‘So Tasmanian’: Analysing escape in migrants’ geographical and temporal imaginaries of Tasmania

This article explores how migrants narrate their move to Australia’s island-state of Tasmania, and how these narrations navigate influential discourses framing Tasmania as an escape destination for lifestyle and climate change reasons. This analysis draws from 25 in-depth interviews with national and international migrant participants who moved to Tasmania since 2010. Previous research has put forward lifestyle, weather, and climate change as major reasons for migrating to Tasmania. This article relates these accounts to geographical and temporal imaginaries of Tasmania, that can sometimes be adopted after having moved. This argument comes together in three steps. First, this article narrates migrants’ encounters with Tasmania, including how different migrant groups articulate their move. Second, this article analyses how participants conceptualise being ‘local’ or ‘Tasmanian’ and how these relationships are impacted by racial appearance and subsequent perceived temporal commitment to the state. Third, this article analyses how participants narrate Tasmania’s future through hopes, fears, and expectations, particularly through ambivalent feelings towards urban development and increasing population. Together, this article shows how migrants mobilise escape narratives to demonstrate belonging in Tasmania, how these narratives reflect particular environmental and nostalgic imaginaries, and effects these narratives can have on contemporary migration discourses.