Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T19:33:06.979Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: international retirement migration on film

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 November 2016

CLAUDIA BELL
CLAUDIA BELL*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
*
Address for correspondence: Claudia Bell, Department of Sociology, University of Auckland, PO Box 92019, Auckland, New Zealand E-mail: c.bell@auckland.ac.nz
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The two movies about The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012 and 2015) were directed by John Madden. Starring a cast of famous British older actors, the narratives are set in a faded hotel in India. These are individuals who have relocated because their retirement dreams cannot be realised in their home country. They reflect the growing phenomenon of international retirement migration (IRM): the quickly growing upsurge of financially independent individuals seeking an affordable old age. In India they can claim a position of relative comfort and privilege. For a generation that grew up in a consumerist culture, upward mobility in the senior life stage has become a purchasable commodity through exodus to a developing country. This generation of retirees is generally in better health compared with prior seniors, with a longer life expectancy. Many have a background of travel experience, and an ethos that places their own pleasures in life as pivotal. While global numbers are unavailable, it is estimated that there are millions of retirees relocating to less-developed countries for an affordable retirement. At retirement locations such as the Marigold Hotel, the discrepancies that continue between nations, and local poverty, enable this practice. The events in these movies might be read as a recapitulation of imperialism expressed through retirement migration.

Keywords

retirementmigrationmoviesMarigold Hotel
Type
Forum Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 37 , Issue 10 , November 2017 , pp. 1975 - 1986
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Applebaum, S. 2015. Judi Dench, Celia Imrie and director John Madden talk about The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Available online at www.thenational.ae/arts-lifestyle [Accessed 18 March 2015].Google Scholar
Banks, S. P. 2004. Identity narratives by American and Canadian retirees in Mexico. Journal of Cross-cultural Gerontology, 19, 4, 361–81.Google Scholar
Bell, C. 2014 a. Bar talk in Bali with (s)expat residential tourists. Tourism and Cultural Change, 13, 3, 261–74.Google Scholar
Bell, C. 2014 b. Tourists infiltrating authentic domestic space at Balinese home cooking schools. Tourist Studies, 15, 1, 86–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, M. 2014. Negotiating privilege in and through lifestyle migration. Understanding Lifestyle Migration. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK.Google Scholar
Benson, M. and O'Reilly, K. 2009. Migration and the search for a better way of life: a critical exploration of lifestyle migration. The Sociological Review, 57, 4, 608–25.Google Scholar
Benson, M. and Osbaldiston, N. 2014. New Horizons in Lifestyle Migration Research: Theorising Movement, Settlement and the Search for a Better Way of Life. In Understanding Lifestyle Migration. Benson, M. and Osbaldiston, N (eds.) Palgrave Macmillan UK, 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bosch, J. V. 2015. Elderhood as simply a part of life: four films. The Gerontologist, 55, 4, 690–1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Botterill, K. 2016. Discordant lifestyle mobilities in East Asia: privilege and precarity of British retirement in Thailand. Population, Space and Place. Published online, doi:10.1002/psp.2011. Published online 19th January 2016.Google Scholar
Bozic, S. 2006. The Achievement and Potential of International Retirement Migration Research: The Need for Disciplinary Exchange. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32, 8, 1415–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, S. A., Duncan, T. and Thulemark, M. 2013. Lifestyle Mobilities. Intersections of Travel. Leisure and Migration. Ashgate, London.Google Scholar
Croucher, S. 2012. Privileged mobility in an age of globality. Societies, 2, 1, 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gambold, L. 2013. Retirement abroad and women's ageing strategy. Journal of the Association of Anthropology and Gerontology, 34, 2, 184–98.Google Scholar
Gibson, B., 2011. ‘The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel not worth checking into’ Vueweekly. http://www.vueweekly.com/film/second-best-exotic-marigold-hotel-not-worth-checking/ [Accessed 10/10/16].Google Scholar
Green, P. 2014. British later-life migrants in Malaysia. In Janoschka, M and Haas, H (eds) Contested Spatialities, Lifestyle Migration and Residential Tourism. London: Routledge, 145–57.Google Scholar
Gustafson, P. 2001. Retirement migration and transnational lifestyles. Ageing and Society, 21, 4, 371–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haas, H. 2012. Volunteering in retirement migration: meanings and functions of charitable activities for older British residents in Spain. Ageing & Society, 33, 8, 1374–1400.Google Scholar
Hannam, K. 2009. The end of tourism? Nomadology and the mobilities paradigm. In Tribe, J. (ed.), Philosophical Issues in Tourism. Channel View Publications, Buffalo, New York, 101–16.Google Scholar
Hayes, M. 2014. ‘We gained a lot over what we would have had’: the geographic arbitrage of North American lifestyle migrants to Cuenca, Ecuador. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 40, 12, 1953–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hossain, A., Bailey, G. and Lubulwa, M. 2007. Characteristics and travel patterns of older Australians: impact of population ageing on tourism. In Harding, A. and Gupta, A. (eds), Modelling Our Future. International Symposia in Economic Theory and Econometrics. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 501–22.Google Scholar
Huete, R., Mantecon, A. and Estevez, J., 2013. Challenges in lifestyle migration research: Reflections and findings about the Spanish crisis. Mobilities, 8, 3, 331–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jain, S. 2014. Spiritual India: restoring the white savior with purpose. Dialogue Humanities Review, 1, 1, 91–8.Google Scholar
Karasik, R. J., Hamon, R., Writz, J. and Reddy, A. M. 2014. Two thumbs up: using popular films in introductory aging courses. Gerontology & Geriatrics Education, 35, 1, 86–113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Legido-Quigley, H. and McKee, M. 2012. Health and social fields in the context of lifestyle migration. Health & Place, 18, 6, 1209–16.Google Scholar
Lin, I.-F. and Brown, S. L. 2012. Unmarried boomers confront old age: a national portrait. The Gerontologist, 52, 2, 153–65.Google Scholar
Lynch, P., Germann Molz, J., McIntosh, A., Lugosi, P. and Lashley, C. 2011. Theorising hospitality. Hospitality & Society, 1, 1, 3–24.Google Scholar
Maggoch, D. 2004. These Foolish Things. Chatto & Windus, London.Google Scholar
Maher, K. H., and Lafferty, M. 2014. White migrant masculinities in Thailand and the paradoxes of Western privilege. Social and Cultural Geography, 15, 4, 427–48.Google Scholar
McWatters, M. R. (ed.) 2009. Residential Tourism: (De)constructing Paradise. Channel View Publications, Buffalo, New York.Google Scholar
Noorloos, F. 2011. Residential Tourism Causing Land Privatization and Alienation: New pressures on Costa Rica's coasts. Development, 54, 1, 85–90.Google Scholar
Ochiai, E. 2014. The meaning of the second demographic transition and the establishment of a mature society. European Societies, 16, 3, 343–6.Google Scholar
Polivka, L. 2011. Neoliberalism and postmodern cultures of aging. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 30, 2, 173–84.Google Scholar
Pruchno, R. 2012. Not your mother's old age: baby boomers at age 65. The Gerontologist, 52, 2, 149–52.Google Scholar
Rodriguez, V. 2001. Tourism as a recruiting post for retirement migration. Tourism Geographies, 3, 1, 52–63.Google Scholar
Rodríguez, V., Fernández-Mayoralas, G. and Rojo, F. 2004. International retirement migration: Retired Europeans living on the Costa del Sol, Spain. Population Review, 43, 1, 1–36.Google Scholar
Schlehe, J. 2013. Concepts of Asia, the West and the Self in contemporary Indonesia: an anthropological account. South East Asia Research, 21, 3, 497–515.Google Scholar
Truly, D., 2002. International retirement migration and tourism along the Lake Chapala Riviera: developing a matrix of retirement migration behaviour. Tourism Geographies, 4, 3, 261–81.Google Scholar
Warnes, A. M. and Williams, A. 2006. Older migrants in Europe: a new focus for migration studies. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32, 8, 1257–81.Google Scholar
Williams, A. M. and Hall, C. M. 2002. Tourism and Migration: new relationships between Bali production and consumption Tourism Geographies, 2, 1, 5–27.Google Scholar
Zeltzer, N. D. 2008. Foreign-Economic-Retirement Migration: Promises and Potential, Barriers and Burdens. The Elder Law Journal, 16, 211–48.Google Scholar