Doctoral Dissertation Research: When Locals Adapt to Newcomers

University Of Kansas Center For Research Inc, Lawrence KS

Investigators

Abstract

This project investigates the effects affluent newcomers have on poor communities in a developing region when they become a newcomer community of lifestyle migrants. Some are retirees who hope to stretch their pensions by living in a cheaper location and some are younger people looking for adventure, a slower pace of life, or cheaper cost of living in a beautiful place. Many open businesses and employ household staff in an area where most locals work in the tourism industry. Understanding these newcomers' relations with locals is important because their role as entrepreneurs, bosses, and landowners could be increasing differences in economic opportunities in a peaceful, democratic region. This project advances the study of migration and mixing, gentrification in rural communities, and retirement, specifically filling a gap in understanding how privileged migrants affect local economies and social relations. The main sources of data for this project will be interviews and ethnographic research. Forty-five interviews with lifestyle migrants from two different outside regions will be conducted as well as 40 interviews with locals. The ethnographic component will consist of one year of participant observation of migrant-run businesses and households, community events, and social gatherings in five small towns. Snowball sampling will be used for interviewee selection, and opportunistic sampling to determine where participant observation will occur. The research questions addressed concern how outsiders' advantageous economic position affects their influence and how the economic and influence resources of lifestyle migrants affect locals. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.