ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on lifestyle migrants. It argues that it is constellations of privilege that facilitate their migration, shaping and influencing their patterns of settlement. The book suggests that privilege should be considered as an inherently and inextricably classed and racialised formation, wherein whiteness intersects with the resources of socio-economic privilege to construct a sense of entitlement to mobility and settlement which transcends national boundaries. It describes how an alternative performance of Britishness is demonstrated by the ‘Ang-Mohporians’, who attempt to distance themselves from the representations, and practices, associated with the traditional expatriate. The book explores the category of ‘expatriate’ as it is used and negotiated by British migrants themselves, revealing its complexity, instability, and how it is met with both enthusiasm and aversion.