Privileged migration in the era of globalization? The case of Vilcabamba, Ecuador

Abstract

Migration by definition implies the spatial mobility of human beings from one place to another, this displacement also entails the experimentation of new relationships, sensations, and changes in every sense. In the era of globalization, people move, migrate and travel more than ever before in the history of humanity. Current societies can be described as both «liquid» or as more «mobile» in such a way that these movements, particularly of goods and capitals have caused changes in society at a global level, which relies to a large extent on technological innovations in communications and transport; moreover, the case of retirees from countries of the economic North who decide to migrate to countries of the economic South, a relatively new and little studied phenomenon, where the concept of privileged migration is put against the light, elucidating whether they really choose to migrate for pleasure or are consequences of financialized capitalism and the global crisis that occurred in 2007.