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Since the seminal research of O'Reilly, Karen [2000.TheBritish on the Costa del Sol. London: Routledge] and King, Russell, Anthony Warnes, Allan Williams [2000.Sunset Lives: British Retirement Migration to the Mediterranean. New York: Berg Publishers] about British citizens on the Costa del Sol there has been a surge in the publication of lifestyle migration papers, books and research. Nonetheless, there is a part of the lifestyle migration process that has been rarely explored: a return move to the country of origin following retirement migration. Research has indicated a broad increase in the number of older British returnees, yet there has been no substantive research on the topic. This paper therefore attempts to fill this gap by using Spanish registry data to examine the number of British retirees since 2009 who have returned to the UK. In addition, the results of an electronic survey to older British people in Spain are presented which suggest that considerable numbers of British citizens aged over 55 living in the Northern Costa Blanca are likely to return in the next few years. These data therefore indicate the relevance of return migration from Spain to the UK as a significant issue to the academic community as well as to British and Spanish policy-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores status relations in a Romanian migrant ‘community’ in Spain, developing a model of social differentiation within the ‘community’ based on ethnographic material. On a theoretical level, the paper builds on the distinction between ‘class’ and ‘status’, emphasising the latter's significance for migration research. Empirically, it aims to complement the study of status in the localities of origin, with a focus on status in the ‘communities’ at the destination. The paper suggests the existence of a developmental line in differentiation practices, from the most basic strategies of economic status improvement through the complex mechanisms of ‘prestige’ status recovery to the first occupational advancements with an associated status relevant in the receiving society, shaped by internal factors and external structural forces. Based on this, the paper proposes the model of social differentiation as a schematic tool that could become helpful in examining other phenomena related to migrant communities, especially their ‘adaptation possibilities’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Like other migrant groups in Catalonia, Moroccans can solicit financial and technical assistance to help better conditions in their localities of origin within the framework of co-development policies. This policy environment reflects international trends of integrating migration and development, including a strengthening of the participatory role of the migrants themselves. Drawing on a qualitative study of Moroccan migrant transnationalism in Catalonia, I analyse the interplay between Catalan actors' support for migrant civic transnationalism and the perception of and participation in projects of co-development among Moroccan migrants. One of the key aims is to explore to what extent timing, that is, the combination of recent patterns of Moroccan migration and the relatively intense debate on migration and development, influences the balance between top-down implementation of the migration development agenda and bottom-up initiatives from the Moroccan migrants. The paper shows how participation in co-development projects varies among Moroccan associations and outlines the main explanations for both involvement and non-involvement. Thus, the paper engages with the growing literature on the relationship of migrants' transnational practices with local and transnational power hierarchies, highlighting the role of receiving-country political actors, policy discourses and initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the impact that the current economic crisis is having on the extent to which education protects migrants and natives from unemployment in Spain. To do so, we use random constant models on a pooled sample of respondents to the Labour Force Survey (LFS) from 2003 to 2012. Specifically, we analyse the market value of the educational credentials held by African, Latin American and East European migrants compared with Spanish males aged 16–50. Our conclusions indicate that inequality in the returns provided by education to migrants and natives has been growing fast in recent years. In other words, migrants have been less able to grant themselves an employment through their education than natives since 2008 when the Spanish economy started to contract and that this process has also been speeding up since. We also identify important differences within the migrant category: while the potential to prevent unemployment among better-educated migrants from Eastern Europe decreased during the economic recession, it is Africans and Latin Americans who are worse off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the consequences of international migration and the permanent settlement of immigrants in southern EU countries is the growing number of inter-country marriages and the formation of transnational families. Using both quantitative and qualitative data, this article examines patterns of endogamy and exogamy (i.e. marriage within/outside a particular group or category) among African immigrants in Catalonia, focusing on bi-national Senegalese– and Gambian–Spanish couples. Socio-demographic profiles, transnationality, the dynamics of cultural change or retention, and the formation of transcultural identities are explored. The evidence presented suggests that social-class factors are more important than cultural origins in patterns of endogamy and exogamy, in the dynamics of living together and in the bringing-up of children of mixed unions. Such a conclusion negates culturalists’ explanations of endogamy and exogamy while, at the same time, emphasising the role of social actors as active subjects in these processes. I further argue that mixed couples and their offspring deal—to a greater or lesser extent—with multiple localisations and cultural backgrounds (i.e. here and there), rather than experiencing a ‘clash between two cultures’. Therefore, it would be a mistake to pretend that multicultural links do not exist and that they cannot be revitalised and functional. The paper starts and ends by addressing the complexities of processes of interculturalism, resisting an interpretation of hybridity and segregation as contradictory or exclusive realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]