‘An empire lost but a province gained’: a cohort analysis of British international retirement in the Algarve

The growth of international retirement in the Algarve has coincided with a number of changes in the international framework for population mobility as well as in the nature of the Algarve as a destination area. Tourism development, which is intimately linked to subsequent retirement migration, is particularly important in this. This paper considers the nature of the link between cycles of migration and of development in recipient areas, in the context of the remarkable and relatively late development of the Algarve as an area of tourism and retirement. The principal data sources for this study are 219 questionnaires completed by retired British nationals living in the Algarve, and a number of key informants. Cohort analysis of the questionnaires (in terms of arrival dates) provides the basis for an examination of changes over time in the socio-demographic profiles of the migrants, their motivations, their residential patterns and their integration. The results serve to underline the importance of an evolutionary perspective, and the need to disaggregate data on the international retirement populations living in the Algarve and other southern European countries.