Defining and Coping with Residence. International Retirement Migration to Spain

Abstract

This paper seeks to make a contribution to the empirical study of international retirement migration by exploring the meaning and the scope of residence, a phenomenon related to issues around integration and belonging. The study is based upon a national survey addressed to foreign European retirees (pensioners aged 50 years or over) of 16 nationalities living in Spain for more than three months per year. The article point out the extent to which residence is a multidimensional or complex and polysemic concept that transcends its merely administrative aspects. Residence is more than official records, and not all its dimensions develop with the same intensity. The research also reveals that certain public policies could promote both the presence and the consolidation as residents of European elderly movers.