Working and retiring in sunny Spain: Lifestyle migration further explored

Abstract

Spanish tourism destinations have received immigrant workers and retirees from Western and Northern Europe since the sixties. In this paper we focus on the specific group of the retirees who had worked previously in Spain with the objective to quantify them, to interpret the reasons why they migrated and have remained in the Spanish tourism areas, and to acknowledge the relationship between tourism and migration in this context. The empirical research is based on the combination of quantitative and qualitative information. In particular, we have used official statistical sources, semi-structured in-depth interviews and the micro-data from the National Immigrant Survey (ENI) and the Continuous Sample of Labour Life (MCVL). The method used is a mix of transversal and longitudinal analysis revealing that, despite the difficulties to quantity the studied group, labour motivations must be put into question and the role of tourism becomes the core of the explanation of the migration process.