Discordant Lifestyle Mobilities in East Asia: Privilege and Precarity of British Retirement in Thailand

Abstract

This paper explores the lifestyle mobilities of British retirees in Thailand, drawing on empirical research conducted in 2012. Thailand is a host to a significant number of British retirees motivated by a search for a better lifestyle in Asia. This pursuit of mobility for lifestyle reasons, rather than economic gain or work, implies a relative privilege involving a range of choices and opportunities. For many, the lifestyle achieved in Thailand is perceived as mediating negative effects of ageing and enhancing well-being. However, the material challenges of lifestyle mobility in Thailand, such as frozen pensions, healthcare costs and property insecurity, destabilise an initial optimism and lead to feelings of entrapment and immobility in relation to state policy and practice. The paper argues for a relational framing of lifestyle mobility as a means of understanding and analysing the differential experience of privilege and precarity in semi-colonial or post-colonial locations.

Itinerant Western Retirees in S. E. Asia: emancipation through mobility

“…Their situation matched that described as 'precarity' by Botterill in her study of British retirees in Thailand (Botterill, 2016). Like the expats in her study, these people (above) 'belie the assumption that lifestyle mobility is purely the property of the privileged' (Botterill, 2016;2).…”

“…This was tallied against the prerequisites to uplift their pensions from home; or having not qualified, or relinquished, that income, they found other income (temporary housesit or live-in situations; unofficial work such as language teaching; or dealing in items easily and profitably sold across borders eg cars, motorbikes, local art). These retirees, like the cohort of British retirees in Thailand studied by Botterill, juggled their own sense of privilege at being so mobile, with everyday financial precarity (Botterill, 2016;2). About 60% owned a house or flat somewhere in their home country, which they rented out for income.…”

“…Like the expats in her study, these people (above) 'belie the assumption that lifestyle mobility is purely the property of the privileged' (Botterill, 2016;2). Their apparent affluence compared with local people concealed their actual precarity.…”

“…In her study of British retirees living in Thailand, Botterill noted that older migrants, whilst maintaining their status as privileged white Westerners, were 'simultaneously negotiating constraints in access to basic economic, political and social rights' (Botterill 2016;1). These included financial insecurity, health inequity and status discord.…”

“…They had no expectation of, or interest in, owning property in S. E. Asia. For them, travel was not a one-off occurrence, but a 'broader life course experience' (Botterill, 2016). They did not describe themselves as migrants, but as travellers.…”