Johan Fredrik Rye

Leaving the Countryside An Analysis of Rural-to-Urban Migration and Long-Term Capital Accumulation

Depopulation is considered a problem for rural societies because it depletes the countryside of human capital and symbolizes the decay of the rural. In this article, however, rural-to-urban migration is analysed from the perspective of the rural migrants rather than from that of the rural societies: Does rural-to-urban migration represent a problem for the individual migrants in terms of the long-term effects of migration? This research question is addressed by assessing rural migrants’ long-term achievement in terms of economic and cultural capital compared to rural non-migrants. The longitudinal approach is made possible by analysis of microlevel data from Norwegian censuses and the National Migration Register. The links between geographical and social mobility for the entire Norwegian rural birth cohort of 1965 (n= 9081) during a time-span of 30 years are then traced. Previous research has produced mixed results regarding the long-term effects of migration, which seemingly depend on data sources, methods and the national context of the respective studies. This article suggests that migrants from rural areas in Norway on average gain higher economic and cultural capital resources than non-migrants. However, these rewards of rural-to-urban migration differ substantially between migrants from different factions in the rural class structure.

Youth migration, rurality and class: a Bourdieusian approach

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.

Amenities, Affluence, and Ideology: Comparing Rural Restructuring Processes in the US and Norway

Abstract In this paper we analyse how conceptions of nature and rural space, combined with broader structural influences—particularly rural restructuring and neoliberal ideology—impact community development in rural amenity areas. Building on qualitative data (in-depth interviews, photo-elicitation, and participant observation), the paper applies interactional theory of community to analyse the amenity-based restructuring narratives of two rural communities: Bayfield County in Wisconsin, USA, and Hitra/Frøya in Norway. Three primary conclusions are drawn: 1) while amenity-led development occurs because of rural contrast, the trappings of urban life are growing in importance; 2) consumption may be the driving force behind growth and change in many ‘post-productivist’ rural areas, but landscapes are actively produced to capitalize upon local amenities; and 3) the study areas are in different phases of maturation, where Norwegian social attitudes about land seem to be shifting from a ‘traditional’ mentality towards a more ‘American’ mentality.

Lost in Transnational Space? Migrant Farm Workers in Rural Districts

Abstract In recent decades, theories of transnationalism have emerged as key perspectives for analysis of international migration. Drawing on Glorius and Friedrich’s (2006) model of transnationalism, the paper analyses the case of migrant farm labour in rural Norway and demonstrates how the social context of migrants’ work influences their building of various kinds of social-capital resources which are crucial for development of transnational space. The paper argues that circularity of migration is not sufficient to instigate full-fledged transculturation and hybrid identity-formation processes. In conclusion, the paper recommends that transnational theory should pay greater attention to the social contexts of migration and observe the limits of the theory’s application.

The second home phenomenon and Norwegian rurality

The article analyses how recent developments relating to the second homes phenomenon are intertwined with fundamental changes in the character of rurality in Norwegian society. Building on Halfacrees three-dimensional model of rural space published in 2006, the authors discuss how rural localities, rural lived lives, and formal representations of the rural are increasingly informed by and inform the second home phenomenon. In addition to public statistics, the discussion is informed by empirical data from the Centre for Rural Researchs large-scale national and representative survey City, Countryside and Second Homes 2008. It is argued that there are three main dimensions and/or aspects that are central in the two-way relationship between rural space and second homes in Norway, namely extremely dispersed settlement and plenty of available land, rural–urban migration and mobility, and representations of the rural as idyll.

Elite discourses of regional identity in a new regionalism development scheme: The case of the ‘Mountain Region’ in Norway

Norways regional structure is under debate as questions about territorial boundaries, scale, scope of tasks and responsibilities, and decision-making structures have become an issue in Norwegian politics. This tendency of changing the scale of public action with regard to governmental structures, economic politics, welfare, and civic society has been termed ‘new regionalism’. New regionalism often comes under criticism of being too neo-liberalistic or too economically orientated, leaving in its wake debates of democratic accountability and the neglect of ‘soft factors’ (i.e. socio-culture, identity, consciousness, and participation). In this article the authors investigate whether new democratic or semi-democratic regional organisations as advocated by new regionalist schemes require identification amongst the local population in order to be successful and enduring governmental structures. Further, it is shown how too simplistic understandings of the social processes, and their inherent power aspects, involved in the implementation of the new regionalist development scheme ‘Mountain Region’ distort the undertaking. The authors find that a more complex relational and contextual understanding is in demand, one in which regionalisation is not only recognised as a process which diffuses across time-space, but also takes an asymmetrical place across societys social fabric, and one where ‘soft factors’ such as ‘regional identity’ are not sidestepped.

HEADING FOR THE CITIES? GENDER AND LIFESTYLE PATTERNS IN RURAL YOUTHS’ RESIDENTIAL PREFERENCES

The Norwegian settlement pattern has been characterized by centralization over recent decades, in particular due to many young people leaving the countryside. In contemporary rural migration research their rural-to-urban migration has been interpreted as reflections of strong urban residential preferences; rural youths want to seek out the cities and their manifold educational, occupational and cultural offers. Special attention has been given to gender- and lifestyle-related differences; rural girls are assumed less localistic in their mindsets than boys and there are similar differences between groups of rural youths leading different lifestyles. The article critically assesses these propositions by use of survey data gathered among rural youths in the Mountain Region (Fjellregionen) of mid-eastern Norway. Employing a life phase approach, the article concludes that rural youths may have strong urban residential preferences for their ‘young adult’ phase; however, for other phases of life rural youths are less likely to hold urban preferences. Further, the analysis confirms gender and lifestyle differences in rural youths residential preferences, though these nevertheless seem to be over-emphasized in contemporary rural migration research.

Transnational spaces of class: International migrants’ multilocal, inconsistent and instable class positions

The sociological study of class, whether Marxist, Weberian or Bourdieusian, has discussed class systems and individuals’ location in these systems within the framework of the nation-state and has largely ignored the presence of a growing population of international migrants in western societies. At the same time, the emerging literature on transnational migration has largely neglected the question of social class. This article argues that the simultaneous privileging of the nation-state and the neglect of social class by these research traditions, respectively, has been unfortunate. Working from a Bourdieusian class perspective, the article discusses how today’s enhanced international migration – whereby actors regularly cross national borders, physically and virtually, and live their everyday lives in multiple social spaces and class systems – produces class systems in which many actors hold multilocal, inconsistent and instable class identities. The discussion employs a mixed methods approach, drawing material from a community in Norway which includes a large population of Eastern European labour migrants recruited by the fish processing industry, to illustrate some key problems with Bourdieusian (and other) class theories’ use of methodological nationalism as an analytical framework and to suggest how transnational theories might better incorporate class perspectives in their analyses.

Transnasjonale helsepraksiser. Bruk av helsetjenester blant polske arbeidsinnvandrere i Norge

Transnational Health Practices Among Polish Labor Migrants in Norway The article discusses the use of health-care services among Polish labor migrants in Norway. We apply theories of patient–physician relationship, trust, and transnationalism to analyze a material of qualitative in-depth interviews with eleven Polish labor migrants about their health practices. The material demonstrates how and why many Polish labor migrants evaluate Norwegian primary health care negatively. Their main reason for doing so is the non-paternalistic doctor–patient relationship. They therefore supplement Norwegian health services with health services available in their home country. However, the labor migrants tend to evaluate the Norwegian health system more favorably as time passes. In total, the Poles establish creative, reflexive, competent, and dynamic health practices that go beyond national state borders and combine elements of two health-care systems. We argue that these practices enable migrants to enhance the total quality of their health care.

Moving to the countryside? The case of second home users in Norway

Rye, J.F. 2015. Moving to the countryside? The case of second home users in Norway. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift–Norwegian Journal of Geography Vol. 69, 00–00. ISSN 0029-1951. Different forms of rural mobilities, such as everyday travels, commuting practices, business trips, tourism, and short- and long-term migrations, have emerged as a key topic in rural studies. The article discusses the views of second home users in Norway concerning long-term migration to their second home locality as permanent residents. Analysis of large-scale, quantitative material that constitutes a statistical representation of the Norwegian second home population reveals that a preference for translating circular recreational mobility (the use of second homes) into permanent and long-term migration (residency) is widespread among second home users. Further analysis suggests that such rural migration preferences are related more to actors’ everyday life challenges than to amenity and quality-of-life motivations. As a consequence of these findings, the author suggests that rural municipalities attempting to attract second home users into becoming permanent residents need to reorient their policies.