“Unattended” retirement: Lifestyle migration and precarity of the Houniao

Abstract

This paper unpacks the precarity of lifestyle migrants through the study of the Houniao ("snowbirds"), mostly retirees leading seasonal travel between north and south China. Focusing on the Houniao in Sanya, it explores the production and negotiation of their precarity at multiple scales. Firstly, it investigates how they encounter "precarious privilege" in Sanya's changing urban space and respond to government control and rising living expenses. Secondly, it examines their vulnerability intensified by health decline and constraints of place-based care networks and their agency to rebuild local supporting systems. Thirdly, it explores their contested relationships with Sanya and the sense of marginality and how they develop Houniao-based social networks. This paper highlights the significance of space/place and human agency in understanding the dynamic process in which precarity is generated and negotiated. Additionally, it provides a wider perspective on the complexity of precarity in lifestyle migration by focusing on the China context.

The spatial patterns and determinants of internal migration of older adults in China from 1995 to 2015

“…Regarding temperature severity, in line with the findings in the United States, empirical evidence in China shows that older people tend to migrate away from regions with extreme weather. This suggests that 'the phenomenon of snowbirds' found in several coastal cities in South China is likely to be prevalent all over the country as an increasing number of older adults tend to pursue better quality of life by migrating to areas with favourable weather (Kou et al, 2018;Chen and Wang, 2020;Chen and Bao, 2021). The rise of amenity-led migration in China echoes theories of the three-stage developmental model and the spatial equilibrium model of migration.…”

“…While a large body of literature has described and explained the spatial patterns of internal migration among older adults in developed countries and among all ages combined in China, little research has been done to investigate the mechanisms behind internal migration of older adults in China, the largest developing economy in the world, using nationwide datasets across periods of time. The drivers of and constraints on the migration of older adults may differ between China and developed countries due to different economic, social, cultural, and institutional contexts (Dou and Liu, 2017;Kou et al, 2018;Chen and Wang, 2020). In the Chinese case, enjoying a seasonal lifestyle has been found to be retirees' primary motive for flocking to Sanya ('the phenomenon of snowbirds'), a city renowned for its tropical climate and beautiful bays (Kou et al, 2018;Chen and Wang, 2020;Chen and Bao, 2021).…”

“…The drivers of and constraints on the migration of older adults may differ between China and developed countries due to different economic, social, cultural, and institutional contexts (Dou and Liu, 2017;Kou et al, 2018;Chen and Wang, 2020). In the Chinese case, enjoying a seasonal lifestyle has been found to be retirees' primary motive for flocking to Sanya ('the phenomenon of snowbirds'), a city renowned for its tropical climate and beautiful bays (Kou et al, 2018;Chen and Wang, 2020;Chen and Bao, 2021). Other drivers of migration of older adults include returning to their hometown after retirement, searching for better social services, and following their grown-up children who move to metropolitan areas (Dou and Liu, 2017).…”

Social geography I: Time and temporality

“…Chiu and Ho’s (2020) research brings to view how transnational grandparenting migrants who assist with childcare duties defer their own later life planning to apply for successive temporary visiting visas that incrementally extend their stay in the countries where their adult children and grandchildren have settled. Moving to the translocal context, Chen and Wang (2020) examine the pendulum mobilities of older migrants who move seasonally from colder northern to warmer southern China, but over time have more limited mobilities because of changing regulations that make it restrictive for them to purchase housing, alongside experiencing limited ageing support networks and constraints on using their place-bounded medical insurance.…”

Time, temporality, and (im)mobility: Unpacking the temporal experiences among Chinese international students during the COVID‐19

“…Moving beyond the scope of labour migration, this paper perceives precarity as a general condition of societal malaise (Waite, 2009) and a 'common human vulnerability' (Butler, 2004, p. 31) associated with people's feeling of ontological security in the (post) modern world (Chen & Wang, 2020;Giddens, 1990). It considers precarity as people's sense of uncertainty and vulnerability that are embodied in everyday practices at the microlevel and shaped by wider power networks at the macrostructural level (Straughan et al, 2020;Wang & Chen, 2020). While possessing relatively privileged status, international students are not exempt from precarity during (im)mobilities.…”