Living with Change Among a Transient Population: Narratives and Practices of Collective Belonging among Swedish Migrants on the Costa del Sol in Spain1

The article explores how the Swedish migrants narrate and practice collective belonging as strategies to handle life in a region characterised by a transient and circulating population on the Costa del Sol, Spain. It is based on an ethnographic research within the Swedish infrastructure of organizations, institutions, and private enterprises, in addition to interviews with Swedish migrants who are registered residents and live on a permanent basis along the Spanish southern coast. The wider analytical framework consists of theories of diaspora, transnationality and identification. The article shows how the Swedish migrants are engaged in diasporic and transnational practices, and highlights how they value and attribute meanings to such practices. It also illuminates how internal divisions within the Swedish population are shaped through identification in narrations.