Integrating lifestyle and welfare aspirations in (im)mobility decisions: perspectives from a relatively disadvantaged group in Tangier, Morocco

Abstract This article explores how perceptions of welfare regimes shape aspired lifestyles, understandings of the good life, and (im)mobility aspirations among individuals with disadvantaged social positions in Tangier, Morocco. By comparing notions of welfare in the lifestyle migration and the welfare migration literatures, the study challenges taken-for-granted assumptions that relative privilege or social mobility in the contexts of destination is a sine qua non condition to put lifestyle ahead of economic considerations in (im)mobility decisions. The findings, based on the analysis of 20 semi-structured interviews, a survey of 500 Moroccan men and women, and fieldwork observations, highlights the agency of individuals in disadvantaged positions, who prefer living where their lifestyles align more closely with their moral values. The article contributes to the lifestyle in migration approach by highlighting the subjectivities of entangled lifestyle and welfare considerations in (im)mobility decision-making. It invites to pay more attention to how meanings and social categorisation processes that differentiate between more or less advantaged individuals shapes the framing of research on lifestyle and (im)mobility. It also proposes that future studies and policy making understand welfare as more than a structure and consider lifestyle beyond its experiential dimension.