Socio-economic differentiation and selective migration in rural and urban

Sweden

Susanne.Hjort@geography.umu.se

Department of Social and Economic Geography,

Umeå University, Sweden (2006)

Migration selectivity

• Who are the migrants? Where do they move?– Segregation– Gentrification

• Rural and urban contexts– Segregation– Gentrification– Attitudes

Background• 4 Studies

– The attraction of the rural (who are the migrants?)– Socio-economic segregation in Stockholm metropolitan

area– Rural gentrification– Rural or urban? Life values and attitudes toward living

environment and housing• Time

– (1970)1985-1994, 2002• Type of studies

– Aggregated area data– Micro level individual register data– Survey

• Variables– Socio-economic and demographic– Survey questions concerning attitudes toward living

environment and housing• Methods

– Descriptive statistics– Logistic regression models

Map of Sweden

Flows of migration

1987 Population

Cities: 2703848, Periurban countryside: 991813, Small towns: 725988, Remote countryside: 1749089 8000 migrants =

1993 Population

Cities: 3751736, Periurban countryside: 1556201, Small towns: 948024, Remote countryside: 2369492 8000 migrants =

City Small town City Small town

Periurban countryside

Remote countryside Periurban countryside Remote countryside

Who is the urban migrant?

• Young (19-25)• Single• University educated• High income

Who is the rural migrant

• Older - net migration had an ageing effect on rural areas

• Families with children• Married couples• Self employed• Comparing periurban to remote rural movers

– Periurban migrants more likely to have high income and education

– Remote migrants more likely to be self employed

Patterns of urban segregation

• An apparent north south division of the city

• High income in the north and low income in the south

• Reinforced during the study period 1970-94

• Signs of increasing polarization

Patterns of rural gentrification

• Areas fairly close to large cities• Areas connected with tourism• Raised more questions

– How many areas?– Segmented rural gentrification?– Women driving rural gentrification?

Attitudes: Rural or urban?

• Preliminary results show – Rural and urban people opposite

attitudes• If rural positive then urban negative

• Coupled with previous int. studies– Policy implications – economic

development vs. preservation

Synthesis

• Polarization - increasing?(segregation – gentrification)

– Between urban and rural areas– Within urban areas– Between urban and rural people– Rural areas?

• Migration• In-migrants and locals• Between rural areas

Rural and the nation:A new national anthem?• Words in the

suggested anthem– Cottage– Log house– Birch– Lake– Wonderful nature– ‘falu’red and

green– Nesting birds