Matthew Hayes is Professor of Sociology and Canada Research Chair in Global and International Studies at St. Thomas University (Canada). His current research explores the cultural and material effects of inherited social inequalities on a global scale. Address: Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
Gringolandia es el nombre de un barrio en la ciudad de Cuenca, Ecuador. Se lo ha bautizado así po... more Gringolandia es el nombre de un barrio en la ciudad de Cuenca, Ecuador. Se lo ha bautizado así por los migrantes estadounidenses que se han instalado en la llamada “Atenas del Ecuador”. Matthew Hayes construye una etnografía de esa migración de Norte a Sur en tiempos de la globalización. Dibuja el perfil del estadounidense medio cuyo retiro laboral le permite vivir mejor en el país andino que en su país natal. Si la migración Sur-Norte es más bien motivada por las urgencias económicas y las necesidades laborales, la migración Norte-Sur, de acuerdo a lo que escribe Hayes, tiene que ver más con el estilo de vida, el new deal en el cual los ahorros de la vida laboral de los estadounidenses rinden más y pueden facilitar nuevas experiencias a sus protagonistas.
Este libro explora la desigualdad global y las relaciones sociales transnacionales que se dan en un contexto marcado por una historia de explotación colonial y acumulación desigual. Los norteamericanos en Ecuador interactúan con este legado y tratan de lidiar con él. Estas vidas transnacionalizadas se interconectan con las relaciones sociales existentes en Ecuador, que están impregnadas de sus propias tradiciones de colonialismo interno y dominación epistémica.
The book explores the migration of North Americans to the south American city of Cuenca, Ecuador.... more The book explores the migration of North Americans to the south American city of Cuenca, Ecuador. It challenges migration scholarship to consider these North-South migration flows as part of global migrations, which are governed in highly unequal ways, reproducing the coloniality of an unequal, global political economy. These mostly white, middle class migrants from Canada and the US have very different migrant experiences than those of other migrants, caught up in the so-called “migration crisis.” Gringolandia explores the motivations and imaginaries of North American migrants in Latin America, and situates them in the complex social relations and history of southern Ecuador.
Cuenca is Ecuador’s third-largest city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Canadians and US citizens began relocating there after the 2008 economic crisis. Most are self-professed “economic refugees” who sought offshore retirement, affordable medical care, and/or a lower–cost location. Others, however, sought adventure marked by relocation to an unfamiliar cultural environment and to experience personal growth through travel, illustrative of contemporary cultures of aging. These life projects are often motivated by a desire to escape economic and political conditions in North America.
Regardless of their individual motivations, these North–South migrants remain embedded in unequal and unfair global social relations. The book explores the repercussions on the host country—from rising prices for land and rent to the reproduction of colonial patterns of domination and subordination. It also situates the incorporation of North Americans against the backdrop of historically unequal social relations within Ecuador - particularly elite reliance on a large, informal workforce that supports their relatively higher living standards. In Ecuador, heritage preservation and tourism development reflect the interests and culture of European-descendent landowning elites, who have most to benefit from the new North–South migration. In the process, they participate in transnational gentrification that marginalizes popular traditions and nonwhite mestizo and indigenous informal workers.
The contrast between the migration experiences of North Americans in Ecuador and those of Ecuadorians or others from such regions of the Global South in North America and Europe demonstrates that, in fact, what we face is not so much a global “migration crisis” but a crisis of global justice.
La financiarización de la vivienda es central para comprender el desarrollo urbano y los procesos... more La financiarización de la vivienda es central para comprender el desarrollo urbano y los procesos de gentrificación transnacional en el Sur Global. La ciudad de Cuenca es un caso emblemático, debido a sus altos niveles de gentrificación y de población migrante. Por un lado, “Gringolandia”, un barrio central poblado por jubilados norteamericanos con precios crecientes; por el otro, las remesas provenientes de la histórica emigración desde el sur del Ecuador, invertidas en la construcción en partes claves de la ciudad. Ambos fenómenos han generado una burbuja inmobiliaria con viviendas casi inaccesibles a población local. En base a un extenso trabajo etnográfico (2011-2020), este artículo argumenta que la vivienda en Cuenca está siendo apropiada por grupos transnacionales con más poder adquisitivo. Este proceso ha sido fomentado por políticas basadas en la financiarización de la vivienda y titulización de hipotecas, en base al aprovechamiento de las remesas y ahorros de jubilados norteamericanos.
Matthew Hayes examines how older adult migrants to Essaouira, Morocco, make sense of and give mea... more Matthew Hayes examines how older adult migrants to Essaouira, Morocco, make sense of and give meaning to perceptions of material inequality and difference that are part of their day-to-day lives. He focuses on one particular cultural narrative which shows that one way retirees from Europe make sense of global-scale inequalities in their everyday lives in Essaouira is by switching between cultural codes that refer to material inequality and hardship, on the one hand, and essentialized cultures of work and consumerism, on the other hand. He demonstrates that by accounting for material inequalities through narratives about culture, lifestyle migrants mark distance between themselves and other global migrants. The effect, he argues, is the reproduction of a form of epistemic coloniality, which helps to stabilize global hierarchies that might otherwise be challenged through relational sociology.
This chapter explores lifestyle migration from the vantage point of a global sociology of migrati... more This chapter explores lifestyle migration from the vantage point of a global sociology of migration. It picks up strands of the transnational approach to migration studies, and asks what other concepts and concerns emerge when lifestyle migration is added to our picture of global migrations. The chapter explores how the self-understanding and place representations of North-South migration, often studied in lifestyle migration scholarship, reflect global inequalities. Drawing on Bourdieu s field theory, the chapter develops some key concepts for lifestyle migration scholars to think with, concepts that allow us to locate self-projects, identities, emotions and place representations in global social space. The chapter also reflects on the role of a critical, public sociological approach that lifestyle migration may be able to develop towards lifestyle migration and global inequality.
The article explores the binary cultural codes by which Canadian and American retirement migrants... more The article explores the binary cultural codes by which Canadian and American retirement migrants make sense of their ageing process in Cuenca, Ecuador. The article is based on 83 semi-structured qualitative interviews (11 of which are follow-up interviews), most conducted in the first half of the 2010s. I explore how notions of finite time and imaginaries of a fourth age of decline and death inform the migration decisions and imaginaries of Canadian and American retirement migrants. I argue that their desire to seek self-expansive, new experiences through migration and contact with cultural difference dialogues with an increasingly competitive neoliberal culture of ageing, that emphasizes success through activity, youthfulness and consumption. While there are certainly other ideals that help inform North American migration to Ecuador, I argue that these particular ideals illustrate how discourses of "active ageing" have been taken up "from below," by ageing North American adults, many of whom identify with the aspirations of policy and corporate discourses of activity and success, but who find themselves ageing into material conditions that preclude them. Migration to a lower-cost country, like Ecuador, helps them to experience these aspirations more positively, but may have uneven effects on lower-income workers and their ability to remain in place in the communities marketed for this type of migration. Keywords: active ageing; successful ageing; international retirement migration; cultures of ageing Experiences of travel and migration in the third age speak powerfully to cultural ideals of ageing, which are shifting after a generation of neoliberal restructuring. While retirement migration has been noted for some time, and international destinations-especially in Europe-have received considerable academic attention, the growing movement of North American retirees to destinations in Central and South America is relatively new. In part, this is the result of declining retirement security and growing inequality within the United States and Canada-though no doubt, it is also furthered by real estate and marketing companies, who have sought out "new frontiers" of accumulation in lower-cost regions. It hints at a new type of international retirement migration, linked to an unequal global political economy-one that articulates new styles of ageing and new regimes of migration and transnational mobility. The focus of this article is on the cultural codes that international retirement migrants in Ecuador use to make sense of their ageing process.
This introduction to the special issue introduces the contributors' articles, and also identifies... more This introduction to the special issue introduces the contributors' articles, and also identifies key themes relating to how increased transnational mobility has affected urbanization processes in many cities, resulting in the globalization of rent gaps. Local real estate investors and transnational investors seek to attract higher-income lifestyle migrants and tourists to their urban spaces in order to increase their exchange value, however, in the process, reduce their use value to lower-income residents. The introduction notes that the acceleration of lifestyle mobilities through urban spaces, and the development of transnational lifestyles of urban place consumption, has produced new forms of gentrification-not merely the spread of an urban strategy to new cities, but the planetarization of rent gaps. Transnational gentrification is the form of contemporary urbanization that occurs as a result of closing these rent gaps through attraction of higher income, transnational migrants, often from high-income countries in North Europe and North America.
The article analyses heritage conservation and urban upgrading in Cuenca, Ecuador in order to ref... more The article analyses heritage conservation and urban upgrading in Cuenca, Ecuador in order to reflect on global inequality and rights to the city at the crossroads of transnational lifestyle mobilities and the globalization of real estate markets. Processes of gentrification in Cuenca reproduce colonial social relations and marginalize the popular economic activities of informal vendors. Under the auspices of UNESCO World Heritage designation, the Inter-American Development Bank and successive municipal governments have sought to increase property values in the historic El Centro neighbourhood. Rather than relying on a local middle-class return to the city, heritage urban upgrading in Cuenca is dependent on higher-income global middle classes attracted to the city’s historic urbanism. The subsequent higher-income appropriation of urban improvements takes the form of dispossession of use and exchange values of lower-income groups, especially of informal vendors.
Comercio Tradicional y Ciudades Contemporáneas, 2019
El capitulo presenta resultados de investigación sobre el mercado informal de vendedores a la pla... more El capitulo presenta resultados de investigación sobre el mercado informal de vendedores a la plaza San Francisco en Cuenca, Ecuador. La investigación fue hecha entre 2015-2019.
This paper looks at the concern North Americans express about the impact their relatively higher ... more This paper looks at the concern North Americans express about the impact their relatively higher incomes are having on lower income workers in Cuenca, Ecuador. North Americans who retire to Cuenca often perceive their impact to be minimal or benign, yet a large amount of discussion within the community of “expat” migrants is about different ways North Americans are affecting the local economy, and how to minimise these impacts. Of particular concern is the racialised price system that migrants perceive to be in effect. North Americans racialise their economic impact, seeing “gringo pricing”, rather than their higher incomes, as a threat to the receiving community. Participants evoked moral codes to discuss price levels, and sought to diminish their impact – not merely out of concern for Ecuadorians who might be displaced by higher prices, but out of a sense of ruining the authenticity of Cuenca, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
This article develops an empirical study of the cosmopolitan ideals of North American lifestyle m... more This article develops an empirical study of the cosmopolitan ideals of North American lifestyle migrants in Cuenca, Ecuador. It is meant as a corrective to existing studies, which often perceive cosmopolitanism to be a disposition, worldview or cultural condition, but miss the importance of transnational and cosmopolitan cultural beliefs that emerge in novel ways within the new cultural fields constituted by lifestyle migration and that may significantly reconfigure status and economic class relations. In addition, it extends our empirical knowledge of North American cultural codes as they migrate to an international setting. North Americans in Ecuador express desire for cross-cultural contact and integration, and demonstrate this through a number of practices that serve to demarcate legitimate from illegitimate forms of transnational mobility. This legitimate form of transnationalism is painted in sharp relief from the profane 'obnoxious gringo,' who 'should go back where they came from.' These discourses emerge from North American cultural beliefs about travel and transnationalism, as well as from North American attitudes towards migration from developing countries to the United States and Canada.
This chapter explores the constitution of the economy as an object of government in the United St... more This chapter explores the constitution of the economy as an object of government in the United States and Great Britain in the early twentieth century. Drawing on the work of Timothy Mitchell, Michel Callon, and Donald MacKenzie, it explores the interaction of economic ideas with economic structures. I contend that one of the keys to the governability of the economy was the elaboration of an intellectual architecture that focused on what have come to be known as “business cycles”. Of particular importance are the technocratic patterns of economic government consequent of the manner in which state intervention in the economy and its potential moral consequences on society were conceived in the early twentieth century. A return to this terrain can help critical sociologists better understand how economic government can be opened to alternative social and political projects
The last decade has witnessed the remarkable rise of North-South migration, often motivated by th... more The last decade has witnessed the remarkable rise of North-South migration, often motivated by the increase in unemployment and financial insecurity in developed countries in the Global North. This article compares two such migrant populations in relation to one another: the lifestyle or retirement migration of North Americans, and the labour migration of skilled workers from Spain—both to destinations in Ecuador. The article draws on research results from two separate studies, and analyses north-south relocation as a type of social safety net for relatively privileged citizens of developed countries. North-South migrations at different phases of the life cycle demonstrate a systemic edge between late capitalist inclusion and expulsion, marked by asymmetries that reflect global inequalities. The decline of institutions that favoured social inclusion helps produce North-South migrations that unevenly affect the lives of people living in developing countries.
Hayes, M and Tello, M. (2016) ‘En la tierra de los hacendados: migración de amenidad y reproducci... more Hayes, M and Tello, M. (2016) ‘En la tierra de los hacendados: migración de amenidad y reproducción de desigualdades locales y globales en Vilcabamba, Ecuador.’ PASOS Edita 16: 99-118.
The article explores North American lifestyle migration to Vilcabamba, Ecuador. The research is based on three field site visits between 2013 and 2015, and encompasses qualitative interviews with lifestyle migrants and members of the receiving community. Real estate and tourism development in Vilcabamba is related to a history of unequal access to land, and a flawed land reform process. The paper explores the pattern of lifestyle migration settlement, which is related to the land reform process of the 1970s.
This is the introduction to a special issue on amenity and lifestyle migration to locations in La... more This is the introduction to a special issue on amenity and lifestyle migration to locations in Latin America published by the Journal of Latin American Geography. It situates case studies of Latin American amenity and lifestyle migration against the backdrop of a growing tourism and lifestyle migration industry which cultivates the transnational mobility of global middle classes, often at the expense of the environment and less mobile, local residents of receiving communities. It also describes each contribution to the special issue.
In lieu of abstract, a portion of the content:
This special issue of the Journal of Latin American Geography draws attention to the growth of migration from developed countries in the Global North to locations in Latin America. While not as significant in numerical terms as the migratory flow from South to North, it nonetheless has the potential to dramatically effect socio-spatial relations and landscapes in receiving destinations (cf. Janoschka 2009; Rainer and Malizia 2014; Spalding 2013a). What is often referred to as lifestyle or amenity migration has been studied using different conceptual terminology to mark the variety of different forms of such migration (cf. Haas, Janoschka and Rodríguez 2014; Huete, Mantecón and Estévez 2013; Croucher and Lizarraga in this special issue). Lifestyle and amenity migrants relocate in order to take advantage of landscapes, climate, or lifestyles within the destinations they move to, and that they hope will enable them to live more fulfilling lives. Often, these forms of mobility are conceptualized along a continuum between tourism and migration (Janoschka and Haas 2014b), and they are generally perceived as being ‘privileged’ (Amit 2007; Croucher 2012), or more ‘agentic’ forms of transnational movement (O’Reilly 2012).
Just as transnational tourism has significantly increased in developing countries (the UNWTO estimates that international entries in developing countries has doubled since 2000), so too a growing number of individuals have sought to relocate permanently or semi-permanently to developing countries, many in Central and South America. While most do so in order to improve their quality of life, or in order to consume exoticized or idyllicized landscapes, not all migrate explicitly for leisure purposes. As previous studies have pointed out (cf. Huete, Mantecón and Estévez 2013), many migrants relocating to tourism and amenity hotspots do so in order to work (Stone and Stubbs 2007).
Migration is, of course, not new to geographers and social scientists working on and in Latin America. But whether the focus of analysis is on sending or receiving communities, these studies almost always discuss migration from Latin America to the United States, Canada and other locations in the Global North (cf. Chávez-Arellano 2014; Herrera 2003, 2011; Izcara 2012; Klooster 2013; Nava-Tablada 2013; Otterstrom and Tillman 2013; Radel and Schmook 2008; Yarnall and Price 2010). In recent years, migration scholars, especially from Latin America, have produced important work on South-South migration, or migration between developing countries, at times with the deliberate intention of challenging the analytical dominance of South-North migration flows (cf. Cerruti and Parrado 2015; Stefoni 2013; Torres and Hidalgo 2009). Until recently, relatively little attention had been drawn to lifestyle and amenity migration within the Americas, a flow moving mainly from North to South. Yet, as recent studies suggest, migration of North Americans to destinations in Latin America will likely increase (Dixon, Murray and Gelatt 2006; Kiy and McEnany 2010; Rojas, LeBlanc and Sunil 2014), particularly given economic and cultural transformations among the baby boomer generation, now entering retirement. Indeed, while cultural changes are important, it is worth noting that the 2008 financial crisis produced new types of lifestyle mobility, particularly for retirees who have seen savings plummet as a result of the crisis (Hayes 2015). Thus, lifestyle mobilities may also be motivated by economic factors, challenging some of the foundations upon which distinctions are drawn between lifestyle migrants and labour migrants (cf. Matossian, Zebryte and Zunino 2014).
Abstract:
The article addresses lifestyle migration from the Global North to the rural valley ... more Abstract:
The article addresses lifestyle migration from the Global North to the rural valley of Vilcabamba, Ecuador. The life projects of these lifestyle migrants are individualist and utilitarian, yet they also participate in the social relations of the receiving location, where they reproduce historic inequalities. The analysis focuses on the social relations of property and land, and links contemporary real estate construction to the historic control of land and labour power by powerful landowning elites.
Resumen:
El artículo trata la migración de estilo de vida del norte global al valle rural de Vilcabamba en el sur de Ecuador. Los proyectos de vida de los migrantes son individualistas y utilitaristas, a pesar de ello, participan en relaciones sociales de dominación y subordinación en el lugar receptor, donde se reproducen desigualdades históricas. El análisis se centra en las relaciones sociales de la propiedad de la tierra. Los grandes terratenientes promueven la construcción de urbanizaciones para extranjeros y turistas, lo que reproduce sus intereses históricos en el valle, así como el desplazamiento de la población obrera.
This paper explores the identities that North American lifestyle migrants in Ecuador adopt as the... more This paper explores the identities that North American lifestyle migrants in Ecuador adopt as they adjust to life in a new racialized social environment. It is based on qualitative interviews with migrants from North America, as well as ethnographic field notes. North Americans describe their growing community in racialized terms and adopt a series of practices that demonstrate anxiety about their position in the racialized social order of Ecuador. The paper discusses the strategies that North American migrants engage in to diminish the importance of their racialized identities in Ecuador. I identify two main practices that complicate North American incorporation in Ecuador: self-policing practices that aim to optimize Ecuadorians' perceptions of them; and desires for integration and ethnic mobility, which seek to erase their ‘Otherness’.
The article is based on qualitative interviews with lifestyle migrants from North America to Cuen... more The article is based on qualitative interviews with lifestyle migrants from North America to Cuenca, Ecuador. It attempts to further the understanding of transnational migration scholars of the structural contexts that influence lifestyle migration decisions and agency. In 2009, Cuenca was selected by international lifestyle marketer International Living as the best retirement destination in the world, largely based on a methodology that privileges low real estate and living costs. Since then, perhaps as many as 5000 North Americans have moved to the city. North Americans in Cuenca report economic motivation as a major reason for their move, and report making those decisions against a backdrop of economic and financial insecurity. The article argues that they are economic migrants, even as their relatively higher spending power has economic consequences for receiving communities like Cuenca.
Gringolandia es el nombre de un barrio en la ciudad de Cuenca, Ecuador. Se lo ha bautizado así po... more Gringolandia es el nombre de un barrio en la ciudad de Cuenca, Ecuador. Se lo ha bautizado así por los migrantes estadounidenses que se han instalado en la llamada “Atenas del Ecuador”. Matthew Hayes construye una etnografía de esa migración de Norte a Sur en tiempos de la globalización. Dibuja el perfil del estadounidense medio cuyo retiro laboral le permite vivir mejor en el país andino que en su país natal. Si la migración Sur-Norte es más bien motivada por las urgencias económicas y las necesidades laborales, la migración Norte-Sur, de acuerdo a lo que escribe Hayes, tiene que ver más con el estilo de vida, el new deal en el cual los ahorros de la vida laboral de los estadounidenses rinden más y pueden facilitar nuevas experiencias a sus protagonistas.
Este libro explora la desigualdad global y las relaciones sociales transnacionales que se dan en un contexto marcado por una historia de explotación colonial y acumulación desigual. Los norteamericanos en Ecuador interactúan con este legado y tratan de lidiar con él. Estas vidas transnacionalizadas se interconectan con las relaciones sociales existentes en Ecuador, que están impregnadas de sus propias tradiciones de colonialismo interno y dominación epistémica.
The book explores the migration of North Americans to the south American city of Cuenca, Ecuador.... more The book explores the migration of North Americans to the south American city of Cuenca, Ecuador. It challenges migration scholarship to consider these North-South migration flows as part of global migrations, which are governed in highly unequal ways, reproducing the coloniality of an unequal, global political economy. These mostly white, middle class migrants from Canada and the US have very different migrant experiences than those of other migrants, caught up in the so-called “migration crisis.” Gringolandia explores the motivations and imaginaries of North American migrants in Latin America, and situates them in the complex social relations and history of southern Ecuador.
Cuenca is Ecuador’s third-largest city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Canadians and US citizens began relocating there after the 2008 economic crisis. Most are self-professed “economic refugees” who sought offshore retirement, affordable medical care, and/or a lower–cost location. Others, however, sought adventure marked by relocation to an unfamiliar cultural environment and to experience personal growth through travel, illustrative of contemporary cultures of aging. These life projects are often motivated by a desire to escape economic and political conditions in North America.
Regardless of their individual motivations, these North–South migrants remain embedded in unequal and unfair global social relations. The book explores the repercussions on the host country—from rising prices for land and rent to the reproduction of colonial patterns of domination and subordination. It also situates the incorporation of North Americans against the backdrop of historically unequal social relations within Ecuador - particularly elite reliance on a large, informal workforce that supports their relatively higher living standards. In Ecuador, heritage preservation and tourism development reflect the interests and culture of European-descendent landowning elites, who have most to benefit from the new North–South migration. In the process, they participate in transnational gentrification that marginalizes popular traditions and nonwhite mestizo and indigenous informal workers.
The contrast between the migration experiences of North Americans in Ecuador and those of Ecuadorians or others from such regions of the Global South in North America and Europe demonstrates that, in fact, what we face is not so much a global “migration crisis” but a crisis of global justice.
La financiarización de la vivienda es central para comprender el desarrollo urbano y los procesos... more La financiarización de la vivienda es central para comprender el desarrollo urbano y los procesos de gentrificación transnacional en el Sur Global. La ciudad de Cuenca es un caso emblemático, debido a sus altos niveles de gentrificación y de población migrante. Por un lado, “Gringolandia”, un barrio central poblado por jubilados norteamericanos con precios crecientes; por el otro, las remesas provenientes de la histórica emigración desde el sur del Ecuador, invertidas en la construcción en partes claves de la ciudad. Ambos fenómenos han generado una burbuja inmobiliaria con viviendas casi inaccesibles a población local. En base a un extenso trabajo etnográfico (2011-2020), este artículo argumenta que la vivienda en Cuenca está siendo apropiada por grupos transnacionales con más poder adquisitivo. Este proceso ha sido fomentado por políticas basadas en la financiarización de la vivienda y titulización de hipotecas, en base al aprovechamiento de las remesas y ahorros de jubilados norteamericanos.
Matthew Hayes examines how older adult migrants to Essaouira, Morocco, make sense of and give mea... more Matthew Hayes examines how older adult migrants to Essaouira, Morocco, make sense of and give meaning to perceptions of material inequality and difference that are part of their day-to-day lives. He focuses on one particular cultural narrative which shows that one way retirees from Europe make sense of global-scale inequalities in their everyday lives in Essaouira is by switching between cultural codes that refer to material inequality and hardship, on the one hand, and essentialized cultures of work and consumerism, on the other hand. He demonstrates that by accounting for material inequalities through narratives about culture, lifestyle migrants mark distance between themselves and other global migrants. The effect, he argues, is the reproduction of a form of epistemic coloniality, which helps to stabilize global hierarchies that might otherwise be challenged through relational sociology.
This chapter explores lifestyle migration from the vantage point of a global sociology of migrati... more This chapter explores lifestyle migration from the vantage point of a global sociology of migration. It picks up strands of the transnational approach to migration studies, and asks what other concepts and concerns emerge when lifestyle migration is added to our picture of global migrations. The chapter explores how the self-understanding and place representations of North-South migration, often studied in lifestyle migration scholarship, reflect global inequalities. Drawing on Bourdieu s field theory, the chapter develops some key concepts for lifestyle migration scholars to think with, concepts that allow us to locate self-projects, identities, emotions and place representations in global social space. The chapter also reflects on the role of a critical, public sociological approach that lifestyle migration may be able to develop towards lifestyle migration and global inequality.
The article explores the binary cultural codes by which Canadian and American retirement migrants... more The article explores the binary cultural codes by which Canadian and American retirement migrants make sense of their ageing process in Cuenca, Ecuador. The article is based on 83 semi-structured qualitative interviews (11 of which are follow-up interviews), most conducted in the first half of the 2010s. I explore how notions of finite time and imaginaries of a fourth age of decline and death inform the migration decisions and imaginaries of Canadian and American retirement migrants. I argue that their desire to seek self-expansive, new experiences through migration and contact with cultural difference dialogues with an increasingly competitive neoliberal culture of ageing, that emphasizes success through activity, youthfulness and consumption. While there are certainly other ideals that help inform North American migration to Ecuador, I argue that these particular ideals illustrate how discourses of "active ageing" have been taken up "from below," by ageing North American adults, many of whom identify with the aspirations of policy and corporate discourses of activity and success, but who find themselves ageing into material conditions that preclude them. Migration to a lower-cost country, like Ecuador, helps them to experience these aspirations more positively, but may have uneven effects on lower-income workers and their ability to remain in place in the communities marketed for this type of migration. Keywords: active ageing; successful ageing; international retirement migration; cultures of ageing Experiences of travel and migration in the third age speak powerfully to cultural ideals of ageing, which are shifting after a generation of neoliberal restructuring. While retirement migration has been noted for some time, and international destinations-especially in Europe-have received considerable academic attention, the growing movement of North American retirees to destinations in Central and South America is relatively new. In part, this is the result of declining retirement security and growing inequality within the United States and Canada-though no doubt, it is also furthered by real estate and marketing companies, who have sought out "new frontiers" of accumulation in lower-cost regions. It hints at a new type of international retirement migration, linked to an unequal global political economy-one that articulates new styles of ageing and new regimes of migration and transnational mobility. The focus of this article is on the cultural codes that international retirement migrants in Ecuador use to make sense of their ageing process.
This introduction to the special issue introduces the contributors' articles, and also identifies... more This introduction to the special issue introduces the contributors' articles, and also identifies key themes relating to how increased transnational mobility has affected urbanization processes in many cities, resulting in the globalization of rent gaps. Local real estate investors and transnational investors seek to attract higher-income lifestyle migrants and tourists to their urban spaces in order to increase their exchange value, however, in the process, reduce their use value to lower-income residents. The introduction notes that the acceleration of lifestyle mobilities through urban spaces, and the development of transnational lifestyles of urban place consumption, has produced new forms of gentrification-not merely the spread of an urban strategy to new cities, but the planetarization of rent gaps. Transnational gentrification is the form of contemporary urbanization that occurs as a result of closing these rent gaps through attraction of higher income, transnational migrants, often from high-income countries in North Europe and North America.
The article analyses heritage conservation and urban upgrading in Cuenca, Ecuador in order to ref... more The article analyses heritage conservation and urban upgrading in Cuenca, Ecuador in order to reflect on global inequality and rights to the city at the crossroads of transnational lifestyle mobilities and the globalization of real estate markets. Processes of gentrification in Cuenca reproduce colonial social relations and marginalize the popular economic activities of informal vendors. Under the auspices of UNESCO World Heritage designation, the Inter-American Development Bank and successive municipal governments have sought to increase property values in the historic El Centro neighbourhood. Rather than relying on a local middle-class return to the city, heritage urban upgrading in Cuenca is dependent on higher-income global middle classes attracted to the city’s historic urbanism. The subsequent higher-income appropriation of urban improvements takes the form of dispossession of use and exchange values of lower-income groups, especially of informal vendors.
Comercio Tradicional y Ciudades Contemporáneas, 2019
El capitulo presenta resultados de investigación sobre el mercado informal de vendedores a la pla... more El capitulo presenta resultados de investigación sobre el mercado informal de vendedores a la plaza San Francisco en Cuenca, Ecuador. La investigación fue hecha entre 2015-2019.
This paper looks at the concern North Americans express about the impact their relatively higher ... more This paper looks at the concern North Americans express about the impact their relatively higher incomes are having on lower income workers in Cuenca, Ecuador. North Americans who retire to Cuenca often perceive their impact to be minimal or benign, yet a large amount of discussion within the community of “expat” migrants is about different ways North Americans are affecting the local economy, and how to minimise these impacts. Of particular concern is the racialised price system that migrants perceive to be in effect. North Americans racialise their economic impact, seeing “gringo pricing”, rather than their higher incomes, as a threat to the receiving community. Participants evoked moral codes to discuss price levels, and sought to diminish their impact – not merely out of concern for Ecuadorians who might be displaced by higher prices, but out of a sense of ruining the authenticity of Cuenca, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
This article develops an empirical study of the cosmopolitan ideals of North American lifestyle m... more This article develops an empirical study of the cosmopolitan ideals of North American lifestyle migrants in Cuenca, Ecuador. It is meant as a corrective to existing studies, which often perceive cosmopolitanism to be a disposition, worldview or cultural condition, but miss the importance of transnational and cosmopolitan cultural beliefs that emerge in novel ways within the new cultural fields constituted by lifestyle migration and that may significantly reconfigure status and economic class relations. In addition, it extends our empirical knowledge of North American cultural codes as they migrate to an international setting. North Americans in Ecuador express desire for cross-cultural contact and integration, and demonstrate this through a number of practices that serve to demarcate legitimate from illegitimate forms of transnational mobility. This legitimate form of transnationalism is painted in sharp relief from the profane 'obnoxious gringo,' who 'should go back where they came from.' These discourses emerge from North American cultural beliefs about travel and transnationalism, as well as from North American attitudes towards migration from developing countries to the United States and Canada.
This chapter explores the constitution of the economy as an object of government in the United St... more This chapter explores the constitution of the economy as an object of government in the United States and Great Britain in the early twentieth century. Drawing on the work of Timothy Mitchell, Michel Callon, and Donald MacKenzie, it explores the interaction of economic ideas with economic structures. I contend that one of the keys to the governability of the economy was the elaboration of an intellectual architecture that focused on what have come to be known as “business cycles”. Of particular importance are the technocratic patterns of economic government consequent of the manner in which state intervention in the economy and its potential moral consequences on society were conceived in the early twentieth century. A return to this terrain can help critical sociologists better understand how economic government can be opened to alternative social and political projects
The last decade has witnessed the remarkable rise of North-South migration, often motivated by th... more The last decade has witnessed the remarkable rise of North-South migration, often motivated by the increase in unemployment and financial insecurity in developed countries in the Global North. This article compares two such migrant populations in relation to one another: the lifestyle or retirement migration of North Americans, and the labour migration of skilled workers from Spain—both to destinations in Ecuador. The article draws on research results from two separate studies, and analyses north-south relocation as a type of social safety net for relatively privileged citizens of developed countries. North-South migrations at different phases of the life cycle demonstrate a systemic edge between late capitalist inclusion and expulsion, marked by asymmetries that reflect global inequalities. The decline of institutions that favoured social inclusion helps produce North-South migrations that unevenly affect the lives of people living in developing countries.
Hayes, M and Tello, M. (2016) ‘En la tierra de los hacendados: migración de amenidad y reproducci... more Hayes, M and Tello, M. (2016) ‘En la tierra de los hacendados: migración de amenidad y reproducción de desigualdades locales y globales en Vilcabamba, Ecuador.’ PASOS Edita 16: 99-118.
The article explores North American lifestyle migration to Vilcabamba, Ecuador. The research is based on three field site visits between 2013 and 2015, and encompasses qualitative interviews with lifestyle migrants and members of the receiving community. Real estate and tourism development in Vilcabamba is related to a history of unequal access to land, and a flawed land reform process. The paper explores the pattern of lifestyle migration settlement, which is related to the land reform process of the 1970s.
This is the introduction to a special issue on amenity and lifestyle migration to locations in La... more This is the introduction to a special issue on amenity and lifestyle migration to locations in Latin America published by the Journal of Latin American Geography. It situates case studies of Latin American amenity and lifestyle migration against the backdrop of a growing tourism and lifestyle migration industry which cultivates the transnational mobility of global middle classes, often at the expense of the environment and less mobile, local residents of receiving communities. It also describes each contribution to the special issue.
In lieu of abstract, a portion of the content:
This special issue of the Journal of Latin American Geography draws attention to the growth of migration from developed countries in the Global North to locations in Latin America. While not as significant in numerical terms as the migratory flow from South to North, it nonetheless has the potential to dramatically effect socio-spatial relations and landscapes in receiving destinations (cf. Janoschka 2009; Rainer and Malizia 2014; Spalding 2013a). What is often referred to as lifestyle or amenity migration has been studied using different conceptual terminology to mark the variety of different forms of such migration (cf. Haas, Janoschka and Rodríguez 2014; Huete, Mantecón and Estévez 2013; Croucher and Lizarraga in this special issue). Lifestyle and amenity migrants relocate in order to take advantage of landscapes, climate, or lifestyles within the destinations they move to, and that they hope will enable them to live more fulfilling lives. Often, these forms of mobility are conceptualized along a continuum between tourism and migration (Janoschka and Haas 2014b), and they are generally perceived as being ‘privileged’ (Amit 2007; Croucher 2012), or more ‘agentic’ forms of transnational movement (O’Reilly 2012).
Just as transnational tourism has significantly increased in developing countries (the UNWTO estimates that international entries in developing countries has doubled since 2000), so too a growing number of individuals have sought to relocate permanently or semi-permanently to developing countries, many in Central and South America. While most do so in order to improve their quality of life, or in order to consume exoticized or idyllicized landscapes, not all migrate explicitly for leisure purposes. As previous studies have pointed out (cf. Huete, Mantecón and Estévez 2013), many migrants relocating to tourism and amenity hotspots do so in order to work (Stone and Stubbs 2007).
Migration is, of course, not new to geographers and social scientists working on and in Latin America. But whether the focus of analysis is on sending or receiving communities, these studies almost always discuss migration from Latin America to the United States, Canada and other locations in the Global North (cf. Chávez-Arellano 2014; Herrera 2003, 2011; Izcara 2012; Klooster 2013; Nava-Tablada 2013; Otterstrom and Tillman 2013; Radel and Schmook 2008; Yarnall and Price 2010). In recent years, migration scholars, especially from Latin America, have produced important work on South-South migration, or migration between developing countries, at times with the deliberate intention of challenging the analytical dominance of South-North migration flows (cf. Cerruti and Parrado 2015; Stefoni 2013; Torres and Hidalgo 2009). Until recently, relatively little attention had been drawn to lifestyle and amenity migration within the Americas, a flow moving mainly from North to South. Yet, as recent studies suggest, migration of North Americans to destinations in Latin America will likely increase (Dixon, Murray and Gelatt 2006; Kiy and McEnany 2010; Rojas, LeBlanc and Sunil 2014), particularly given economic and cultural transformations among the baby boomer generation, now entering retirement. Indeed, while cultural changes are important, it is worth noting that the 2008 financial crisis produced new types of lifestyle mobility, particularly for retirees who have seen savings plummet as a result of the crisis (Hayes 2015). Thus, lifestyle mobilities may also be motivated by economic factors, challenging some of the foundations upon which distinctions are drawn between lifestyle migrants and labour migrants (cf. Matossian, Zebryte and Zunino 2014).
Abstract:
The article addresses lifestyle migration from the Global North to the rural valley ... more Abstract:
The article addresses lifestyle migration from the Global North to the rural valley of Vilcabamba, Ecuador. The life projects of these lifestyle migrants are individualist and utilitarian, yet they also participate in the social relations of the receiving location, where they reproduce historic inequalities. The analysis focuses on the social relations of property and land, and links contemporary real estate construction to the historic control of land and labour power by powerful landowning elites.
Resumen:
El artículo trata la migración de estilo de vida del norte global al valle rural de Vilcabamba en el sur de Ecuador. Los proyectos de vida de los migrantes son individualistas y utilitaristas, a pesar de ello, participan en relaciones sociales de dominación y subordinación en el lugar receptor, donde se reproducen desigualdades históricas. El análisis se centra en las relaciones sociales de la propiedad de la tierra. Los grandes terratenientes promueven la construcción de urbanizaciones para extranjeros y turistas, lo que reproduce sus intereses históricos en el valle, así como el desplazamiento de la población obrera.
This paper explores the identities that North American lifestyle migrants in Ecuador adopt as the... more This paper explores the identities that North American lifestyle migrants in Ecuador adopt as they adjust to life in a new racialized social environment. It is based on qualitative interviews with migrants from North America, as well as ethnographic field notes. North Americans describe their growing community in racialized terms and adopt a series of practices that demonstrate anxiety about their position in the racialized social order of Ecuador. The paper discusses the strategies that North American migrants engage in to diminish the importance of their racialized identities in Ecuador. I identify two main practices that complicate North American incorporation in Ecuador: self-policing practices that aim to optimize Ecuadorians' perceptions of them; and desires for integration and ethnic mobility, which seek to erase their ‘Otherness’.
The article is based on qualitative interviews with lifestyle migrants from North America to Cuen... more The article is based on qualitative interviews with lifestyle migrants from North America to Cuenca, Ecuador. It attempts to further the understanding of transnational migration scholars of the structural contexts that influence lifestyle migration decisions and agency. In 2009, Cuenca was selected by international lifestyle marketer International Living as the best retirement destination in the world, largely based on a methodology that privileges low real estate and living costs. Since then, perhaps as many as 5000 North Americans have moved to the city. North Americans in Cuenca report economic motivation as a major reason for their move, and report making those decisions against a backdrop of economic and financial insecurity. The article argues that they are economic migrants, even as their relatively higher spending power has economic consequences for receiving communities like Cuenca.
This article reports on the results of 69 individual qualitative interviews in Cuenca, Ecuador, c... more This article reports on the results of 69 individual qualitative interviews in Cuenca, Ecuador, conducted with lifestyle migrants in 2011, 2012 and 2013. Many of the North American migrants interviewed are in Ecuador for economic reasons, a motivation that has been under-theorised in lifestyle migration literature. The paper develops the concept of geographic arbitrage to explore the motivations and strategies of migrants in a context of structural inequalities and geographic differentiation in labour costs. Geographic arbitrage consists of relocating day-to-day expenses to low-cost locations, a strategy that is perhaps of increasing importance in North American, given the lack of retirement security there. The paper argues that the strategy of geographic arbitrage of North Americans to Cuenca is framed by powerful players in the field of international lifestyle marketing and by the socio-economic context of the migrants themselves.
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Books by Matthew Hayes
Este libro explora la desigualdad global y las relaciones sociales transnacionales que se dan en un contexto marcado por una historia de explotación colonial y acumulación desigual. Los norteamericanos en Ecuador interactúan con este legado y tratan de lidiar con él. Estas vidas transnacionalizadas se interconectan con las relaciones sociales existentes en Ecuador, que están impregnadas de sus propias tradiciones de colonialismo interno y dominación epistémica.
Cuenca is Ecuador’s third-largest city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Canadians and US citizens began relocating there after the 2008 economic crisis. Most are self-professed “economic refugees” who sought offshore retirement, affordable medical care, and/or a lower–cost location. Others, however, sought adventure marked by relocation to an unfamiliar cultural environment and to experience personal growth through travel, illustrative of contemporary cultures of aging. These life projects are often motivated by a desire to escape economic and political conditions in North America.
Regardless of their individual motivations, these North–South migrants remain embedded in unequal and unfair global social relations. The book explores the repercussions on the host country—from rising prices for land and rent to the reproduction of colonial patterns of domination and subordination. It also situates the incorporation of North Americans against the backdrop of historically unequal social relations within Ecuador - particularly elite reliance on a large, informal workforce that supports their relatively higher living standards. In Ecuador, heritage preservation and tourism development reflect the interests and culture of European-descendent landowning elites, who have most to benefit from the new North–South migration. In the process, they participate in transnational gentrification that marginalizes popular traditions and nonwhite mestizo and indigenous informal workers.
The contrast between the migration experiences of North Americans in Ecuador and those of Ecuadorians or others from such regions of the Global South in North America and Europe demonstrates that, in fact, what we face is not so much a global “migration crisis” but a crisis of global justice.
Papers by Matthew Hayes
The article explores North American lifestyle migration to Vilcabamba, Ecuador. The research is based on three field site visits between 2013 and 2015, and encompasses qualitative interviews with lifestyle migrants and members of the receiving community. Real estate and tourism development in Vilcabamba is related to a history of unequal access to land, and a flawed land reform process. The paper explores the pattern of lifestyle migration settlement, which is related to the land reform process of the 1970s.
In lieu of abstract, a portion of the content:
This special issue of the Journal of Latin American Geography draws attention to the growth of migration from developed countries in the Global North to locations in Latin America. While not as significant in numerical terms as the migratory flow from South to North, it nonetheless has the potential to dramatically effect socio-spatial relations and landscapes in receiving destinations (cf. Janoschka 2009; Rainer and Malizia 2014; Spalding 2013a). What is often referred to as lifestyle or amenity migration has been studied using different conceptual terminology to mark the variety of different forms of such migration (cf. Haas, Janoschka and Rodríguez 2014; Huete, Mantecón and Estévez 2013; Croucher and Lizarraga in this special issue). Lifestyle and amenity migrants relocate in order to take advantage of landscapes, climate, or lifestyles within the destinations they move to, and that they hope will enable them to live more fulfilling lives. Often, these forms of mobility are conceptualized along a continuum between tourism and migration (Janoschka and Haas 2014b), and they are generally perceived as being ‘privileged’ (Amit 2007; Croucher 2012), or more ‘agentic’ forms of transnational movement (O’Reilly 2012).
Just as transnational tourism has significantly increased in developing countries (the UNWTO estimates that international entries in developing countries has doubled since 2000), so too a growing number of individuals have sought to relocate permanently or semi-permanently to developing countries, many in Central and South America. While most do so in order to improve their quality of life, or in order to consume exoticized or idyllicized landscapes, not all migrate explicitly for leisure purposes. As previous studies have pointed out (cf. Huete, Mantecón and Estévez 2013), many migrants relocating to tourism and amenity hotspots do so in order to work (Stone and Stubbs 2007).
Migration is, of course, not new to geographers and social scientists working on and in Latin America. But whether the focus of analysis is on sending or receiving communities, these studies almost always discuss migration from Latin America to the United States, Canada and other locations in the Global North (cf. Chávez-Arellano 2014; Herrera 2003, 2011; Izcara 2012; Klooster 2013; Nava-Tablada 2013; Otterstrom and Tillman 2013; Radel and Schmook 2008; Yarnall and Price 2010). In recent years, migration scholars, especially from Latin America, have produced important work on South-South migration, or migration between developing countries, at times with the deliberate intention of challenging the analytical dominance of South-North migration flows (cf. Cerruti and Parrado 2015; Stefoni 2013; Torres and Hidalgo 2009). Until recently, relatively little attention had been drawn to lifestyle and amenity migration within the Americas, a flow moving mainly from North to South. Yet, as recent studies suggest, migration of North Americans to destinations in Latin America will likely increase (Dixon, Murray and Gelatt 2006; Kiy and McEnany 2010; Rojas, LeBlanc and Sunil 2014), particularly given economic and cultural transformations among the baby boomer generation, now entering retirement. Indeed, while cultural changes are important, it is worth noting that the 2008 financial crisis produced new types of lifestyle mobility, particularly for retirees who have seen savings plummet as a result of the crisis (Hayes 2015). Thus, lifestyle mobilities may also be motivated by economic factors, challenging some of the foundations upon which distinctions are drawn between lifestyle migrants and labour migrants (cf. Matossian, Zebryte and Zunino 2014).
The article addresses lifestyle migration from the Global North to the rural valley of Vilcabamba, Ecuador. The life projects of these lifestyle migrants are individualist and utilitarian, yet they also participate in the social relations of the receiving location, where they reproduce historic inequalities. The analysis focuses on the social relations of property and land, and links contemporary real estate construction to the historic control of land and labour power by powerful landowning elites.
Resumen:
El artículo trata la migración de estilo de vida del norte global al valle rural de Vilcabamba en el sur de Ecuador. Los proyectos de vida de los migrantes son individualistas y utilitaristas, a pesar de ello, participan en relaciones sociales de dominación y subordinación en el lugar receptor, donde se reproducen desigualdades históricas. El análisis se centra en las relaciones sociales de la propiedad de la tierra. Los grandes terratenientes promueven la construcción de urbanizaciones para extranjeros y turistas, lo que reproduce sus intereses históricos en el valle, así como el desplazamiento de la población obrera.
Este libro explora la desigualdad global y las relaciones sociales transnacionales que se dan en un contexto marcado por una historia de explotación colonial y acumulación desigual. Los norteamericanos en Ecuador interactúan con este legado y tratan de lidiar con él. Estas vidas transnacionalizadas se interconectan con las relaciones sociales existentes en Ecuador, que están impregnadas de sus propias tradiciones de colonialismo interno y dominación epistémica.
Cuenca is Ecuador’s third-largest city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Canadians and US citizens began relocating there after the 2008 economic crisis. Most are self-professed “economic refugees” who sought offshore retirement, affordable medical care, and/or a lower–cost location. Others, however, sought adventure marked by relocation to an unfamiliar cultural environment and to experience personal growth through travel, illustrative of contemporary cultures of aging. These life projects are often motivated by a desire to escape economic and political conditions in North America.
Regardless of their individual motivations, these North–South migrants remain embedded in unequal and unfair global social relations. The book explores the repercussions on the host country—from rising prices for land and rent to the reproduction of colonial patterns of domination and subordination. It also situates the incorporation of North Americans against the backdrop of historically unequal social relations within Ecuador - particularly elite reliance on a large, informal workforce that supports their relatively higher living standards. In Ecuador, heritage preservation and tourism development reflect the interests and culture of European-descendent landowning elites, who have most to benefit from the new North–South migration. In the process, they participate in transnational gentrification that marginalizes popular traditions and nonwhite mestizo and indigenous informal workers.
The contrast between the migration experiences of North Americans in Ecuador and those of Ecuadorians or others from such regions of the Global South in North America and Europe demonstrates that, in fact, what we face is not so much a global “migration crisis” but a crisis of global justice.
The article explores North American lifestyle migration to Vilcabamba, Ecuador. The research is based on three field site visits between 2013 and 2015, and encompasses qualitative interviews with lifestyle migrants and members of the receiving community. Real estate and tourism development in Vilcabamba is related to a history of unequal access to land, and a flawed land reform process. The paper explores the pattern of lifestyle migration settlement, which is related to the land reform process of the 1970s.
In lieu of abstract, a portion of the content:
This special issue of the Journal of Latin American Geography draws attention to the growth of migration from developed countries in the Global North to locations in Latin America. While not as significant in numerical terms as the migratory flow from South to North, it nonetheless has the potential to dramatically effect socio-spatial relations and landscapes in receiving destinations (cf. Janoschka 2009; Rainer and Malizia 2014; Spalding 2013a). What is often referred to as lifestyle or amenity migration has been studied using different conceptual terminology to mark the variety of different forms of such migration (cf. Haas, Janoschka and Rodríguez 2014; Huete, Mantecón and Estévez 2013; Croucher and Lizarraga in this special issue). Lifestyle and amenity migrants relocate in order to take advantage of landscapes, climate, or lifestyles within the destinations they move to, and that they hope will enable them to live more fulfilling lives. Often, these forms of mobility are conceptualized along a continuum between tourism and migration (Janoschka and Haas 2014b), and they are generally perceived as being ‘privileged’ (Amit 2007; Croucher 2012), or more ‘agentic’ forms of transnational movement (O’Reilly 2012).
Just as transnational tourism has significantly increased in developing countries (the UNWTO estimates that international entries in developing countries has doubled since 2000), so too a growing number of individuals have sought to relocate permanently or semi-permanently to developing countries, many in Central and South America. While most do so in order to improve their quality of life, or in order to consume exoticized or idyllicized landscapes, not all migrate explicitly for leisure purposes. As previous studies have pointed out (cf. Huete, Mantecón and Estévez 2013), many migrants relocating to tourism and amenity hotspots do so in order to work (Stone and Stubbs 2007).
Migration is, of course, not new to geographers and social scientists working on and in Latin America. But whether the focus of analysis is on sending or receiving communities, these studies almost always discuss migration from Latin America to the United States, Canada and other locations in the Global North (cf. Chávez-Arellano 2014; Herrera 2003, 2011; Izcara 2012; Klooster 2013; Nava-Tablada 2013; Otterstrom and Tillman 2013; Radel and Schmook 2008; Yarnall and Price 2010). In recent years, migration scholars, especially from Latin America, have produced important work on South-South migration, or migration between developing countries, at times with the deliberate intention of challenging the analytical dominance of South-North migration flows (cf. Cerruti and Parrado 2015; Stefoni 2013; Torres and Hidalgo 2009). Until recently, relatively little attention had been drawn to lifestyle and amenity migration within the Americas, a flow moving mainly from North to South. Yet, as recent studies suggest, migration of North Americans to destinations in Latin America will likely increase (Dixon, Murray and Gelatt 2006; Kiy and McEnany 2010; Rojas, LeBlanc and Sunil 2014), particularly given economic and cultural transformations among the baby boomer generation, now entering retirement. Indeed, while cultural changes are important, it is worth noting that the 2008 financial crisis produced new types of lifestyle mobility, particularly for retirees who have seen savings plummet as a result of the crisis (Hayes 2015). Thus, lifestyle mobilities may also be motivated by economic factors, challenging some of the foundations upon which distinctions are drawn between lifestyle migrants and labour migrants (cf. Matossian, Zebryte and Zunino 2014).
The article addresses lifestyle migration from the Global North to the rural valley of Vilcabamba, Ecuador. The life projects of these lifestyle migrants are individualist and utilitarian, yet they also participate in the social relations of the receiving location, where they reproduce historic inequalities. The analysis focuses on the social relations of property and land, and links contemporary real estate construction to the historic control of land and labour power by powerful landowning elites.
Resumen:
El artículo trata la migración de estilo de vida del norte global al valle rural de Vilcabamba en el sur de Ecuador. Los proyectos de vida de los migrantes son individualistas y utilitaristas, a pesar de ello, participan en relaciones sociales de dominación y subordinación en el lugar receptor, donde se reproducen desigualdades históricas. El análisis se centra en las relaciones sociales de la propiedad de la tierra. Los grandes terratenientes promueven la construcción de urbanizaciones para extranjeros y turistas, lo que reproduce sus intereses históricos en el valle, así como el desplazamiento de la población obrera.