Introduction

The focus of this chapter is on how I gain knowledge of the processes involved in constructing shifting and overlapping forms of belonging to different kinds of community and how this illuminates experiences of retirement migration. I begin by presenting a discussion of my conceptualisation of retirement migration and then unravel my approach to theory, explaining how women's experiences and agency are placed within wider structural contexts. I explore how understanding of retirement migration is gained through a thematic and structural narrative analytic approach centring on plot, time, identity or positionality and an analysis of linguistic devices employed. An important part of my approach to understanding women's experiences of belonging and community in retirement migration is the analytical use of nostalgia as a chronotope which I suggest links time and space in narrative. First, however, an outline of how I conceptualise retirement migration is presented.

Conceptualising retirement migration

Migration is complex and fluid (King, 2012a) and migration flows alter population totals and age-structures and affect settlement patterns (King et al, 1998). Research on British retirement migration to Europe has focused on Spain (O’Reilly, 2000a; Rodriguez et al, 1998; Oliver, 2008; Casado-Díaz, 2006); France (Benson, 2011a; 2011b); Malta (Warnes and Patterson, 1998); Italy (King et al, 2000); and Portugal (Williams and Patterson, 1998). Initially, retirement migration was placed within the context of population geography and migration studies, tourism and gerontology (King et al, 1998; 2000). There is a long debate about what is and is not migration, with some arguing that the idea of ‘mobilities’ (Urry, 2000) sidesteps this issue (King, 2012a). Mobilities captures the movement of people, ideas and information involving multiple places, and can be understood as embodying a continuum encompassing necessity and desire (Nagy and Korpela, 2013. In this way, migration can be understood within the context of ‘economic and other opportunity differences’ (De Haas, 2010, 1589). There are broadly three types of migration: the voluntary search for economic improvement; political exile or forced migration; and the choice of a different lifestyle (Geoffrey and Sibley, 2007). Retirees living in the Costa Blanca fall easily into the third category, but as has already been suggested, economic considerations influence the move to Spain, as do feelings of dislocation in the UK.