Campsite Migrants: British Caravanners and Homemaking in Benidorm

Based on ethnographic fieldwork amongst British migrants on a Spanish Camping and caravan site, this article argues that the home is a productive entrance point for understanding the dynamics of this form of migration. Whilst campsites are planned and legally regulated as leisure spheres for mobile camping, touring caravans provide an affordable option for migrants otherwise excluded from the Spanish property market. In this article, I show how economic activities are centred on the caravan homemaking wherein mobile dwellings are transformed into – and used as – immobile living units. The making of the caravan home is furthermore central to the shaping and maintenance of social networks of support that are based on ‘handyman’ manual labour and a cash economy.