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development of research frameworks to analyse it. Benson and O'Reilly (2009a) have led this
fi eld of enquiry with their attempts to conceptualise lifestyle migration, while other recent
studies have provided insights into aspirations, everyday lives, social networks, community-
building and identity negotiation (Benson, 2010; Casado-Diaz, 2009; Gustafson, 2001, 2008;
Oliver, 2008), the environmental impacts and planning implications for retirement destina-
tions (Zasada
et al.
, 2010), as well as issues of health care, welfare entitlement and citizenship
among these populations (Ackers and Dwyer, 2002, 2004; Dwyer and Papadimitriou, 2006;
La Parra and Mateo, 2008).
Many studies have adopted a national case-study-based perspective on the analysis of the
migrants' lifestyles, producing detailed analyses of the migrants' experiences in the receiving
societies. However, this approach pays less attention to transnational practices and personal
ties with the sending countries. In order to study the migrants' lifestyles and experiences it is
necessary to consider their activities and practices both locally and internationally. While the
rapid development of communication and transportation technologies has allowed migrants
to engage in 'transnational lifestyles', they have also sustained reciprocal links with their
home countries (Bozic, 2006; Casado-Diaz, 2009; King
et al.
, 1998; Gustafson, 2001). As
argued by Warnes (2009: 359), 'the ease and low cost of international travel is allowing many
older people to exploit, maintain and continue to develop residential opportunities, social
networks and welfare entitlements in more than one country'. This makes evident the need
to move from the local and national perspectives to a transnational approach that considers
both sending and receiving societies in the analysis of the lived experiences of international
retired migrants (Casado-Diaz, 2008).
Another emerging thread of research in the fi eld of lifestyle migration is the analysis of
the interpersonal relationships and network connections of the migrants in both the
destination and origin areas. Researchers are now focusing their attention on the study
of the relationships formed between the retirees and their neighbours and host societies,
and the way in which they are also able to retain close ties with their relatives and long-
standing friends in their home countries through return visits and through visits to their
homes from friends and relatives (Casado-Díaz, 2009; Gustafson, 2008; Huber and O'Reilly,
2004).
Future directions for research on international retirement migration
Future research on the fi eld of lifestyle migration and, particularly, on IRM, will be charac-
terised by a renewed interest in the geographical distribution and diversifi cation and
the transnational practices of these mobile populations. As Warnes and Williams (2006: 1274)
put it,
with each decade and among successive cohorts of older people, there will not only
be new destinations and fl ows, but we must expect the forms and expressions of
retirement preferences and lives to change.
The changing historical conditions in both places of origin and destination, the diversifi ca-
tion of international tourism markets as well as the changing nature and pre-retirement life-
styles of the new fl ows of immigrants will determine the geographical distribution of future
later-life migration fl ows. In this sense, the role of the current global recession in the potential
decline of established retirement destinations and the emergence of new markets for interna-
tional retirement migrants will become central for the analysis of future trends in this fi eld,
