Problematizing the ‘Good Life’on the Costa del Sol: Detecting Diversity in Privileged Experiences of Northern European Migrant Retirees

Abstract

This article focuses on the concept of the ‘good life’, a term that arises between northern European retirees engaging in lifestyle migration on the Costa del Sol, Malaga (Spain). The search for the ‘good life’ is an expression frequently used between retiree lifestyle migrants to describe their motivations for taking the migration plunge in search for a better quality of life in a new destination. This article uses ethnographic vignettes and interview snippets where the term appears in order to explore the growing diversity within the trend, exposing its connections to four recurrent factors that shape migrants new lifestyles in la Costa del Sol: weather, health, leisure, and work. By unpacking the relationship between these ‘good life’ building blocks and the migrant’s lifestyles, the article aims to gain a deeper comprehension of different privileged migrant experiences and its connections with intersecting identity axes.