Abstract (EN)

Up to the year 2000, British migration to France was mostly concerned with retirees in their fifties or more. The increasing number of British people in various regions of France (and Europe) in the last five years has brought into focus a new wave of migrants: that of younger people who have decided to leave their country and settle with their children in France. The presentation, based on survey questionnaires and interviews conducted among French and British people in the trendy area of Chamonix, will stress the origins of these new settlers, their reasons for leaving their native country and selecting an area which seems so different from the quiet countryside elected by their elders. It will also describe the consequences of French and British cohabitation on the local economic and social structure. Lastly this paper will question the Chamonix case as being representative of a growing mobility of the British towards France.