Negotiating Privilege in and through Lifestyle Migration

Abstract

One of the core tenets of lifestyle migration is that the people undertaking these forms of migration can be considered as relatively affluent, with migration made possible by the position of privilege occupied by these migrants in relation to local populations within destinations (Benson and O’Reilly 2009; Croucher 2009; O’Reilly and Benson 2009). In this rendering, relative affluence and privilege is mobilised to bring about migration and inextricably linked to the quest for a better way of life. Beyond this, however, privilege needs to be understood in terms of the role that it might play within the migrant experience. The comparison of two cases of lifestyle migration — the British in rural France and North Americans in Panama — presented in this chapter draws attention to how different contexts of migration influence the articulation of privilege and the migrants’ awareness of their position of power in relation to local communities.