In pursuit of a ‘good enough life’: Chinese ‘educational exiles’ in Lisbon and Budapest

ABSTRACTThis article examines how middle-class families from China are using 'golden visa' investment schemes to settle in Portugal and Hungary to pursue postmaterial motivations: instead of seeking capital accumulation, they set out in search of a more meaningful life and improve their quality of life by securing less stressful education for their children. By reviewing lifestyle migration literature, we introduce the concept of 'lifestyle exiles' which shifts the perspective from narratives of leisure to narratives of escape. We base our argumentation on qualitative research conducted with Chinese golden visa migrants in Lisbon and Budapest, as we analyse their aspirations to move. Our findings suggest the need to understand lifestyle migration from an 'exile' perspective which enables us to theorise these privileged middle-class families as 'educational exiles'. In the conclusion, we revisit the notion of lifestyle exiles, discussing its potential contribution for migration theory.KEYWORDS: Chinese migrantsLifestyle migrationEducational exilesGolden visalifestyle exiles AcknowledgementThe authors would like to thank Pál Nyíri for his comments to an earlier version of this paper.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Informed consentAll our informants have expressly given their informed consent to participate in this study.Notes1 According to Inglehart's (Citation1977) value change theory, as material conditions stabilise, societies' prevailing values tend to shift from survival to 'postmaterial' goals such as a clean environment, self-expression, free speech or gender equality.2 For an almost exhaustive list of exceptions, see Ono Citation2015; Igarashi Citation2015; Nagatomo Citation2014; Yovcheva Citation2022 on Japanese lifestyle migration; on Chinese lifestyle migration, see Liu-Farrer Citation2016; Gaspar and Ampudia de Haro Citation2020; Nyíri and Beck Citation2020.Additional informationFundingThis article is based on research supported by the China in Europe Research Network (CHERN). CHERN is funded by European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) as Action CA18215 under Grant ECOST-STSM-Request-CA18215-47227.