Describing and explaining the social integration of international retirement migrants: a study in thirty-five destination countries

Abstract Limited social integration can have adverse effects on both migrants and host communities. For the case of international retirement migrants, previous evidence suggests that migrants struggle to integrate into the local community. Using a novel survey of Dutch retirement migrants based on a probability sample (DRM 2021), we describe and explain Dutch retirement migrants’ social integration with locals, Dutch migrants, and non-Dutch migrants in thirty-five destination countries. Findings show that, on average, Dutch retirement migrants have the most contact with locals, followed by Dutch migrants and the least contact with non-Dutch migrants. According to our multilevel analyses, an important country-level predictor of decreased local contact was linguistic dissimilarity between origin and destination languages. Contact with locals versus migrants was also affected by the relative size of the migrant group in the destination. Significant individual-level sociocultural predictors were previous connections to the destination, which was associated with increased local contact, and stronger national identification, which was associated with having more friendships with Dutch migrants. Overall, the results reveal the effect of preferences and opportunity structures on retirement migrants’ social integration.