Abstract
Drawing on qualitative research with a group of older foreign sailors settled in the Azores islands, this chapter argues that to improve our understanding about (im)mobility choices we need an analytical lens that captures the fluidity and liminality of these migration projects. I suggest that a life course perspective can do exactly that, for it illuminates how such lifestyles are constituted over the life course and how individuals chose to settle in the Azores after long periods of living on the sea. I build on Glick Schiller and Salazar’s (2013) ‘regimes of mobility’ framework and Van Gennep’s (1960) work on liminality to discuss processes of (im)mobility in relation to life course transitions. The interlocutors in the Azores frame their settlement in the islands within broader life negotiations, bodily changes, and a desire for place attachment. In face of critical life transitions and detrimental health changes, the imaginaries and place-identity attached to the Azores represent a connecting and negotiating platform that embodies feelings of freedom and rootedness.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | International Residential Mobilities: From lifestyle migrations to tourism gentrification |
| Editors | Josefina Domínguez-Mujica, Jennifer McGarrigle, Juan Parreño-Castellano |
| Publisher | Springer |
| Pages | 33-50 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-3-030-77466-0 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2021 |
| Externally published | Yes |