Exploring the Role of Sport and Leisure in Lifestyle Migration Decision-Making: A Case Study of South Korean Migration to New Zealand

Little is known about the key lifestyle factors involved in migration decision-making. According to Benson and O’Reilly (2009) and Benson (2010), lifestyle considerations, including sport and leisure participation, may play an important role in migration decisions. Yet, there is little explicit research examining the nature and extent to which sport and leisure play in lifestyle migration. Thus, this paper explores how both macro level social structures and micro level individual choices, influence lifestyle migration decisions of South Koreans moving to New Zealand. More specifically, the paper examines how South Korean migrants consider sport and leisure activities as factors within their lifestyle migration decision-making process. The findings highlight a variety of risk factors in South Korea which influenced migration including: (1) excessive competition and inequality (2) conflicts between North and South Korea, (3) obsession with education and (4) conflicts between traditional and contemporary values. As a result Koreans reflected on their lives with many realising that: (1) they could not live the (slow and leisurely) life they wanted; (2) they could not spend adequate time with their family; and, (3) they could not distinguish themselves from fellow Koreans who had similar social status and ability. Under such circumstances, South Korean migrants to New Zealand revealed that they were looking for a new/better/different lifestyle, and that sport and leisure activities played a role in the process of lifestyle migration decision-making.