Introduction

This chapter explores the dynamics of international retirement migration (IRM) in relation to EU nationals within Europe and is divided into two main parts. Initially, the extent of IRM within the EU is briefly considered. The chapter then moves on to provide a more detailed exploration of the motivational factors and triggers that are influential in retired EU migrants’ decisions to relocate. This section combines an overview of relevant literature on IRM with qualitative data drawn from our fieldwork to consider some important factors that precipitate movement.

The extent of senior citizens’ retirement migration in the EU

It has been argued (for example, Laslett, 1989; Warnes, 1993) that a number of significant changes have occurred in western European society that modify the ways in which many of us experience old age and retirement. Improvements in incomes, increased educational opportunities and attainment, and changes in occupational structure (for example, increasing numbers of professional and technical, rather than manual jobs), have combined to impact upon the aspirations and choices available to people in later life. It is not suggested that such a positive experience is universal; old age for some is still characterised by poverty, lack of opportunities and debilitating illness. The argument is, however, that in contemporary Europe we are now able to differentiate between a ‘third age’ of “well resourced and healthy retirement” (Warnes, 1993, p 451) and a ‘fourth age’ of later life starting in the late seventies in which the onset of old age-related illness and need for care become important considerations (cf Laslett, 1989). Longer holidays, experience of overseas travel and the possibility of a period of early retirement have increasingly become a feature of many people's lives in recent decades. Indeed, a number of comparatively wealthy retirees, often in possession of significant occupational and private pensions, are able to consider relocating internationally on retirement.

When discussing IRM much of the established literature (for example, Williams et al, 1997; King et al, 2000; O’Reilly, 2000a, 2000b) has focused on the migratory movements of UK pensioners who relocate towards the warmer regions of southern Europe in retirement.