tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post5254625542645260267..comments2023-09-23T11:16:00.352+02:00Comments on The Franco-American Flophouse has moved: Lifestyle MigrationVictoria FERAUGEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16319699673885400472noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-75136144720509453652016-02-25T07:18:01.819+01:002016-02-25T07:18:01.819+01:00@Andrew, Thank you. The person who came the close...@Andrew, Thank you. The person who came the closest I thought to being a Lifestyle Migrant was Jessa Crispin who wrote The Dead Ladies Project. She had itchy feet, the economy was bad in the US and she was going through an emotionally unsatisfying love affair. So she took off for Europe.<br /><br />@anonymous, I see what you're saying. On the other hand it is still not entirely clear to me what distinguishes a Lifestyle Migrant from many other categories of migrant. I moved because I wanted a different life - well, most migrant move because they want a different life. I'm thinking of Atossa Araxia Abrahamian who lives in New York because she LOVES it but it's also the place where she works and writes. But she started her life in the US as an international student and then she had a hell of time getting a residency permit to stay. She had to go back to the US as a graduate student before she finally got permission to stay and work in the US. From the perspective of the US government she was just another migrant and there's no box to check on the immigrations forms in the US, France or any other country that would legitimize entry on the basis of Want a Better Lifestyle. Atossa's story is here and I'd love to hear what you think: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/opinion/sunday/home-is-where-the-green-card-is.html?_r=0<br /><br />@Maria, I agree. My daughter, for example, is now living in the US. Why is she not living in France? Because the unemployment rate for kids her age is very high. She has watched her cousin who graduated a few years ago struggle with internships and short term contracts. Right now he is unemployed. Again. These are real problems that the French state does not seem willing or able to address. So off these kids go and however middle-class they may seem, this looks an awful lot like Labor or Economic migration to me.Victoria FERAUGEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16319699673885400472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-23719299840320360222016-02-17T10:59:33.122+01:002016-02-17T10:59:33.122+01:00The term "lifestyle migration" seems exc...The term "lifestyle migration" seems excessive. And it's a term that can be used to hide intentions and make some realities seem frivolous. Many young people in Spain, for example, have difficulties finding decent work with decent hours and pay. Few find work in the field they have studied. Many find themselves emigrating to other European countries. Those who do emigrate have a higher chance of finding decent work, though not all do. There are also physicists working at a cheap fast-food shop in a European capital, probably. But young people emigrate because the chances are still better outside Spain. They have been insulted in the past by the Secretary of Immigration and Emigration, who said young people emigrated because of their "impulso aventurero de la juventud." (adventurous impulse of youth) Give those young people a decent job and they won't want to move abroad. Not in the search for a decent life, at any rate.Mariahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249273119777270679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-13126680769015731522016-02-16T18:11:07.935+01:002016-02-16T18:11:07.935+01:00Lifestyle migrant would seem to fit my case, bette...Lifestyle migrant would seem to fit my case, better than most, and the phrase doesn't trigger me one way or another. I guess I simply translate it to 'art de vivre' in this context. The definition you cited that struck me the most was "The term 'lifestyle migration' is applied to a growing number of migrations..... which do not fit into the existing policy categories of migration," the salient word here being policy, as in government or official. People that don't need to be dealt with collectively on such a level, and also just see themselves as individual agents acting in ways that don't put them into any specific group. As you say, they may also be classable among other categories, and then again, many may not. For me, it just felt better here than there, and so I do all my ordinary living here.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-89289881937362366382016-02-15T15:09:51.676+01:002016-02-15T15:09:51.676+01:00Good piece deconstructing some of the arguments.
...Good piece deconstructing some of the arguments.<br /><br />The classic version of 'lifestyle migration' would be people who, in their retirement years, choose to move to avoid the cold (for Canadians) or move back to their country of origin (e.g., as a number of Italian Canadians among others have done).Andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10191267025812828244noreply@blogger.com