Lifestyle migration and settler colonialism: The imaginative geographies of British migrants to Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

AbstractThis paper explores the imaginative geographies of relatively privileged migrants living in settler societies for their colonial continuities. It responds to a recent call to historicise the cultural significance attached to migration and destinations in lifestyle migration research through an exploration of some of the potential synergies between the newly emergent field of settler colonial studies and lifestyle migration. The analysis draws on 12 months of qualitative research with British migrants living in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. First, it examines the ambivalent affective associations of “islandness” and distance, as both insulating and isolating. Second, the paper explores the twinned appreciation of spectacular, empty natural surroundings, and a perception of a “lack” of culture and history. It is argued, first, that the geographical and historical interpellation of the country as “at the end of the world” and as “young” recentres distant Euro‐colonial cultures and decentres Māori cultures. And, second, that the intersections of contemporary lifestyle migration and settler colonialism are an important avenue for future research.