Lifestyle Im/mobilities in the Covid-19 Era (2021)

Funding:

Role:

Duration:

School of Arts and Social Sciences Internal Grant

Principal Investigator (PI)

January 2021 - December 2021

This project explores the impacts of Covid-19 related travel and other restrictions on:

The im/mobility experiences and future mobility plans of two groups of ‘migrants’:
- Lifestyle migrants who are already living in Malaysia; and
- Aspiring lifestyle migrants to Malaysia
The lifestyle migration industry (i.e., formal/informal service providers and public agents that have vested interests in the continuation of lifestyle mobilities).

It seeks to examine the following research questions:

How have Covid-19 related travel and other restrictions shaped the im/mobility experiences and future mobility plans of lifestyle migrants in/to Malaysia?
How have Covid-19 related travel and other restrictions impacted on the lifestyle migration industry that are reliant on these lifestyle mobilities?
How are lifestyle migrants and the migration industry adapting to the broader changes to lifestyle im/mobilities, individually and collectively?

In doing so, it aims to:

Understand whether and how lifestyle im/mobilities in/to Malaysia are shifting in response to Covid-19 related travel and other restrictions;
Understand how public and private agents in the lifestyle migration industry are responding to the broader changes to lifestyle im/mobilities;
Identify research findings to inform existing policies; and
Identify insights to inform larger scale, follow-up research.