Tactical mobility: navigating mobile ageing and transnational retirement between Turkey and Germany. A comparison between Turkish-German and German retirees

Abstract

Retirement migration from Germany to Turkey is practiced by both former labour migrants from Turkey who spent their working lives in Germany, and by German retirees without prior migration backgrounds who have discovered Turkey as a retirement destination in the context of tourism. This article presents findings from the empirical investigation of cross-border mobility patterns and motivations among both groups of retirees who are mobile between Germany and popular tourist destinations in the district of Antalya in Turkey. We argue in this article that mobile ageing practices not only exhibit similarities across the two groups, but are also significantly shaped by conditions over which both groups exercise very limited or no control. Economic inequalities, legal insecurities and health imponderabilities emerged as relevant dimensions in our research. Examining how mobile retirees cope with these, we suggest the concept of tactical mobility to make sense of their cross-border migration practices and the reasonings that undergird them.