Over the past ten years, an increasing number of people have moved to the Maritimes and Northern Ontario seeking affordability, access to nature, a slower pace of life and ultimately, the ability to centre ‘life’ over work. The Covid-19 pandemic amplified this trend and prompted a reversal of population growth in many communities. This paper explores how understandings of work, life and region were implicated this move and the effects of this migration on the livelihoods of movers and longstanding residents of receiving communities drawing on interviews with 60 people who migrated to Northeastern Ontario and Nova Scotia between 2019 and 2024 and 46 key informants. For many migrants the quest for affordability was implicated with desires to work less or differently. And, although moving allowed many people to work less or prioritize activities outside of paid work, many faced difficulty integrating in new communities and missed the social connections of their old locales. Population increases also influenced affordability and access to services in receiving communities for both migrants and longstanding residents. By examining how the aspiration for a life with less work played out geographically and inter-regionally, this research places the struggle against work alongside broader processes of uneven development.