Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
destinations (for reviews see Longino and Bradley, 2003; Serow, 2001; Walters, 2002). Most
US-based research on this topic has adopted a nationally based macro approach to analyse the
distribution patterns, determinants and consequences of this type of amenity-led mobility in
later life. Only recently have studies on IRM turned their attention to the migration of
American retirees towards non-USA destinations such as Panama, Mexico and Costa Rica
(see for example Banks, 2004; Dixon
et al.
, 2006; Lizarraga, 2010; McWatters, 2008; Otero,
1997; Sunil
et al.
, 2007; Truly, 2002). Most of these studies are based on the authors' own
surveys and interviews at the destinations as opposed to the macro-level analysis used in most
US interstate migration research. Similar trends have been studied in the Gold Coast in
Australia, where research has shown the causal relationships between tourism and seasonal
and permanent migration and the similarities with other international retirement destinations
(Bell and Ward, 1998, 2000; Onyx and Leonard, 2005; Stimson and Minnery, 1998).
Elsewhere, IRM is becoming an option for growing numbers of retirees, such as the case
of Japanese retiring to South East Asia, mainly to Malaysia (Ono, 2008; Toyota, 2006), or
Northern Europeans settling in the southern coast of the Turkish Mediterranean (Balkir
and Kirkulak, 2009; Nudrali and O'Reilly, 2009; Sudas and Mutluer, 2006), in Croatia
(Bozic, 2006), in the Romanian countryside (Nagy, 2006) and in Northern Africa (Bousta,
2006).
IRM in Europe developed mostly during the 1980s, with growing numbers of northern
European retirees moving seasonally or permanently to amenity areas located in the
Mediterranean basin, predominantly to the Spanish and Portuguese
costas
. During the 1990s
IRM became a fruitful fi eld of research, with a number of studies exploring the decision-
making process behind retirement migration, patterns of mobility, characteristics of the
migrants, living conditions, their motivations and expectations, their social contacts and
some of their social and economic consequences at the destination. Research in this decade
had a strong geographical focus, with a proliferation of case studies looking at the life experi-
ences of national groups in particular destinations and limited comparative research on the
characteristics of national groups (Casado-Diaz, 2006).
Many of the early studies were of small settlements and local concentrations of national
retirees (e.g. Betty, 1997; Mullan, 1992; Myklebost, 1989; O'Reilly, 1995), but in the late
1990s and early 2000s a series of large systematic surveys turned their attention to the living
conditions, social contacts, integration and well-being of the migrants (Casado-Diaz
et al.
,
2004). This was mostly motivated by the scarcity of accurate offi cial records regarding the
volume of IRM (Williams
et al.
, 2000; Casado-Diaz and Rodriguez, 2002). Most studies
focused on the volume and geographical distribution of the fl ows of older migrants and
considered the motivational factors explaining the decision-making process involved in this
phenomenon (Casado-Diaz
et al.
, 2004). This type of research has been, with some excep-
tions (O'Reilly, 1995, 2000), predominantly quantitative in nature (Casado-Diaz and
Rodriguez, 2002; Rodriguez
et al.
, 2005) and has lacked an in-depth approach to some of the
most relevant issues related to this type of amenity-led mobility in later life. Moreover, as
noted by Warnes and Williams (2006: 1259), the nature of these initial studies was consider-
ably infl uenced by the demands of data availability, research funding and logistical
feasibility.
In the 2000s attention continued to focus on the motivations and the post-migration life-
styles and experiences of the migrants, producing a vibrant collection of research studies (see
Rodriguez
et al.
, 2005 and the special issues of
Ageing and Society
, 2004, and the
Journal of
Ethnic and Migration Studies
, 2006, on older migrants in Europe), but it has also turned on to
more needed conceptual discussions around the defi nition of this form of mobility and the
