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Rural areas are places where various social groups live either permanently or seasonally. The mobilities and immobilities of these groups are related to their differential resources. The vast impact of the financial crisis on Greece relates to the major decline of its GDP and enormous increase in unemployment. The article aims to shed light on the complexities of social marginalisation and social exclusion in rural Greece, but also, and more importantly, to theorise the coping mechanisms and strategies by those affected and build upon the experiences of rural areas during the prolonged economic crisis. Population dynamics and the various social and spatial mobilities in rural areas provide the baseline for tracing rural complexities and theorising the emergent coping strategies. The concepts of rural cosmopolitanism and resilience are used to unpack the complexities of marginalisation and social exclusion in rural Greece. A brief reference to the statistical data resolves the apparent controversies related to the changing regional and local geography of poverty and social exclusion in Greece during the crisis. The more focused empirical findings, illustrated in the form of two island areas, illustrate the various coping mechanisms and strategies that are emerging in rural Greece.

The paper aims to exemplify and discuss the changing conditions and challenges posed by the newly arriving populations of migrants and refugees in rural Greece, along with local people’s views on the impact of the new arrivals in their rural places. Its main objective is to understand whether migrants and refugees create threats or opportunities for the local population, and whether movers and non-movers have a shared understanding of well-being in their rural areas. The analysis unveils the connections that are emerging between migrants and refugees and the economy, society and culture in rural receiving areas. Thus, the paper aims at showing the complexity of rural migrant flows and how the interactions between migrants, refugees and locals in the light of the well-being of rural areas may inform rural development in Greece. The paper is structured into five main sections following the introduction. The first section contains a discussion of the main concepts used as building blocks for creating a theoretical framing of well-being in rural areas. The second section develops a brief discussion of international and internal migration to rural areas in Greece, as well as providing some contextual information on the impact of the economic crisis and new developments in response to the recession. The third section includes a short presentation of the methodological approach and a description of the case study area. The fourth section is dedicated to an analysis of the narratives of international migrants, refugees, internal migrants, locals and stakeholders. Finally, the concluding section critically discusses the conceptualisations of rurality and well-being between the various population groups and articulates the challenges connected to well-being and mobilities in contemporary rural Greece.

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Ever since Ravenstein’s work on the “Laws of Migration”, the determinants/drivers of migration--that is, the question: ‘Why do people migrate?’ – has been at the heart of migration studies. The exploration of migration/mobility processes also emphasizes the ways that migrants decide to leave and embark on their journey and how migratory practices may orient and motivate the (im)mobility decisions and aspirations of other migrant actors, establishing various ‘cultures of migration’ and creating new ‘imaginaries of mobility’ that shape future movements. The paper aims to explore the changing aspirations of migration that influence the migration decision-making of Romanian migrants and the way these are shaped by micro, meso and structural factors in both sending and receiving countries.