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Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

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How Culturally Significant Imaginings are Translated into Lifestyle Migration

Michaela Benson
a a

Sociology, University of York Published online: 08 Aug 2012.

To cite this article: Michaela Benson (2012): How Culturally Significant Imaginings are Translated into Lifestyle Migration, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 38:10, 1681-1696 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2012.711067

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Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 38, No. 10, December 2012, pp. 1681 1696

How Culturally Signicant Imaginings are Translated into Lifestyle Migration

Michaela Benson

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Through the examination of British migration to rural France, the article explores how imagination is put into practice and aims to determine what it is that makes some individuals act on the basis of these imaginings to improve their quality of life. It becomes clear that, for lifestyle migration to occur and in order to explain the timing of migration, it is necessary to question and consider the other factors*structural, cultural and biographical*that might drive people to act on the basis of their imaginings. Through recognition of the various contingencies that need to be in place for lifestyle migration to occur, the paper argues for a theoretical approach that accounts for the dialectic between structure and agency in the act of migration. Keywords: Lifestyle Migration; Imagination; British Migration; Rural France Introduction This article explores the process by which the imaginings that inspire migration are translated into practice. Indeed, as OReilly and Benson argue, [T]he material and social construction of particular places offering an alternative way of living is crucial . . . revealing the role of imagination, myth and landscape within the decision to migrate (2009: 3). However, as the ethnography presented in the article demonstrates, these imaginings alone cannot explain why and when people choose to migrate. The case of British migrants to rural France presented here demonstrates that the migration decision is reached through a combination of individualised biographies, trajectories and actions, as well as wider cultural contexts and structural conditions. It is against this background that I present a theoretical model for understanding lifestyle migration that accounts for this interplay and the various contingencies, both structural and individual, that together bring about lifestyle migration. As I argue, this allows for an understanding of lifestyle migration that illuminates the nuances of the lifestyle-migrant experience. While it is beyond the
Michaela Benson is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of York. Correspondence to: Dr M. Benson, Dept of Sociology, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK. E-mail: Michaela.benson@york.ac.uk. ISSN 1369-183X print/ISSN 1469-9451 online/12/101681-16 # 2012 Taylor & Francis http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2012.711067

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scope of this article to do so, I believe that the insights presented here could inform wider theoretical understandings of migration. Lifestyle migration is a social phenomenon affecting an increasing number of sending and receiving countries. There are no firm statistics*moving from developed, often Western countries, these migrants are rarely counted by their country of origin, and statistics gathered by the destination country vary in their reliability, if collected at all*and their numbers are difficult to estimate (Casadoaz et al. 2004; King and Patterson 1998). Yet, anecdotally, the destinations D marketed as offering lifestyle are extensive, with the result that potential migrants have many choices. While, to date, there is an established body of literature dealing with lifestyle migration within Europe (see, for example, Buller and Hoggart 1994; King et al. 2000; OReilly 2000), and a developing interest in migration flows to Mexico and Central America (see, inter alia, Dixon et al. 2006; McWatters 2008; Sunil et al. 2007), other parts of the world have not, as yet, received extensive academic coverage (for notable exceptions, see Armbruster 2010; Ono 2009). Lifestyle migration is distinct from other forms of migration in its primary motivation: lifestyle. It has been considered under many other terms, including international retirement migration (IRM), amenity-seeking migration, residential tourism and (international) counter-urbanisation but, as Benson and OReilly (2009) have argued, none of these conceptualisations has fully captured the complexity of this phenomenon. In contrast, the concept of lifestyle migration is intended to bring together these other renderings within one conceptual and theoretical framework, presenting lifestyle migrants as relatively affluent individuals, moving either parttime or full-time, permanently or temporarily, to places which, for various reasons, signify for the migrants something loosely defined as quality of life (2009: 621). Importantly, lifestyle migration should be understood as one step within a wider lifestyle trajectory directed towards the (gradual) achievement of a better way of life (Benson and OReilly 2009). Beyond this, however, understanding lifestyle-migrant experiences requires sensitivity to the tension between structure and agency. Such sensitivity reveals the structures and dispositions that enable privileged migrations (Amit 2007), the structural constraints that place limits on individual agency (OReilly 2007), and also the interplay of wider historical, material and cultural conditions with individual agency (see, for example, Gosnell and Abrams 2009; Halfacree 2006; Lowe et al. 1993). Drawing on the migration narratives of British residents in the Lot, a department in South-West France*a relocation reflecting a wider cultural repertoire privileging the rural (Barou and Prado 1995; Buller and Hoggart 1994)*I argue that there is a need for an explanatory framework which moves beyond culturally specific representations to interrogate what drives some people to appropriate these imaginings to their own ends. Highlighting the ongoing and complex nature of the dialectic between structure and agency within respondents lives, I stress that, in order to understand how imagination is translated into action, there is a need to focus on the embodied interplay of biographies, individual circumstances, structural preconditions,

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privileges and constraints, as well as culturally significant imaginings. It is only through the recognition of the interrelationships between these diverse factors that we can understand fully how some lifestyle migrants are able to put imagination creatively to work in the realisation of their aspirations. Locating the Research The Lot is a rural, inland department in South-West France, sparsely populated and economically deprived, with an economy that relies on agriculture and, in recent years, tourism. The departments attractions include stunning limestone cliffs and cave systems, rurality, medieval villages, and wine and cuisine. Neighbouring the Dordogne, a department with a large British population, the Lot has been attracting British lifestyle migrants since the 1960s (Dodd 2007). Buller and Hoggart argued that, in the Lot, [t]he British percentage of their foreign populations is among the highest in France (1994: 56). Indeed, data from the 1999 census demonstrate that 75 per cent of the foreign-born population in the Lot were from within Europe, compared to a national average of 36 per cent. My own observations were that the British made up a large proportion of these; they were often visible as they attended s. local markets and sat in pavement cafe Between 2003 and 2005, I conducted 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork with British residents in the Lot, in order to gain detailed insights into the migration decision and the post-migration lives of these generally affluent migrants. Over the period of the research, I collected 75 unstructured interviews (which incorporated life and migration histories) and carried out extensive participant observation. In addition, throughout my time in the Lot I lived with a British family, which gave me additional opportunities to gain insights into their daily lives. My respondents varied in age, family circumstances, timing of their migration and employment status. They had, for the most part, moved to the Lot at some point in the previous 15 years, the timing of their migration coinciding, often, with very different political, social and economic contexts and personal circumstances back in Britain. While many of them were retired*a category that included those who had taken retirement early, before their mid-50s, there were also several among them who had taken the decision to migrate at an earlier stage in their lives, giving up their jobs in Britain to embark on a new life in the Lot. And, while many of my respondents had migrated as couples, there were also families*parents and children*and single individuals. A Role for Imagination In order to understand the relationship between imagination and action, it is first necessary to understand what imagination is, and its relationship to society and the social world. The sociological literature on the imagination is surprisingly sparse, incorporating the classic work by C. Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination

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(1959), which referred to the insights which could be offered by sociology into both large-scale social structures and individual actions; and Benedict Andersons Imagined Communities (1983), presenting the nation as an imagined political community. Furthermore, there are the various works on the social imaginary, the way that a given people imagine their collective life (see for example Castoriadis 1987; Taylor 2004), and Appadurais (1996) recognition that imagination is at work in the way that ordinary people understand their daily lives. I focus here on the latter two, revealing their different understandings of the relationship between imagination and social structure. As I argue, neither of these models can fully account for how imagination is converted into action, and there is a need for a new understanding of imagination which captures the dynamic relationship between structure and individual agency. The extensive literature on the social imaginary draws particular attention to the structural origins of how we understand the world around us and our place within it (see Gaonkar 2002 for an overview of this literature). In this respect, imagination is reflective of particular cultural and historical contexts, and is intrinsic to the reproduction of society (Castoriadis 1987; Taylor 2004). It is therefore the relationship between the social imaginary and society that is important to scholars working in this area. As they present it, societies are self-creating and self-instituting, their constitution taking place in the public sphere (see Castoriadis 1987). The social imaginary, in this rendering, is not the property of the individual, but that of society, structuring how individuals behave and the actions that they choose to undertake, thus framing everyday practices. In particular, as Taylor (2002, 2004) argues, actions, practices and dispositions reflect the moral order that underwrites society; the social imaginary is thoroughly entangled with an ideology about how individuals understand society and their position within it. Action on the basis of the social imaginary both confers legitimacy on the individual and reproduces the moral order. In contrast, Appadurai (1996) approaches imagination from the position of the individual. His argument rests on the idea that, in the contemporary world, imagination has a new role:
. . . the imagination as a social practice. No longer mere fantasy (opium for the masses whose real work is elsewhere), no longer simply escape (from a world defined principally by more concrete purposes and structures), no longer elite pastime (thus not relevant to the lives of ordinary people), and no longer mere contemplation (irrelevant for new forms of desire and subjectivity), the imagination has become an organized field of social practices, a form of work (in the sense of both labor and culturally organized practice), and a form of negotiation between sites of agency (individuals) and globally defined fields of possibility (Appadurai 1996: 3, original italics).

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In this rendering, imagination is an everyday practice constantly at work in the way that people understand and enact their lives. In this respect, Appadurai charges imagination with the potential to bring about social change and social action.

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Imagination thus provides the space for new solidarities to emerge, bringing with them possibilities for empowerment (Appadurai 2002) or new imagined alliances among disenfranchised communities (Theodossopoulos 2009). While I agree with Appadurais positioning of imagination within the everyday life of individuals, and recognise the role that it plays in promoting particular actions, I would posit that he does not account for the cultural framework that might, in part, shape imaginings. Neither, as Ong (1999) argues, does he account for the inequalities of power that may determine whether individuals can act on the basis of their imaginings. The imaginings of my respondents living in the Lot simultaneously reflected wider cultural repertoires about rurality and rural living and were meaningful in the migrants own terms and in relation to their individual circumstances. Furthermore, bringing about the act of migration was possible because of particular privileges*e.g. freedom of movement, relative economic capital*while personal biographies and life histories prompted relocation, with individuals often choosing to turn disadvantage into opportunity. I therefore argue for an understanding of the relationship between imagination and action that takes seriously the influence of wider cultural and historical traditions on our imaginings and understandings of our place in the world, recognises the limits on individual imaginings and the ability to act on these (see also Ong 1999; Smith 2006), while also allowing a role for individual biographies in the production of action. Migration provides a useful lens for exploring the relationship between imagination and action because of the roles that expectations and aspirations for life following migration play in motivating migration; indeed, Appadurai argues that imagination is the wellspring of increased rates of migration (1996: 6). Imagination, in this rendering, incorporates the economic and political logics behind migration alongside cultural drivers. Other authors, too, have argued that collective imaginings of a better way of life, or a possible future, motivate migration (Adams 2004; Thomson 1999; Vigh 2009). This is perhaps the most evident in cases of mass migration*e.g. the perception of the US as a land of plenty that prompted extensive migration from Europe and beyond (Adams 2004). Such imaginings can therefore be considered as circulating among members of particular social worlds and, by extension, cultures. The relationship between such collective imaginings and the act of migration demonstrates the extent to which, as Vigh argues, [m]igration in itself comes to function as a technology of the imagination in which envisioned migratory trajectories open up imagined worlds and possibilities (2009: 105). The act of migration, therefore, becomes a claim to a particular imagined life. Imagination may also play a central role in decisions about where to live (Adams 2004), reflecting a wider understanding whereby imagination results in physical travel (Lengkeek 2001). While the question of how imaginings are produced and their power to mobilise large groups of people has been broadly addressed in the literature, the ethnography presented here demonstrates that there is a need for a more nuanced understanding of how culturally specific imaginings are appropriated by individuals and result in particular actions.

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Structural Conditions Ong (1999) argues, in her critique of Appadurais work, that there is a need to consider the role of wider structural conditions in facilitating or hindering the realisation of imagination. It is therefore important to recognise the historical and material conditions which facilitate lifestyle migration. As Benson and OReilly (2009) argue, lifestyle migration has been made possible by globalisation and its impact on individual mobility. For example, in the case of Britons moving to rural France and other European destinations, the freedom of movement conferred on European citizens to move within the European Union has facilitated such migration trends. However, it is also the case that mass tourism has sparked individual imaginings of the lives they could lead, and the tourist experience often leaves people with a curiosity about how their lives would be if they lived in other places. Once again, the places that people visit are very much determined by the extent to which they exist within the collective imagination, although the number of these is increasing day by day. There is also a need to consider how embodied dispositions are reflected in the act of migration. Smith (2006) argues that it is necessary to consider the relationship between imagination and capital in producing migration, stressing that the realisation of individual imaginings about future lives is intrinsically intertwined with economic considerations and socio-economic status:
[T]he ability to realise a particular idea of oneself is reliant on access to economic resources and powers of symbolic legitimation, neither of which are distributed equitably . . . In this respect certain individuals are much better placed to be successful authors of their own lives than others (2006: 54; italics in original).

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It is therefore undeniable that lifestyle migration is not only made possible by relative affluence in economic terms but may also relate to high levels of cultural capital derived from education, professional skills and cultural knowledge. Of course, it remains questionable whether these are recognisable within the new social environment (see, for example, Olwig 2007; Torresan 2007). However, what is evident is that lifestyle migration results from a wide range of privileges that extend beyond the economic sphere. In this light, lifestyle migration could be considered as a form of privileged travel and movement which, Amit (2007) argues, is characterised more by the middle classes than by the very affluent or the very poor. Such movement is inspired by a range of material and historical conditions, including, but not limited to, greater access to resources and skills that can be put to work in bringing about travel and movement (Torresan 2007); changes to the structures governing migration*e.g. immigration policies oriented towards the highly skilled and welleducated, but also freedom of movement policies (OReilly 2007); changes in corporate structures for conducting overseas work (Kurotani 2007; Malewski 2005); changes in the affordability of travel (Harrison 2003); and the blurring of leisure and work (Rodman 2007).

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Without a doubt, for my respondents in the Lot, the possession of the economic capital to leave Britain and purchase property elsewhere, even at the expense of losing their property and employment in the United Kingdom, was crucial to their migration. But it was also the case that the symbolic capital that they had accumulated as members of the British middle classes gave them the sense that their migration would succeed. Their migration narratives demonstrate that, while they recognised that migration was risky, they initially felt assured of their success. Another interpretation, particularly when considering the significance of rural France and housing aesthetics to the British middle class, is that, through migration, respondents were able to augment their symbolic capital; owning a house in France became a sign of status and prestige (Benson 2011). The recognition of such structural and material conditions gives some insight into the dynamics of migration*the general sociological conditions that make it possible and perhaps explain why it takes place at a particular point in history. However, in order understand the choice of destination, the timing of migration and why some people choose to migrate, there is a need to question the cultural contexts that give rise to migration alongside more personalised circumstances.

Collective Imaginings For my interviewees in the Lot, collective understandings of their destinations and future lives were readily revealed within their migration narratives. In explaining why they had chosen to move to the Lot, they might gesture to the landscape surrounding them, stressing that the natural beauty had prompted their migration: Why are we here? Because its so beautiful (David).1 Equally, they might focus on how caring members of the local community were for one another, describing the local community as just like family (Susan), stressing that they had more value for time, and people and things (Kay), and focusing on the close relationships that people had with one another: [E]veryone knows everyone; everyday dealings are based more on community, sharing things (Pat and Jean). But these images of the life available in the Lot also expressed a sense of nostalgia as though, by moving to the Lot, they had recaptured something of a life lost in Britain. As Simon, a single man in his 40s, explained, Its very much like 1950s/1960s England: our social and cultural norms . . . France represents something weve lost. In this manner, they drew attention to the traditional values that they longed for through their migration. Their readiness to present the French countryside through the well-known trope of the rural idyll reflected a common theme within the migration discourse of urban-torural migrants (Halfacree 1994). In this rendering, La France Profonde is replete with moral solidarity and social cohesion (Rapport 1993). Such collective imaginings of the destination were also reflected in their ambitions for their future lives once living in the Lot. As Alice explained to me, Weve come to France to live in France and be as much French as we can . . . we just love the French way of life, the more laidback life. For others among my respondents, their desires to become part of the community

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were demonstrated through their participation in local activities, making a place for themselves within the social universe of their new neighbours (Benson 2011). As Buller and Hoggart (1994) have argued, British migration to rural France is prompted by a particular cultural framework that promotes rural France as the geographical emplacement of the Arcadian dream: the rural idyll (see also Barou and Prado 1995). This imagining is particular to the British middle class, revealing the class-specific character of this migration trend, a fact reflected in the migrants selfascription to the middle class, and supported by their previous occupational categories. However, it also privileges a cultural explanation for this migration trend, which masks the various other contingencies which lead to migration. As the migrants narratives demonstrate, the desire for the rural idyll reflected their ideas of how society should function, favouring close relationships between members of the community, and fostering a sense of it that was not possible in the UK. As Martin explained to me, back in Britain he had not even known his neighbours; the fence around his house had prevented him from establishing meaningful relationships. In France, by contrast, his neighbours had been curious about the work he had been doing on his house and had regularly stopped by to witness his progress when he was renovating it. In this respect, the focus on culturally specific imaginings here demonstrates that the geographical imagination plays a significant role within the migration decision-making process, driving the decision to migrate to a particular destination that is imagined to uniquely offer a particular way of life. These imaginings additionally circulate through a variety of media, ranging from popular novels (e.g. Peter Mayles 1989 A Year in Provence) to store catalogues, and have become incorporated into the cultural experience of middle-class British nationals (Buller and Hoggart 1994: 127). The cultural significance of the migration destination thus draws attention to the possible limits that imagination may place on an individual. The popular imagining within the middle class of the French countryside as the rural idyll predisposes them to consider moving to France, while they might not consider other possible destinations because they do not have a recognised place*or the place has a bad reputation*within their collective imagination. Indeed, discussing their compatriots living in Spain, my respondents were highly critical of the lives which they led, separated from the native population by language and by enclave living. This was in part a reflection on Spain as a destination, ruined by British tourism and residence, and a subtle criticism of the lives that these other Britons wanted to live, creating a little England in the sun. OReilly (2009) argues that possible destinations are prescribed within the individuals imagination, shaped by fields that include not only class but also nationality and social relations. However, while it is clear that imagination is influenced by these different structural factors, these should not be seen as deterministic but rather as predisposing people to be more likely to consider one particular destination over others, making migration to that location more probable; in other words, there are endless possibilities, but collective imaginings have the effect

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of making some considerably more probable than others. Beyond this, collective representations of the destination recur within the migrants narratives. By drawing attention to these widely recognisable qualities of the places that they have moved to, I argue that my respondents engage in a process of social distinction, whereby they rationalise, justify and legitimate their migration; in other words, imaginings of destinations and future lives act as ballasts in their migration narratives precisely because they are recognisable to the selected audience*friends and family back home and compatriots living within the destination. In this respect, the authentication of their lives following migration relies on their continued position within a social structure that recognises these. Why these imaginings of life in rural France drive some British middle-class actors to migrate still requires systematic investigation. As the evidence presented above demonstrates, the desire for a particular migration destination reflects collective imaginings, while the act of migration requires that individuals have the capital* social, cultural and economic*to undertake a particular move. However, the timing of migration is additionally influenced by personal experiences and forms part of an individualised life trajectory. Indeed, as Halfacree argues in his review of the state of counter-urbanisation research, entwined cultural and personal factors (2008: 489) prompt migration (see also Fielding 1992; Halfacree 2004; Halfacree and Boyle 1993).

Personal Circumstances Versus Individualised Accounts of Migration One of the primary challenges to the study of lifestyle migration is to see beyond the discursive construction of the phenomenon as an individualised event, and interpret such claims within the context of the migrants lives. For my respondents in rural France, the discourse that their migration was unique, that they were pioneers, adventurers, perhaps risk-takers, were prominent but, understood within the context of their lives, it emerged that such narratives were part of their efforts towards social distinction (Benson 2009, 2011). For many scholars, such individualised accounts of migration have been privileged within interpretations, migration resulting from individual agency and choice, with the structural privileges that make migration possible and influence life following migration remaining underplayed, and often only mentioned in passing (see, for example, DAndrea 2007; Bousiou 2008; Korpela 2009a, 2009b). These works reflect a wider subjective turn within the social sciences. The focus on individualised society and the quest for self-improvement that underwrites the subjective turn is undoubtedly appealing. Indeed, the sense of an individual pursuit for betterment was reflected in my respondents narratives as they stressed their pioneering spirit or the adventure of migration. However, it became clear that, in post-migration life, they had not escaped from the conventional social lection,2 but structure in the way that Bousiou (2008) claims of her Mykoniots de instead repositioned themselves within it (Benson 2011). In this respect, it became clear that certain social structures*in particular a middle-class culture*exerted a

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continued influence on the migrants individual actions (Benson 2009). It is thus the case that, while subjective experience and personal choices play an important role in lifestyle migration, there is an apparent need to remain wary of the extent to which individual agency can provide a full explanation for this migration phenomenon. While structural conditions influence the decision to migrate, it is how these are experienced on an individual level that prompted migration, according to Halfacree and Boyle, who examine its situatedness in everyday life (1993: 334). Although many of my respondents articulated a certain watershed moment, a turning point in their lives, that brought about migration*some causal event that prompted their migration*this should be understood as explaining the particular timing of the migration act rather than be taken as a primary explanation for why the migration took place (see also Hoey 2005, 2006; OReilly 2000). Beyond this, there were a range of factors building up to the decision to migrate that were made clear to me over the course of the fieldwork; in many cases, what had been presented initially as the cause of their migration was only the tip of the iceberg. For example, as I got to know them better, my respondents would reveal their political sentiments, referring to how political and economic changes had had an impact on their lives in Britain. The cumulative effect of these changes and their own experiences of them had, in some cases, contributed towards the migration decision. For example, Harold and Min, a couple who had been living in the Lot for 16 years at the time of my research, explained that, while they had dreamed of moving to France for a long time, they had actually realised their ambition when they started to feel increasing dissatisfaction with life in the UK. Their particular complaint was directed toward the Conservative government which was in power at that time, and the changes in working conditions that it had brought about. Importantly, it was the impact of these on Harolds working life that had prompted their migration. When he had been offered voluntary severance, Harold had taken it, and used the redundancy package and his savings to move to France and buy a property. In many ways, taking redundancy, an action that would have been viewed as a disadvantage by many, was actively undertaken by Harold and turned, through his agency, into an opportunity; migration to rural France emerged as a unique way of combating dissatisfaction with his life in Britain. It was not unusual to find such a watershed moment at the core of migration; redundancy, retirement and children leaving home were all presented as factors explaining the timing of migration (see also Hoey 2005, 2006). As Alice explained, she and her husband had been preparing to move to France since the moment when she had started teaching French, but they had waited until we got the children off our hands, leaving the country the day that their youngest child left school. Ron and Sally explained that they had moved out to the Lot within two weeks of Ron retiring from work. And for Alannah and Daniel, the purchase of a house in the Lot was the first home they had bought together; having met later in life when they both already owned property, the house in France represented their new lives together once they had taken early retirement. These examples highlight the need to understand how the

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timing of migration may (or may not) intersect with particular events in the lifecourse of an individual. This has, of course, been demonstrated quite clearly in the association between retirement and migration (King et al. 2000; Oliver 2008) and can be extended into a wider discussion of the decision to migrate. However, through their narratives it became clear that, for all the migrants, lives led before such watershed moments were building up to that point; such moments thus should be understood within the context of the individual biography. In this respect, I take seriously Halfacree and Boyles call for in-depth investigation of the biographies of migrants in order to gain appreciation of the intentions implicated in the migration decision (1993: 343), in order to garner the rich qualitative data that can help us to understand migration as it sits within the trajectory of individual lives. For some of my respondents, it was direct experience of living in France that made them believe that they had the competence to do this long term. For example, Jon rationalised his decision to migrate to rural France by stressing that he had previously lived in the Savoie for six months. Jane, who had studied for an undergraduate degree in French and had taught French back in Britain, explained that, as a student, she had limar. For other migrants, the knowledge and skills of spent a year living in Monte how to live abroad that they had gained through other overseas experiences* through working abroad, as part of the military or through tourism*were presented as a way of justifying migration. Taking tourism as an example demonstrates the extent to which personal experiences helped the migrants to make meaningful wider cultural imaginings in their own terms;3 in other words, through their travels, vicarious understandings of the lives available in rural France were appropriated into their embodied experiences. Such personalisation of cultural imaginings was significant to the decision to migrate, even if the migrants had not previously visited the Lot specifically. In this respect, it was as though many of the migrants were trying to make their holiday experiences into a way of life (see OReilly 2003). For example, one couple I met in the early days of my fieldwork explained that they had been in the Lot for a holiday, and it was this holiday experience that they had sought to recreate through their migration. The fact that this was not possible had then resulted in return to the UK.4 This was concisely encapsulated in the husbands insistence that The log fire is nice, but it doesnt make itself!. For others, repeated travel to and extended stays in rural France were presented as a trial run for their lives in the Lot. Jon and Kay, a couple in their 40s who had given up their jobs in London when they moved to the Lot, had spent the first six months of their life in France living in rented accommodation, explaining to me that this was a deliberate choice, a way of trying out life in France to see if it was what they really wanted. Bob and Mary had owned a second home in the area for 15 years before moving there permanently. They had become close friends with their French neighbours*the friendship had developed to the stage where their neighbours regularly dropped in with plates of fruit or local delicacies for them to try, or invited ritif and dinner, which they reciprocated*which had given them round for an ape

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them the sense that they would be able to live there full-time. In some ways, this example demonstrates the extent to which post-migration experiences can be influenced by contexts of reception, the way in which local social actors accept and welcome migrants to the area. These contexts, it should be remembered, are equally influenced by local needs and expectations (Gosnell and Abrams 2009), which no doubt contain an element of collective imagination. Justine and Robert had also owned a holiday home in the area for 15 years before they moved to live full-time in the Lot. As they explained, I guess we knew what we were coming to. For others who had not had the privilege of owning a holiday home, repeated visits to the same g te also gave them this sense of continuity. For example, Vic and Anne had stayed in the g te owned by Harry and Connie every year of the six leading up their own purchase of property in the Lot. And when they did buy, they chose a house in the next village. As these examples demonstrate, holidays and more-extended stays in rural France served as a way for my respondents to learn more about the life that was available there, building up social relationships with people already living in the area before they made their move more permanent. Nevertheless, it was clear that these prior experiences had only given them a small taste of the life they would lead there in the long run:
Its real life, isnt it? When you go somewhere on holiday and say, Oh, Id love to live here. Its totally different when you actually live here (Jon). When you go abroad, its on holiday, its an association that builds up in peoples minds, understandably. Abroad equals leisure, equals fun, equals, you know, relaxing. So I think that that was a big part of the emotional pull, of going to live abroad . . . the reality is never, of course, like that (David).

So, while tourism gave people a feel for the place, it was only the beginning of a long process of really getting to know how to live in the Lot (see Benson 2011). It is important, however, to recognise that these were post-hoc justifications about their pre-migration lives, and it is entirely possible that they chose particular narratives about these lives that supported their current claims about the improvements in their lives post-migration. In order to translate imagination into lifestyle migration, my respondents in the Lot made the destination, and imaginings of it, meaningful in their own terms. Such appropriation of collective imaginings provided the migrants with further legitimacy, justifying the decision to migrate and their persistent presence in rural France. On the other hand, the migrants further demonstrated the role of capital in allowing their migration; by presenting their experiences of life leading up to migration, they demonstrated the unique cultural competences that they believed had prepared them, to a greater or lesser degree, for life in the Lot. Understandings of how imagination is translated into action therefore need to take into account the process by which the individual is able to take advantage of wider structural conditions and to appropriate cultural predispositions. It is not my intention to suggest that the individual is

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unfettered, and can act according to his or her own free will, but rather to present a more nuanced understanding of how the individual responds to and within the structures of his or her material existence. Conclusion: Converting Imagination into Action It is evident that wider culturally specific imaginings make lifestyle migration an aspiration for many people; indeed, the experiences of those who have undertaken this migration strengthen and reinforce these imaginings. However, to act on the basis of imagination requires that the individuals appropriate such imaginings through their own embodied experiences, transferring these from a vicarious position into social practice. How imagination is translated into migration is one example of the way in which individual action is shaped by certain structural conditions, while also being limited by them. In other words, biographies and experiences may explain how the individual appropriates imagination, but these are in turn themselves shaped by structure. Whether and when people migrate are thus the result of various contingencies coming together at the same time: the embodied interplay of biographies, individual agency, historical and material conditions and, indeed, constraints, as well as culturally significant collective imaginings. Recognising the nuances of my respondents experiences of migration, I have argued that there is a need to be sensitive to the role of structure in framing imaginings, shaping experience and permitting migration for certain individuals. Understanding lifestyle migration as an everyday activity or practice, rather than as something out of the ordinary, allows for a theoretical perspective on lifestyle migration enabling an understanding of migration as the result of the intersections of various cultural and biographical contingencies. The exact nature of the relationship between these is played out in the process of migration and everyday life. What is important is the recognition of the continual interplay between structures and practices and how these are mediated in everyday life. Given that migration research more generally has often developed its own theoretical models, which some claim are weakly connected to general social theory (see Van Hear 2010), I argue that examining migration more thoroughly through the lens of social theory, in particular the continued dialectic between structure and agency, can help to develop our understanding and knowledge of contemporary migrant experiences and their nuances, which might otherwise be lost. Notes
[1] [2] [3] All respondents names are pseudonyms. As Bousiou (2008) described them, this is a group of regular visitors to the island of Mykonos who, over the last 35 years, have formed an alternative community. Lifestyle migration is arguably at the intersection of tourism and migration, blurring the boundaries between the two (Benson 2011: 13) and, while the discussion is pertinent to the examples presented here, there is not the space to do the argument justice. For a

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comprehensive review of the argument, see Williams and Hall (2000); for an account of the relationship between lifestyle migration and tourism, see Benson and OReilly (2009). Although there has been some suggestion that a large proportion of British migrants in France return to the UK (see Buller 2008), this was the only case that I came across during my eldwork.

[4]

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