Migracijske i etničke teme (Dec 2001)
The Last Adventure: Retirement Migration, Climate and "Amenities"
Abstract
The rising number of European retirement migrants on the Mediterranean coasts, especially in the EU countries shows that the practical and scientific relevance of the new forms of migration in Europe is on the rise. "Retirement migration" evolved from a descriptive term to a candidate for a scientific or a research concept, at least if the use of the term IRM (international retirement migration) is considered. However, it is necessary to solve several problems before this term can really become a coherent concept, useful for the research and explanation of the "new" migration phenomena. The author claims that the studies usually do not distinguish clearly between the migration of the elderly and retirement migration. The naming of the concept in this case mixes the characteristics of the migrants with the reasons for migration. The author shows that the usually mentioned reasons for retirement migration cannot be clearly formulated as factors which explain retirement migration. Further on, retirement as such is not a pull, push or staying put factor. Migration rates of retired, although rising, are still lower than the migration rates of the working age population and the Mediterranean coasts are also a destination for professionals who have the means to detach the job from the working place. Only a combination of conditions that enable migration and migration decisions, as well as a combination of motives and perceptions of reasons for migration, can partially "explain" retirement migration. One of the problems that has to be solved before retirement migration is affirmed as a concept is the treatment of the temporal and spatial dimension of the mobility of the retirement migrants. The author shows that a clear positioning of retirement migration on the temporal scale of mobility is hardly possible. Retirement migration is too wide and too complex a phenomenon to be easily localised in the temporal continuum. A similar problem emerges when the concept is "tested" in other scales. One is e.g. the force − choice continuum considering the fact that in many cases frail health, housing and daily life costs play an important role in the decision making of the retirement migrants. Another one is the production − consumption "continuum". In both cases variations stretch the concept along the scale, proving that the retirement migration cannot be treated as a clearly bounded concept. Health, climate, amenities and other factors interfere whenever an explanation is expected to emerge from the retirement migration concept. Finally, the author admits that other concepts are not completely coherent as well, they are, however, more firmly bounded. An alternative solution would be to concentrate on characteristics that are shared by all retirement migrants: retirement (as a social position), the last phase in a (post)-modem biography and common Mediterranean destinations. He suggests that researchers should focus on the actors and their endeavours to fulfil their personal utopian goals and that such a proceeding would probably give good results at this stage of the retirement migration research.
