6 Relying on global privileges
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Marion Repetti
Abstract
This chapter illuminates the ways in which retirement migrants can be both precarious and privileged. Transnationalism is central to understanding the local and global structures of retirement migration, and it is also shaped by global inequalities. First, citizens of the Global North are not all equally able to live transnationally because they have uneven possibilities to benefit from their retirement pensions and health insurance in the country of migration. Second, North–South migrants make use of global power relations rooted in postcolonial structures to bolster their socio-economic status at the expense of the local population. We begin this chapter by showing how our interviewees’ citizenship statuses allow them to move with relative ease between their home and host countries, as well as elsewhere. We then discuss the role that low-cost means of transportation and communication play in retirement migrants’ ability to engage in transnationalism. We highlight how global inequalities enable them to achieve better socio-economic positions while residing in poorer regions of the world. Finally, we explore the tensions that emerge from the participants’ experiences of migration, which reveal how local and global power relations intertwine in these contexts.
Abstract
This chapter illuminates the ways in which retirement migrants can be both precarious and privileged. Transnationalism is central to understanding the local and global structures of retirement migration, and it is also shaped by global inequalities. First, citizens of the Global North are not all equally able to live transnationally because they have uneven possibilities to benefit from their retirement pensions and health insurance in the country of migration. Second, North–South migrants make use of global power relations rooted in postcolonial structures to bolster their socio-economic status at the expense of the local population. We begin this chapter by showing how our interviewees’ citizenship statuses allow them to move with relative ease between their home and host countries, as well as elsewhere. We then discuss the role that low-cost means of transportation and communication play in retirement migrants’ ability to engage in transnationalism. We highlight how global inequalities enable them to achieve better socio-economic positions while residing in poorer regions of the world. Finally, we explore the tensions that emerge from the participants’ experiences of migration, which reveal how local and global power relations intertwine in these contexts.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Series editors’ preface iv
- List of tables vi
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- Retirement migration 13
- Precarity and the welfare state in home and host countries 28
- Escaping economic precarity 46
- Escaping ageism 67
- Relying on global privileges 89
- Health and assistance precarity in later life 104
- Retirement migration, precarity and age 118
- Notes 131
- References 132
- Index 146
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Series editors’ preface iv
- List of tables vi
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- Retirement migration 13
- Precarity and the welfare state in home and host countries 28
- Escaping economic precarity 46
- Escaping ageism 67
- Relying on global privileges 89
- Health and assistance precarity in later life 104
- Retirement migration, precarity and age 118
- Notes 131
- References 132
- Index 146
