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

摘要

This 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 12months 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 Mori cultures. And, second, that the intersections of contemporary lifestyle migration and settler colonialism are an important avenue for future research.