Introduction

Throughout this book we have followed women's migration journeys across space and time as they spanned and reconstituted boundaries. Beginning with their pre-migration lives – characterised for many by fractured belonging in the UK – upper and more proximate structures enabled and facilitated their agency in moving to Spain in retirement. We have also seen that women's positionalities and unique biographies are also significant in shaping migration choices, decision-making processes and their post-migration lives. I framed divergent migration trajectories in relation to two plot typologies: the quest and voyage and return. Those women who ultimately chose to remain in Spain can be said to have fulfilled the quest of belonging and community in a new home; while those for whom the quest is not successful, voyage and return to the UK, and reconfigure it as home. Women living ‘betwixt and between’ emphasise the positives of Spain and living heterolocally, but identify the UK as home (see also Huber and O’Reilly, 2004). Of course, depending on whether or not women wished to stay in Spain, certain aspects are emphasised or minimised in order to justify present actions and future intentions. However, irrespective of where they wished to be, all of the women wanted to tell a positive story about themselves and the choice they make in relation to ‘home’ and this is evidenced through their narratives. Those women who choose to stay in Spain yet do not construct it as home convey ambivalence in relation to belonging.

Although the women construct home in relation to place, locating ‘home’ is complex and multi-layered (Huber and O’Reilly, 2004; Ryan, 2004). ‘Home’ can also be shifting, pragmatic and contingent, and, for these women, place represents more than merely space. Huber and O’Reilly (2004) use the German heimat, premising that it captures more than the English word ‘home’ and ‘most usefully conveys the struggles inherent in the creation of home, community and a sense of belonging’ (2004, 330) which are more than, yet related to, place.