Fourteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

In drawing from a small-scale research project focused upon British lifestyle migrants on the island of Mallorca (Spain), this paper explores the role which past holidays have in informing dreams of migrating and future imagined lives. The paper discusses the importance of visual, olfactory, and auditory senses in shaping embodied touristic experiences and emotive responses that influence decisions to migrate and everyday migrant practices in Mallorca. The paper moves forward the limited debates that have focused on how lifestyle migrants embody experiences and meanings of place and ‘otherness’ within their mobilities and the new lives that they seek. Through its focus on British lifestyle migrants, the paper draws attention to the relatively easy global mobilities of wealthy citizens within and between European nations, standing in stark contrast to the difficult and uncertain migration routes of non-EU citizens wishing to enter into the European Union.