Retiring to Spain : Women's Narratives of Nostalgia, Belonging and Community

This book is a study of nostalgia, belonging and community which provides a new theoretical framework for understanding retirement migration. It is the first account of retirement migration that focuses on the voices of retired working-class British women, who are considering either return migration to the UK or permanent/temporary settlement in Spain. Through a narrative approach, we follow their journeys as they seek, recreate and construct community in a new context and their experiences of belonging and non-belonging are unravelled. The book offers a critical perspective, challenging positivistic, essentialist definitions of community. RETIRING TO SPAIN Contents Acknowledgements Preface 1. Retiring to the Costas: British women’s narratives of nostalgia, belonging and community Retiring to the Costas Introducing the women Knowing community and belonging in retirement migration: epistemological and methodological considerations Part 1: Lives in context Part 2: Lived experiences Conclusion: Nostalgia, belonging and community: linking time and space Part 1. Lives in context 2. Conceptualising, theorising and narrating retirement migration Introduction Conceptualising retirement migration Theorising retirement migration Narrating retirement migration Narrative and plot Narrative and time Narrative, identity and positionality Conducting the research Analysing narratives Conclusion 3. Locating the women: macro, meso and micro contexts Introduction Structural contexts in retirement migration Positionalities in retirement migration Gender Age Ethnicity Class Reflexivity: locating myself in the research Conclusion 4. Boundary spanning and reconstitution: retirement migration and the search for community Introduction ‘Thinking with’ community to understand social change Community as ‘lost’ Community and different forms of belonging Conclusion Part 2. Lived experiences 5. Leaving the UK: motives, agency and decision-making processes Introduction Retirement migration: why Spain and not elsewhere ‘The call’: multiple motivations for migration The quests’ call: biological disruption and everyday adventure time The call: agency, gender and decision-making in migration Imagining a dystopic future: retirement in the UK Feeling marginalised: age and ethnic positionalities Conclusion 6. Living in Spain: ‘idyllisation’ and realisation Introduction Community idealised Idyllising Spain Regaining community and a sense of belonging in Spain Obstacles to living ‘the good life’ in Spain Conclusion 7. Belonging to networks: reconciling agency and positionalities Introduction The ‘social scene’ in the Costa Blanca Spending time with partners: an obstacle to overcome? The ladies’ club The important role of language Constructing ‘Englishness’ Living an English life in Spain: an obstacle or asset? On not being English: Enid Othering the Spanish Conclusion 8. Renegotiating family relationships: managing intimacy from a distance Introduction Grandparenting styles and intergenerational solidarity Performing grandmother ‘identities’ through narrative analysis Negotiating relationships Conclusion 9. Locating ‘home’ and community: the end point of plot movement Introduction Spain as home Ambivalent feelings about Spain as home The UK as home Living betwixt and between Locating home and community Conclusion Conclusion. Nostalgia, belonging and community: linking time and space Introduction Place, networks and positionalities Belonging, community and narrative Nostalgia and community revisited Afterword Notes References Index This title focuses on the lives of a group of women from the UK who moved to the Costa Blanca in Spain in retirement. We follow their journeys as they seek 'community' and belonging in a world characterised by rapid social change. Imbued with nostalgic yearning, community is hailed as a panacea to the ills of modernity and as a representation of social continuity The book offers a critical perspective, challenging positivistic, essentialist definitions of lifestyle migration. We follow the journeys of retired working-class British women as they seek, recreate and construct community in a new context. The book offers a critical perspective, challenging positivistic, essentialist definitions of lifestyle migration. We follow the journeys of retired working class British women as they seek, recreate and construct community in a new context.