This presentation demonstrates how a cohort of people who relocated to Japan adjust to make their new life ‘ordinary’.  The presentation is based on my study that explores an alternative approach to understanding ‘lifestyle migration’. Notably, the research proposes an idea of ‘enviroscape’ to provide a broader perspective of the environment of the migrants which includes humans, non-humans, semiotic resources, spatiotemporal contexts, and other aspects.

In contemporary migration some people relocate in pursuit of a ‘different’ or an ‘alternative’ life. This type of migration is called ‘lifestyle migration’ which some scholars perceive as a reflexive project of the self (Benson & O’Reilly, 2009; Korpela, 2010; Nelson et al., 2021). This notion is based on Giddens’ (1991) view of ‘lifestyle’ which becomes an issue in modern society where a range of choices exist unlike traditional society where people’s lives tend to be determined by their social positions. Gidden’s notion influenced the conceptualization of this migration phenomenon by offering an understanding of what ‘lifestyle’ means.

This research examines life trajectories and meaning-making of people who voluntarily moved to Japan.  It draws on Ingold (2007) who argued that things in the environment ‘occur’ and become active because of the way in which they are intertwined in the lifeworld. The data are collected in a form of life story interviews – some in English and some in Japanese - as a narrative inquiry from six participants who moved to Japan.   The study analyzes how they told their life stories and how different environments in stories unfolded their experiences and events to form their unique world.  The study suggests the examination of the participants’ life stories through an extended view of their environment enhances understanding of their linguistic as well as non-linguistic communications and interactions that serve to find ‘ordinariness’ in their new home.