believes that steering through the ‘transnational space’ actually strengthens the continued significance of national identities. According to this view, transnational practices and the nation-state are mutually constitutive.

5. The criterion of ‘resident three or four months’ that researchers commonly employ to differentiate between retirement migrants and occasional visitors is of course arbitrary and does not allow for other mobility dimensions such as the frequency and seasonality of visits (see Bell and Ward 2000).

6. The biographies and international mobility of many British international retirement migrants are connected with the UK's colonial history and history of international commercial ties (see King et al. 2000). Similar influences are seen among Dutch and Belgian retirement migrants in southern Europe, but the French participate rather little in IRM.

7. For example ‘cleft diasporas’, which arise when territories are divided by new or revised state boundaries (Riggs 1999).

8. Croatia, for example, has been neglected. It already has more than 5,000 second-home owners from the EU and the United States, and many are aged in their fifties. There are also more than 1,000 international retirement migrants if the ‘three-months stay’ rule is applied. They are mainly situated on the coast, particularly in Istria and near Dubrovnik, but some have moved into the Istrian hinterland.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Saša Božić

Saša Božić is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies, Zagreb