Youth migration, rurality and class

Abstract

Drawing on Bourdieusian social theory, the paper combines class and social constructionist perspectives to reconceptualize youth's rural-to-urban migration. It discusses how structural properties of everyday lives, e.g. class background, inform rural youth's evaluations of rurality, and how these evaluations generate specific rural/urban residential preferences and migration practices. The theoretical discussion is informed by a survey study among rural teenagers in a remote rural region in Norway -the Mountain Region. The results show significant correspondence between informants' location in the rural class structure as measured by parents' economic/cultural capital resources and occupation, their evaluations of rurality and, finally, their preferences along the rural-urban dimension for a future place to live. The findings indicate that the social background of rural youth has a greater influence on migration decisions than has been acknowledged in contemporary and predominantly social-constructionist rural migration research. Thus, the paper advocates a theoretical framework that conceptualizes the migration decisions of rural youth as resulting from individualized and free choices, but still structured by predispositions of their rural class habitus.

Staying in a state of flux: A life course perspective on the diverse staying processes of rural young adults

“…Equally, perceptions of the rural, and indeed place, vary across the life course (Haartsen, Groote, & Huigen, ). It is good for children (idyllic) but not so good for teenagers (dull) (Haartsen & Strijker, ), and rural adolescents express a preference for rural living when they are older (Glendinning et al, ; Rye, ). A rural residence is attractive to families (Kuhmonen et al, ) and those at or around retirement (Lowe & Speakman, ; Stockdale & MacLeod, ).…”

Spatiotemporal Effects of Main Impact Factors on Residential Land Price in Major Cities of China

“…Based on location theory and supply-demand theory, considering the complicated land market in China and the available databases, representative elements were chosen to analyze the spatially varying effects on residential land price after a series of statistical analyses, including immigrant population [22,[32][33][34], gross domestic product (GDP) [17,35] and investment in residential buildings [36][37][38][39][40]. The economic data are from the China City Statistical Yearbook directly [41].…”

“…The study of Rose [32] revealed strong positive correlations between land price and the level of population or population growth rate. Rye [33] indicated that migration decisions of youths in a remote rural region in Norway resulted from individual and free choices but were still structured by their rural class habitus. Saiz [34] also indicated that rents and housing values in US destination cities are pushed up by immigration.…”

Migration and post-university transition. Why do university graduates not return to their rural home region?

“…Rye (2011) observes among young adults that rurality is associated with contradictory images (dull vs. idyllic). Traditionally, research has shown that amenities and quality of life dominate in short-distance moves, but more recently their importance has also been highlighted in amenity-led P. Rérat: Migration and post-university transition or lifestyle migration toward rural or mountainous regions (Gosnell and Abrams, 2011).…”