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Article published In: AILA Review
Vol. 36:2 (2023) ► pp.299–320

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Permanent or temporary homes?

Investigating the discourses of lifestyle migration, lifestyle mobilities and multilingualism within a Norwegian context

 | University of Bern
 | Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences
Published online: 15 February 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/aila.00057.gon
Abstract
Questions surrounding mobility and migration are often connected to matters of language, citizenship, socio-economic status and class that are inherently unequal between developed and less-developed nation states. Scholars of geography and demographics have conceptualized both internal and external/international migration with “push” and “pull” factors as salient reasons for mobility. Traditional causes of external migration and so-called “push factors” include conflict, natural disaster, economic collapse, war, and transformations of socio-political systems as well as more promising employment options and decent incomes as contributing factors to external migration (Gonçalves, K., & Schluter, A. (Eds.). (2020). Introduction: Language, inequality, and global care work. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2621, 1–15. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, p. 3). Such “forced moves” affect largely disadvantaged populations that are at risk (i.e. asylum seekers, refugees, victims of human trafficking) (Castles, S. (2003). Towards a sociology of forced migration and social transformation. Sociology, 37(1), 13–34. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). For individuals engaging in lifestyle migration and lifestyle mobilities and considered voluntary migration, their life circumstances are extremely different in that they are often equipped with “privileged preconditions” (Mancinelli, F. (2020). Digital nomads: Freedom, responsibility and the neoliberal order. Information Technology & Tourism, 22(3), 417–437. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, p. 419) as “nomads from affluence” (Cohen, E. (1973). Nomads from affluence: Notes on the phenomenon of drifter-tourism. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 141, 89–103. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) including for the most part, education, specialized skills, high standards of living and favorable visa regimes of their home countries (primarily in the West). These factors facilitate a range of choices in terms of where they travel to (i.e. place), also known as network capital, the kind of work they engage in and the rate of their mobility. Based on years of ethnographic work, in this paper, we investigate the different dimensions and discourses of lifestyle migration and lifestyle mobilities, both of which we argue presents a new trajectory and venue to explore within the field of migration linguistics (Borlongan, A. (2023). Migration linguistics: A synopsis. AILA Review, 36(1), 38–63. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). By focusing on two different case studies within Norway, we also draw on the notion of mediational repertoires (Lexander, K. V., & Androutsopoulos, J. (2021). Working with mediagrams: A methodology for collaborative research on mediational repertoires in multilingual families. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 42(1), 1–18. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) as part of the communicative ecology in which jobs are found and where communication takes place among different types of migrants and their new permanent or temporary homes.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Migration and multilingualism in Norway: Setting the scene
  • 3.Lifestyle migration and lifestyle mobilities
  • 4.Linguistic and mediational repertoires
  • 5.Methodology
  • 6.The discourses of lifestyle mobilities via yoga teaching as a global practice
  • 7.The discourses of lifestyle migration via cleaning work as multilingual practice
  • 8.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
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