Why Here?”—Pull Factors for the Attraction of Non-EU Immigrants to Rural Areas and Smaller Cities
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13026596 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Elisete Diogo (0000-0002-5303-8585, Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 184-184 |
| Publication date | 2024-03-25 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2076-0760 • E-ISSN: 2076-0760 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/socsci13040184 |
| OpenAlex | W4393142923 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 30 |
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes the crucial role of the regional dimension for economic, social, and environmental development. Sustainable development may be linked to migration management to strategically disperse international migrants to regions in need of ameliorating rural challenges. This paper explores the features affecting international migrants’ intentions to move to rural areas, such as Alentejo, Portugal, based on a set of micro-, mezzo-, and macro-sociological migration theories to support policymakers. This paper addresses the following research question: what motivates immigrants’ decisions to move to rural regions, such as Alentejo, Portugal? Practitioners (n = 8) and migrants (n = 15) were interviewed, and then a thematic analysis supported by MaxQDA 2022 was conducted. The results suggest that there is a set of motives for international migrants to move to rural areas and smaller cities based on multilevel factors, both economic and non-economic, such as the following: employment availability and promises of work; lower living costs compared to bigger cities; quality of life; local services support; and echoes of the country of origin. Migrants’ networks and seeking greater opportunities were consistent motives. The pull to rural areas, however, is a side effect of the attraction of Portugal and Europe as destinations. The conclusions highlight implications for policy and practice on migration and local development
Attraction · Demographic economics · Economic geography · Economics · Geography · Immigration · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Rural development and sustainability
Assessing the Social Impact of Immigration in Europe
Sustainable development, intellectual capital and technology policies
The Global Lives of German Migrants
New Immigration Destinations
Human Capital Theory and Internal Migration
A theory of migration
Foreign Immigrants in Depopulated Rural Areas
Between ‘Labour Migration’ and ‘New European Mobilities’
Retaining Non-EU Immigrants in Rural Areas to Sustain Depopulated Regions
Migration and the reconfiguration of rural places
Reducing Depopulation in Rural Spain
New Immigration Destinations (NID) unravelling the challenges and opportunities for migrants and for host communities
Migrants' experiences of material and emotional security in rural Scotland
The attraction of cities
A theory of migration
Using thematic analysis in psychology
Fluxos migratórios em Portugal
Retrato de um Portugal migrante
Migration in the age of involuntary immobility
Researching Migration in a Superdiverse Society
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |