Challenges in Lifestyle Migration Research: Reflections and Findings about the Spanish Crisis

The lifestyle migration conceptual framework is based on the motivation for moving reported by the migrants themselves. We discuss the operability of this approach, which is built on the subjective assessments of individuals. It diminishes the actual importance of economic factors and has an underly...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Mobilities 2013-09, Vol.8 (3), p.331-348
Main Authors: Huete, Raquel, Mantecón, Alejandro, Estévez, Jesús
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
British in Spain
Comparative Analysis
Economic Crises
Economic crisis
Economic recession
Immigration
Labor Migration
Lifestyle
Lifestyle migration
Lifestyles
Migrants
Migration
Mobility
Motivation
Nationality
Noncitizens
Recessions
Reflection
Return migration
Sociology
Spain
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Summary:The lifestyle migration conceptual framework is based on the motivation for moving reported by the migrants themselves. We discuss the operability of this approach, which is built on the subjective assessments of individuals. It diminishes the actual importance of economic factors and has an underlying ideological element associated with the categorisation of people according to their nationality. A comparative analysis of residential variations by nationalities between 2005 and 2010 in Alicante (Spain) shows that, when faced with the economic crisis, the so-called lifestyle migrants are changing their mobility patterns in a way similar to the rest of the migrants. This calls into question the adequacy of juxtaposing lifestyle and labour migration. Both theory and research show that this duality, instead of clarifying applied research, makes it more difficult. We argue that the lifestyle migration framework is inadequate to study changes in mobility patterns, particularly when using a quantitative approach.
ISSN:1745-0101
1745-011X
DOI:10.1080/17450101.2013.814236