Reasons for Returning and Not Returning to Rural U.S. Communities

Abstract

Population loss persists in nonmetropolitan America, especially in isolated counties with limited natural amenities. Communities in these counties experience high levels of outmigration among high school graduates, but low in-migration is more important in distinguishing declining from growing nonmetropolitan counties, and return migration is a much more prominent component of in-migration to these locationally disadvantaged areas. This research uses a multisited, interview-based methodology to understand the factors that influence decisions of people in their late twenties to late forties to move back to rural communities and the barriers that keep others from making such moves. The life course segment considered here captures a critical "settling down" period when career and family obligations overlap and return migration peaks. Interviews at high school reunions, the only venues where stayers, return migrants, and nonreturn migrants are found together, show that limited rural employment opportunities are barriers for nonreturnees. Others intent on returning find ways to secure or create employment but are primarily influenced to move home by family concerns. Connections to the larger social and physical environment of the community are important as well. Interviews affirm that factors affecting migration decisions work in combination, and ties to both people and place are critical for understanding rural return migration. Key Words: population loss, qualitative methods, return migration, rural, United States. , , ,La pérdida de población es un fenómeno que persiste en lasáreas no metropolitanas de EE.UU., especialmente en los condados marginales dotados de pocas comodidades naturales. En las comunidades de estos condados se experimentan altos niveles de emigración en los graduados de educación media, aunque el escaso movimiento migratorio contrario es más importante para distinguir la declinación con relación a los condados no metropolitanos en crecimiento, y la migración de retorno es un componente mucho más notorio de la migración interna hacia estasáreas locacionalmente desfavorecidas. Esta investigación utiliza una metodología de sitios múltiples basada en entrevistas para entender los factores que influyen las decisiones de retornar a las comunidades rurales entre la gente con edades situadas entre los veintes tardíos y los finales de los cuarenta, y establecer las barreras que previenen a otros de tal desplazamiento. Este segmento del curso de la vida que se considera aquí engloba un período crítico de "asentamiento" cuando las obligaciones de la carrera y la familia se traslapan y la migración de retorno llega a su pico. Por entrevistas hechas durante asambleas en los colegios de bachillerato,únicos sitios de reunión donde se pueden encontrar juntos a quienes no han migrado, los que retornan y los otros migrantes, muestran que las limitadas oportunidades de empleo rural son una seria barrera para los in-migrantes. Otros intentan con el retorno descubrir los medios para hallar empleo o crearlo, aunque lo...

Is the Tied Returnee Male or Female? The Trailing Spouse Thesis Reconsidered

“…The obvious fact that a partner and/or family might restrict the return migration was empirically confirmed in Canada by Grant and Vanderkamp () and then in other countries by, for example, Heikkilä and Korhonen () in Finland and von Reichert et al . () in the US.…”

“…von Reichert et al . () noticed that one spouse tends to be more willing to accompany the other spouse to return if their origins are similar (e.g. rural).…”

Twenty Years of Rural Entrepreneurship: A Bibliometric Survey

“…Such characteristics strongly influence entrepreneurial dynamics and job creation (Dinis ; Culliney ), the quality of educational and other public service resources and the quality of certain types of infrastructure (OECD ; von Reichert et al . ). The major problems are a lack of employment opportunities (Bosworth ) and limited access to public services such as education and health (Lehmann et al .…”

Impacts of Return Migration on Rural U.S. Communities

“…Conversations with return migrants having three or more children were quite common. They mentioned the greater ease of raising children in a smaller town: “We have five children and I thought it would be a good place to raise a family.” A separate analysis of these same interviews showed that enabling children to grow up near grandparents was a common reason cited for returning (von Reichert, Cromartie, and Arthun , forthcoming). Advantages of raising children in smaller communities and opportunities for children to attend smaller schools were also frequently mentioned: “So we have three boys.…”