+

Emigration: the view from ethnographyDr Michaela Benson, University of YorkProf Karen O'Reilly, Loughborough University

+Our experience researching emigrationSpain (Karen): 1993-4, 2003-6

France (Michaela): 2003-2005

Panama (Michaela): 2008-2010

Malaysia/ Thailand (Karen): 2012

Methodology

Ethnography: participant observation, interviews (face to face, skype, email), focus groups, documentary analysis, surveys

+Why ethnography? Beyond numbers Adaptable Introduces qualitative enquiry Meanings and understandings

of agents, without ignoring structure

Nuanced appreciation of relationship between structure and agency (Practice stories)

+Lifestyle Migration

Key features: lifestyle as a primary motivation

behind migration the role of consumption in migration

Who are these lifestyle migrants? heterogeneous population – age, class

background, occupation, family status

… lifestyle migrants are relatively affluent individuals of all ages, moving either part-time or full-time to places that, for various reasons, signify, for the migrant, a better quality of life (Benson and O’Reilly 2009: 609).

+Key themes (1)Relationship with the UK multi-faceted reasons for leaving (both push and pull) denigration of UK and the lifestyle available there 'myth of no return' (O'Reilly 2000) + return to the UK as

a LAST RESORT

+Key themes (2) Post-migration lives Influences of colonialism,

tourism, imaginaries Habitus Communities of practice

+Crisis and emigration Emigration flows

Slows? Emigration as a response to the challenges of crisis (e.g. US

migrants, British migrants in France)

Impact on existing emigrant populations Outcomes of crisis for existing related to levels of financial

security /reliance on financial institutions

Return migration Conditions which facilitate this

+Conclusion Ethnography gives a nuanced understanding of British

emigration and post-emigration lives that allows us to understand the heterogeneous migrant experience from the perspective of individual migrants

Ethnography locates British migration in the wider historical and structural context of what it is/has been to be British

Ethnography is an adaptable methodology

Further thoughts:

Could Brits abroad be viewed as a resource? (IPPR 2010)

+Further readings Benson, M. (2011) The British in Rural France: Lifestyle

Migration and the Ongoing Quest for a Better Way of Life, Manchester: Manchester University Press. [ISBN: 978-0719082498]

Benson, M. and O’Reilly, K. (2009) ‘Migration and the search for a better way of life: a critical exploration of lifestyle migration’, The Sociological Review 57(4): 608-625.

Benson, M. and O’Reilly, K. (2009) (eds) Lifestyle Migration: Expectations, Aspirations and Experiences. Farnham: Ashgate. [ISBN: 978-0-7546-7567-9]

O’Reilly, K. (2000) The British on the Costa del Sol. London: Routledge. [ISBN-13: 978-1841420479]

Lifestyle Migration in East Asia Blog: http://lifestylemigration.wordpress.com