Between Time Not There and Time Not Theirs: Temporality in Retirement Migration to Spain

Abstract

Retirement migrants in Spain claim a particular vision of time as finally “theirs.” It is a time for living in the present and contrasts with their previous time-bound working lives. This liminal temporality, which seems to diminish the significance of aging, is disrupted, however, by the high visibility of aging and death in such a community. Using an ethnographic approach, the article explores the societal and individual negotiation of retired migrants' arrivals and departures from the social scene as pertinent moments to interrogate these matters. These reveal that migrants' present-focused temporality is yet wholly informed by subtle awareness of future-time as “not there.”