Reinvent or Die

Released in 1968, the poignant, nostalgic song "America" captured the character of an especially restive time in American history. Written while singer-songwriter Paul Simon visited Saginaw, Michigan, for a concert at the local YMCA, it was released just as he and partner, Art Garfunkel, were becoming a national sensation. Simon's experience inspired him to pen a song of two lovers who strike out from the city—one reflecting during their journey that "Michigan seems like a dream to me now. / It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw. / I've come to look for America." Though Simon and Garfunkel were heading to fame and fortune, it was not by way of Saginaw—its fortunes were headed elsewhere. At this juncture, the city was poised unwittingly to leave behind glory as a star in the constellation of midwestern industrial might. Today the city has been hollowed out by cost-cutting closings of General Motors factories—with its ripple effect into local businesses—and an ensuing hemorrhage of population.

In the 2010 census, some fifty-one thousand people called Saginaw home. That's just shy of half the high-water mark set in I960. In the past decade alone, ten thousand residents called it quits to find their fortune elsewhere. To the extent that Saginaw continues to show life—at least from afar—one might say it is largely through persistent longing. In late 2010, a reporter for the Saginaw News documented appearance of what he came to understand was a coordinated effort by a mural painter who had returned to Saginaw after leaving many years earlier. He began spray-painting lyrics from Simon and Garfunkel's "America" on abandoned structures around town, over two dozen altogether. Notably, those who left Saginaw in increasing numbers over the past few decades left not so much to "look for America" as to look for improved economic prospects somewhere else within it. They opted for elsewhere.

This book is about an option of elsewhere seen in the behavior of migrants who decide on relocation as a means of starting over—here according to a personal lifestyle commitment within an overarching concern for quality of life. I aim to contextualize lifestyle migration within a discussion of significant processes of cultural, social, and economic change and debates about the meaning of such basic categories as work, family, and community. I have structured the book into five sections. Part I foregrounds essential elements of the story of lifestyle migration through introducing processes for individual and collective construction of "the good"—something basic to the relocation decisions of lifestyle migrants—together with a perspective on how this entails taking a moral orientation that is inherently spatial. I also offer a descriptive discussion of the physical setting for this research. Part II draws on the accounts of migrants as well as a historical discussion of relevant migration trends in the United States to establish an appreciation of what is at stake in lifestyle migration for people and the places that are affected by their relocation decisions. Part III furthers an examination of essential elements by exploring the changing meaning of work in the lives of lifestyle migrants as well as the importance of a cultivated sense of place in an emerging identity facilitated by the act of relocation. Part IV explores the complex dimensions and tensions entailed in the paths that lifestyle migrants take as they navigate between actual and—what we may think of as—potential selves. Part V concludes my analysis by examining dynamics between migrants and longtime residents in destination communities and tying up threads from the book as a whole in order to succinctly situate lifestyle migration in what appear as contemporary cultural trends. Finally, the Epilogue extends our consideration of what lifestyle migration might be able to tell us about what's next in American society while rounding out the stories of three central characters. I have included a discussion of methods as well as a copy of my initial interview guide in the Appendixes.

Given that the area that I chose for examining this migration phenomenon—and what it might imply about both shifting meanings and structural conditions—is in a state where stories of in-migration run very much counter to a prevailing contemporary story of exodus, I have chosen to focus the introductory chapter on the current state of Michigan in light of the aforementioned cultural, social, and economic changes. In this way, I introduce my approach to lifestyle migration, which is to explore the accounts of these migrants for what we can learn about changing cultural understandings in the United States.

Michigration

In an apparent slip of the tongue, a TV reporter out of Grand Rapids, Michigan, coined a term for contemporary out-migration from the state when she inadvertently combined two words during her commentary to form the catchy "Michigration" while reporting on a study conducted by United Van Lines and released in early 2008. The study was well timed for the gaffe, coming just as a deep recession took hold of the nation. One of the country's largest moving companies, United reported that in 2007 Michigan was number one among all states for outbound moves handled by the company at 67-8 percent of all contracts (both inbound and outbound for the state). Nearly 110,000 more people left the state from 2007 to 2008 than moved in.

While many have already left Michigan, there is evidence that during the past several years many more would have moved out of state. Even in instances where skilled workers have job offers out of state, they remain saddled with homes that have lost so much value that many are now "underwater" on mortgages—a term that appropriately captures a sense of drowning. Mortgages that are underwater have home owners who own more on their loan than the value of the house and land. In real estate parlance, these homes are "distressed properties." Clearly, it isn't only the properties that are troubled. In this state, worried home owners have been unwilling or unable to leave. Many became, in effect, economic detainees of a deflated housing market. They are an opposing category to the "equity migrants" who, in better economic times, used value in houses sold in one location to fund relocations to other places....