Guests and hosts: European retirees in coastal Turkey.

• Author: Balkir, Canan
• Position: Report

Introduction

As part of a wider concept of "lifestyle migration," international retirement migration (IRM) is a relatively new form of international human mobility involving older people moving to places with favorable characteristics (such as the Mediterranean climate) in the pursuit of a better life. Factors such as increasing welfare levels, longevity and low-cost travel have played a crucial role in this type of human mobility. There has always been a strong nexus between IRM and tourism, of which the boundaries are mostly blurred. In the United States, the interstate migration of the elderly from northern states to the "sunbelt states," notably to Florida, has also been widely researched. (1)

The conceptual diversity and increasing number of studies on different destinations or with different migrant groups have made the phenomenon difficult to describe, necessitating a more flexible definition. Finally, O'Reilly defined lifestyle migrants as "relatively affluent individuals, moving, en masse, either part or full time, permanently or temporarily, to countries where the cost of living and/or the price of property is cheaper; places which, for various reasons, signify something loosely defined as quality of life" (2) O'Reilly and Benson, in their co-edited book, defined lifestyle migration as "the spatial mobility of relatively affluent individuals of all ages, moving either part-time or full-time to places that are meaningful because, for various reasons, they offer the potential of a better quality of life" (3)

Various concepts have been used to explain the range of lifestyle migration, such as retirement migration, leisure migration, international counter-urbanization, second home ownership and seasonal migration (4). While the concept of lifestyle migration includes migrants of all ages, retirement migration refers to the elderly. The literature identifies several types of retirement migration, such as "rural retirement migration," where the elderly move from urban to rural areas with beautiful scenery, (5) or "health migration," where the elderly migrate to warmer places to improve their deteriorating health. (6)

Even before the wider concept of "lifestyle migration" was suggested in the literature, the movement of the elderly towards coastal areas was already a distinct research topic under "international retirement migration (IRM)" both in Europe and the United States. (7) The IRM literature on Europe has focused heavily on coastal destinations with Mediterranean climatic conditions, with Spain, Portugal, Malta and Italy as the first wave countries. Since the early 1990s, Turkey has also joined the list of destination countries, particularly for British, German, Dutch and Nordic retirees who travel to tourist destinations located on the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts of Turkey, where the tourism-migration connection is very strong. This social phenomenon has become the subject of academic research recently with respect to the motives, socio-economic profiles and lifestyles of settled retired migrants, surveyed under different titles such as "lifestyle migration," "settled foreigners and "international retirement migration." (8) According to these studies, the main pull factors for migrants are the Mediterranean climate, hospitality and informal way of life of Turkish society, lower cost of living, relatively inexpensive real estate, availability of low-cost travel and visas upon entry.

As Blaakilde and Nilsson have correctly pointed out, IRM "causes challenges for the senior citizens in that it signifies a transformation in both lifestyle and place of residence." (9) Nevertheless, IRM is also a challenge for the host community, especially if guests and hosts are from different cultures. Although the "guests" have been subjected to many surveys, the attitudes and sensitivities of the host culture towards these settled foreign retirees have remained under-researched. (10) Turkey, with a different host culture and religion, represents an exemplar case.

This paper deals with both sides of the migration process in order to understand the perspectives of both retired EU migrants and local hosts. After briefly describing the geographical distribution of EU citizens in Turkey, the paper focuses on the demographic characteristics and socio-economic integration of retired migrants in Antalya, the most popular destination in Turkey. Comparisons are made with a similar research conducted in Aegean destinations. The paper then considers the local host community, analyzing their reactions and sensitivities concerning the influx of European retired migrants settling in their neighborhood.

European Citizens in Turkey: Spatial Differences

Turkey's political and economic liberalization in the 1980s and its bid for full membership of the European Union have made it an attractive destination for European tourists and migrants. (11) The rapid growth of the mass tourism sector in the second half of the 1980s, along with liberalization in tourism services and the strength of European currencies against the Turkish lira, have all promoted life-style immigration.

According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), the total foreign population in Turkey was 456,056 in 2013. Between 2007 and 2013, this figure increased 4.6 times (Figure 1), comprising those registered in the Address-based Population Record System, plus those with at least a 6-months residence permit in the reference year (12) and those who have revoked Turkish citizenship with official permission but reside in Turkey.

Europeans in Turkey settle predominantly in the western and southwestern provinces, including major coastal tourism destinations, such as Antalya and Mugla, and major cities like Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Bursa. Those settling in cities like Istanbul or Ankara are more likely to have diplomatic, business, educational or other such concerns, compared to European retirees settling in the tourist regions of southwestern Turkey. In 2013, Istanbul, the economic and cultural center of the country, had the largest foreign population with 135,018 foreigners (a 58,2 percent increase from 2012), the capital city Ankara had 42,310, while Izmir, the metropolis on the Aegean coast, and Bursa in the Marmara region, had 21,597 and 22,591 foreigners, respectively. These four cities are home to about 46.1 percent of the settled foreign population in Turkey. The coastal provinces of Antalya and Mugla, as leading international tourism destinations, also have a significant share of 12.9 percent (Table 1).

Retired EU migrants have mostly concentrated in the coastal districts of the so-called "Turkish Riviera," such as Kemer, Manavgat, Alanya, Fethiye, Bodrum, Marmaris, Didim and Kusadasi. This coastal zone, extending from the Aydin province to the Antalya province, is a major international tourism destination. These retirees are generally clustered according to specific nationalities at both the district and provincial levels. At the provincial level, citizens of Nordic countries, Belgium and the Netherlands prefer Antalya, while citizens of the UK and Ireland prefer the southwestern provinces of Mugla and Aydin. At the district level, the majority of retirees living in southwestern towns of the Antalya province, such as Kas and Kalkan, are British, while Germans prefer the southeastern coast, Alanya. This segregation of nationalities also occurs at the level of housing complexes, where retirees prefer to live with people of their own nationality. (13)

Concerning the geographical distribution pattern, the preferred provinces for German citizens are Istanbul and Antalya, but there are also significant German populations in inland provinces like Aksaray, Konya and Yozgat. This is probably due to the presence of returning migrants, German citizens of Turkish origin who returned to their home towns or divide their time between the two countries. The same holds for Dutch and Nordic citizens in Karaman, who also hold a blue card that provides all the rights of a Turkish citizen, except political ones. (14) (Table 2)

Figure 2 show the concentrations of different EU nationalities at the provincial level. German citizens are more widely distributed (Map A), while British and Irish citizens concentrate particularly in the southwestern coastal zone (Map B). Dutch and Belgium citizens prefe rthe Mugla and Aydin provinces, whereas Nordic citizens (15) favor Antalya (Maps C and D).

All three provinces (Aydin, Mugla and Antalya) have experienced an ever-increasing influx of foreigners in recent years. During 2008-2013, the number of foreigners increased 4.4 times in Aydin (from 1,854 to 8,088), 3.7 times in Mugla (from 4,460 to 16,490) and 6.1 times in Antalya (from 6,934 to 42,310). (16) Of these three provinces, Antalya and its districts have been the leading international retirement destinations due to earlier tourism development, including an international airport. There are some leading districts attracting the majority of the foreign population in each province, such as Didim and Kusadasi in Aydin with a total of 85.6 percent; Bodrum, Fethiye and Marmaris in Mugla with 80.7 percent; and Alanya, Manavgat, Kemer and Kas in Antalya, with the city center, at 93.0 percent (Table 3).

Methodology and Findings

Comparisons based on nationality and lifestyle in different regions is a common approach in IRM research to reveal differences and similarities between various national groups with respect to their socioeconomic profiles, migration motivations and social contacts with host cultures. (17) Rodriguez et al. noted in their comparative study, which focused on nine different southern European destinations, that "many investigations of northern European migration to the south have been particularly interested in the social contacts of the participants in both the destination and origin areas." (18) As a relatively new destination country for IRM, there has been...