New geographies of migration in Latin America: citizenship practices in a destination of residential tourism

Abstract

During the first decade of the 21st century, several Latin American countries such as Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama developed as important destinations for lifestyle- and leisure-oriented mobility and migration flows, mainly of foreigners of U.S., Canadian and European origin. Such migration widely transforms the spaces and places of reception, and symbolically important social and political transformations occur. For instance, as they seek new forms of social and political participation, the migrants provoke important reconfigurations of the political sphere, especially at the local scale. This article develops a conceptual framework to analyse the different forms of participation and incorporation through the assumption that participation can be evaluated as a strategic practice of citizenship that aims at challenging local governance regimes and established political power positions. This argument will be developed through the analysis of the political and social dynamics in a destination of lifestyle-oriented migration in Costa Rica.