The Tourism-Migration Nexus: Accessing Care and Support as a Retired British National in Spain
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4108/eettti.9342Keywords:
International retirement migration, UK, Spain, Residential tourism, Social networks, supportAbstract
INTRODUCTION: The movement of older people from one country to another has been described in a multitude of ways, including ‘Residential Tourism’ and ‘International Retirement Migration’. Tourism is often the stepping stone to retirement migration and many older retirees live fluid lifestyles where home ownership, access to welfare and social networks are maintained across the home and host countries both physically and through technology.
OBJECTIVES: This paper focuses on older British people in Spain, and explores the strategies employed to access support in later life. It draws on Grid-Group cultural theory to explore the social network configurations that include the individual, their local and transnational community, as well as the wider socio-cultural context within which they are located.
METHODS: The paper draws on data from narrative interviews with 25 older British people in Spain.
CONCLUSION: The paper exemplifies four different ‘types’ of social network organization and how these relate to help seeking behavior in later life.
References
1) 6, P., Can government influence our friendships? The range and limits of tools for trying to shape solidarities. In: C. Phillipson, G. Allan, and D. Morgan, eds., Social networks and social exclusion: Sociological and policy perspectives. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004.
2) Ahmed, A. Retiring to Spain: Women’s narratives of nostalgia, belonging and community, 2015, Bristol, Policy Press.
3) Attride-Stirling, J. Thematic networks: an analytic tool for qualitative research. Qualitative Research, 2001, 1(3), 385-405.
4) Benson, M. and O’Reilly, K. (eds) Lifestyle migration: Expectations, aspirations and experiences, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009.
5) Betty, C. and Cahill, M. British expatriates' experience of health and social care services on the Costa del Sol. In Anthias, F. and Lazaridis, G. (eds), Into the margins: Migration and exclusion in southern Europe. Ashgate, Aldershot, 83-104, 1999.
6) Casado-Díaz, M. A., Casado-Díaz, A. B., & Casado-Díaz, J. M. Linking tourism, retirement migration and social capital. Tourism Geographies, 2014, 16(1), 124–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2013.851266
7) Caulkins, D.D., and Peters, C., Grid-group analysis, social capital, and entrepreneurship among North American ethnic groups. Cross Cultural Research, 2002, 36(1), 48-72.
8) Champion, T., and King, R., New trends in international migration in Europe. Geographical Viewpoint, 1993, 21, 45-57.
9) Douglas, M., Grid and group, new developments. Workshop on Complexity and Cultural, LSE, London, 27 June 2005.
10) Douglas, M., Essays in the sociology of perception. London: Routledge, 1982.
11) Duval, D.T. Grid/Group theory and its applicability to tourism and migration. Tourism Geographies, 2006, 8 (1), 1-14.
12) Fielding, J. Coding and managing data. In: G.N. Gilbert, ed., Researching social life. 3rd ed. London: Sage, pp. 323-352, 2008.
13) Fisher, D. Grid–group analysis and tourism: tipping as a cultural behavior, Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, 2009, 7(1), 34-47
14) Giner-Monfort, J., and Hall, K. Older British migrants in Spain: Return patterns and intentions post-Brexit. Population, Space and Place, 2024, 30(1), e2730.
15) Hall, K., Phillimore, J., Grzymala-Kazlowska, A., Vershinina, N., Ögtem-Young, Ö., & Harris, C. Migration uncertainty in the context of Brexit: resource conservation tactics. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2020, 48(1), 173–191.
16) Hall, K. Transnational Family Care and British International Retirement Migrants in Spain in Calzada, I. Retirement Migrants and Dependency: Caring for Sun Seekers, Palgrave MacMillan, 2024
17) Hall, K. Care precarity among older British migrants in Spain. Ageing and Society, 2023, 43(8), 1915–1933.
18) Hall, K., and Hardill, I. Retirement migration, the ‘other’ story: caring for frail elderly British citizens in Spain, Ageing and Society, 2016, 36(3), 562-585.
19) Hardill, I., Baines, S., and 6, P. Volunteering for all? Explaining patterns of volunteering and identifying strategies to promote it. Policy & Politics, 2007, 35 (3), 395–412.
20) Huber, A., & O'Reilly, K. The construction of Heimat under conditions of individualised modernity: Swiss and British elderly migrants in Spain. Ageing and Society, 2004, 24, 327-51.
21) Huete, R., & Mantecon, A. Residential tourism or lifestyle migration: Social problems linked to the non-definition of the situation, in Moufakkir, O. and Burns, P. (eds.) Controversies in tourism. Wallingford: CABI, 2212.
22) Janoschka M, Haas H (eds) Contested Spatialities, Lifestyle Migration and Residential Tourism. London: Routledge, 2014.
23) King, R., Cela, E., & Fokkema, T. New frontiers in international retirement migration. Ageing and Society, 2021, 41(6), 1205-1220.
24) King, R., Warnes, T., & Williams, A. Sunset lives: British retirement migration to the Mediterranean. Oxford: Berg, 2000.
25) Li M., Zhang H., Xiao H. and Chen Y. A Grid-group Analysis of Tourism Motivation, Int. J. Tourism Res., 2015, 17, 35–44
26) Mohring, M. Tourism and Migration: Interrelated Forms of Mobility, Comparative, Connections. A Journal for Historians and Area Specialists, 2014, 24(2).
27) O’Reilly K The British on the Costa del Sol 20 years on: a story of liquids and sediments. 2017, Nordic Journal of Migration Research 7, 139–147.
28) O’Reilly, K. International migration and social theory, Houndmills: Palgrave, 2012
29) O'Reilly, K. Intra-European migration and the mobility-enclosure dialectic. Sociology, 2007, 41(2), 277-93.
30) O'Reilly, K., The British on the Costa del Sol: Transnational identities and local communities. London: Routledge, 2000.
31) Oliver, C., & O'Reilly, K. A Bourdieusian analysis of class and migration: Habitus and the individualizing process. Sociology, 2010, 44(1), 49–66.
32) Peel, M.N., and Wilson, C. Frail older people as participants in research. Educational Gerontology, 2008, 34 (5), 407 – 417.
33) Putnam, R.D., Bowling alone. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000.
34) Rogers, K.L., and Leydesdorff, S. Trauma and life stories. London: Routledge, 1999.
35) Vertovec, S. The political importance of Diasporas. Migration Policy Institute, 2005.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Kelly Hall
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, which permits copying, redistributing, remixing, transformation, and building upon the material in any medium so long as the original work is properly cited.
