Regional Retirement Migration: The Case of Cape Cod

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Abstract
Using microlevel data from the Cape Cod Retirement Migration Study, this study addressed two questions: Why are regional destinations attractive to older migrants? Are there any salient differences among regional retirement migrants? Cape Cod, Massachusetts, attracts regional migrants for primarily three reasons: it is a familiar place to most migrants; it is a proximate setting for a variety of amenities; and it is relatively near these migrants' communities of origin, allowing them to maintain ties to previous residences. We argue that a regional move allows migrants to preserve some degree of continuity in their lives that would be impossible had they moved across greater distances, and that the experiences of intrastate migrants illustrate this theme of continuity to a greater extent than those of interstate regional migrants. Our research provides strong evidence that the distance of the move is an important dimension of the migration process for older people and one that can be fruitfully studied on both the macro and micro levels of analysis.

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