Disrupted Geographic Arbitrage and Differential Capacities of Coping in Later-Life: Anglo-Western Teacher Expatriates in Brunei

Abstract

North-South migration by relatively privileged skilled or lifestyle/retirement migrants has been analyzed, using the concept of geographic arbitrage (i.e., the use of North-South migration as a cross-border social maintenance or advancement strategy). However, little research has examined what happens when such projects are prematurely disrupted in later life. This article addresses this gap by drawing on interviews with 25 Anglo-Western teacher expatriates in Brunei. While these “middling” expatriates have been able to capitalize on their positions as desirable native English-speaking teachers to kickstart or continue their expatriation, recent shifts in Brunei’s political economy, coupled with its exclusionary citizenship and immigration policies, have posed unforeseen disruptions to their original geographic arbitrage projects. By examining individuals’ differential capacities to cope with this unexpected situation in later life, this article urges migration scholars to be attentive to individual circumstances (e.g., age, marital and familial situations, migration history) that produce in-group mobility inequalities. This focus adds nuance and texture to the geographic arbitrage thesis.