1 / 9

Emigration: the view from ethnography

Emigration: the view from ethnography. Dr Michaela Benson, University of York Prof Karen O'Reilly, Loughborough University. Our experience researching emigration. Spain (Karen): 1993 -4, 2003-6 France (Michaela): 2003-2005 Panama (Michaela): 2008-2010 Malaysia/ Thailand (Karen): 2012

dulcea
Download Presentation

Emigration: the view from ethnography

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Emigration: the view from ethnography Dr Michaela Benson, University of York Prof Karen O'Reilly, Loughborough University

  2. Our experience researching emigration Spain (Karen): 1993-4, 2003-6 France (Michaela): 2003-2005 Panama (Michaela): 2008-2010 Malaysia/ Thailand (Karen): 2012 Methodology Ethnography: participant observation, interviews (face to face, skype, email), focus groups, documentary analysis, surveys

  3. Why ethnography? • Beyond numbers • Adaptable • Introduces qualitative enquiry • Meanings and understandings of agents, without ignoring structure • Nuanced appreciation of relationship between structure and agency (Practice stories)

  4. Lifestyle Migration … lifestyle migrants are relatively affluent individuals of all ages, moving either part-time or full-time to places that, for various reasons, signify, for the migrant, a better quality of life (Benson and O’Reilly 2009: 609). Key features: • lifestyle as a primary motivation behind migration • the role of consumption in migration Who are these lifestyle migrants? • heterogeneous population – age, class background, occupation, family status

  5. Key themes (1) Relationship with the UK • multi-faceted reasons for leaving (both push and pull) • denigration of UK and the lifestyle available there • 'myth of no return' (O'Reilly 2000) + return to the UK as a LAST RESORT

  6. Key themes (2) • Post-migration lives • Influences of colonialism, tourism, imaginaries • Habitus • Communities of practice

  7. Crisis and emigration • Emigration flows • Slows? • Emigration as a response to the challenges of crisis (e.g. US migrants, British migrants in France) • Impact on existing emigrant populations • Outcomes of crisis for existing related to levels of financial security /reliance on financial institutions • Return migration • Conditions which facilitate this

  8. Conclusion • Ethnography gives a nuanced understanding of British emigration and post-emigration lives that allows us to understand the heterogeneous migrant experience from the perspective of individual migrants • Ethnography locates British migration in the wider historical and structural context of what it is/has been to be British • Ethnography is an adaptable methodology Further thoughts: • CouldBrits abroad be viewed as a resource? (IPPR 2010)

  9. Further readings • Benson, M. (2011) The British in Rural France: Lifestyle Migration and the Ongoing Quest for a Better Way of Life, Manchester: Manchester University Press. [ISBN: 978-0719082498] • Benson, M. and O’Reilly, K. (2009) ‘Migration and the search for a better way of life: a critical exploration of lifestyle migration’, The Sociological Review 57(4): 608-625. • Benson, M. and O’Reilly, K. (2009) (eds) Lifestyle Migration: Expectations, Aspirations and Experiences. Farnham: Ashgate. [ISBN: 978-0-7546-7567-9] • O’Reilly, K. (2000) The British on the Costa del Sol. London: Routledge. [ISBN-13: 978-1841420479] • Lifestyle Migration in East Asia Blog: • http://lifestylemigration.wordpress.com

More Related