The experiences of British citizens in Didim a coastal town in Turkey: A case of lifestyle migration


Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Sosyoloji Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2007

Öğrenci: F. ÖZLEM NUDRALI

Danışman: HEDİYE SİBEL KALAYCIOĞLU

Özet:

The aim of this thesis is providing an initial insight into the quite recent Northern European immigration to Coastal Turkey through exploring its causes and consequences within the context of a particular locality, Didim where a single nationality group, the British, comprise the most prominent lifestyle migrant category. In that frame, three aspects of the migratory move namely the causes and the meaning of the move through the migrant narratives; the new social spaces created in terms of everyday practices of the migrants and the interactions with the locals; and the meanings of the changes for the locals have been elaborated. Within a descriptive ethnographic approach, in depth interviews were conducted in Didim with 20 British lifestyle migrants and 20 locals. It is found out that while the migratory move to Didim is a strategy devised by the British migrants to react to the broader social and cultural changes impacting their lives; the meaning of the same move for the locals of Didim is a change impacting their lives which requires devising new strategies for coping and for challenging. The encounters and co-habitation of the two groups of people from countries of different affluence levels and with a significant cultural distance, in the social setting of migration transgressing the boundaries of the already established context of international tourism, shape the daily life in Didim through the new social spaces being constructed and identities being constantly re-negotiated.