IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wiwrsa/ersa12p297.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Migration as opportunity for rural regions

Author

Listed:
  • Wibke Strahl
  • Ingrid Machold
  • Thomas Dax

Abstract

In spite of an unbroken interest of migrants for metropolitan areas and cities, the immigration of foreign people into rural, and as well peripheral, regions of Austria increasingly receives attention over recent years. Actually, 21% of the population of foreign origin live in municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants. In more and more peripheral regions population losses caused by a low birth rate and a negative internal migration can be significantly reduced by a positive external (i.e. international) migration balance. These demographic changes lead also to an increase in the diversity of society of rural regions. Many analysts underpin the additional potential provided through a multi-cultural society resulting in new ideas and innovative activities for regional policy, in addition to the more popular concerns for adaptation and integration challenges. This paper draws from a national project on international migration processes and their impact on rural regions of Austria, providing an analysis of statistical data of internal and external migration flows, changes in the demographic structure, and differentiation of migrants according to their countries of origin for the period 2002-2010. The analysis is carried out at the regional level of NUTS 3 and uses the up-dated EU-Commission’s classification based on the OECD typology (Dijkstra and Poelman 2008). Furthermore, the paper will offer initial insights into empirical data about the motivation of immigrants to settle in rural regions and their functions within local communities. Thus, the paper focuses on the assessment of development opportunities for rural regions which are characterized by shrinking processes and the related challenges in terms of maintaining services of general interests, which could benefit from migration processes. The regional manifestations of these migration processes are systematically analysed so as to filter out so-called migration “hot spots†in Austrian rural regions. On this basis two case study regions were selected for empirical investigations about motives, challenges and socio-economic impacts of immigrants on remote rural areas. Information, gained primarily by face-to-face interviews and focus groups conversations both among migrants and the host society itself, and case studies from the current implementation of the key activity “diversity and space†of the new Austrian Spatial Development Concept (ÖREK 2011) will be presented.

Suggested Citation

  • Wibke Strahl & Ingrid Machold & Thomas Dax, 2012. "Migration as opportunity for rural regions," ERSA conference papers ersa12p297, European Regional Science Association.
  • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa12p297
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa12/e120821aFinal00299.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter Huber & Gabriele Tondl, 2012. "Migration and regional convergence in the European Union," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 39(4), pages 439-460, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Smirnykh, Larisa & Woergoetter, Andreas, 2021. "Regional convergence in CEE before and after the Global Financial Crisis," IHS Working Paper Series 33, Institute for Advanced Studies.
    2. Sven Wardenburg & Thomas Brenner, 2021. "Analysing the spatio-temporal diffusion of economic change - advanced statistical approach and exemplary application," Working Papers on Innovation and Space 2021-01, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    3. Kashnitsky, Ilya & de Beer, Joop & van Wissen, Leo, 2017. "Decomposition of regional convergence in population aging across Europe," OSF Preprints ykqbv, Center for Open Science.
    4. Mariachiara Barzotto & Giancarlo Corò & Ilaria Mariotti & Marco Mutinelli, 2019. "Ownership and workforce composition: a counterfactual analysis of foreign multinationals and Italian uni-national firms," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 46(4), pages 581-607, December.
    5. Gil, Pedro Mazeda & Gabriel, Susana & Afonso, Oscar, 2020. "Is the skills mismatch important under skill-biased technological change and imperfect substitutability between immigrants and natives?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 38-54.
    6. Elena Vakulenko, 2016. "Does migration lead to regional convergence in Russia?," International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 9(1), pages 1-25.
    7. Harald Oberhofer & Christian Glocker & Werner Hölzl & Peter Huber & Serguei Kaniovski & Klaus Nowotny & Michael Pfaffermayr & Monique Ebell & Nikolaos Kontogiannis, 2016. "Single Market Transmission Mechanisms Before, During and After the 2008-09 Crisis. A Quantitative Assessment," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 59156, April.
    8. Ondřej Schneider, 2022. "Labour Migration In The European Union: The Case Of Central And Eastern Europe," Economic Annals, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Belgrade, vol. 67(233), pages 7-38, April – J.
    9. Cristian Incaltarau & Gabriela Carmen Pascariu & Adelaide Duarte & Peter Nijkamp, 2021. "Migration, regional growth and convergence: a spatial econometric study on Romania," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 66(3), pages 497-532, June.
    10. Sorin Manole & Laura Panoiu & Adriana Paunescu, 2017. "Impact of Migration upon a Receiving Country’s Economic Development," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 19(46), pages 670-670, August.
    11. Peter Huber, 2018. "The Role of Migration as Adjustment Mechanism in the Crisis and EMU," Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, Mendel University Press, vol. 66(6), pages 1497-1508.
    12. Fischer, Lorenz Benedikt & Pfaffermayr, Michael, 2018. "The more the merrier? Migration and convergence among European regions," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 103-114.
    13. Benjamin Wirth, 2013. "Ranking German regions using interregional migration - What does internal migration tells us about regional well-being?," ERSA conference papers ersa13p1254, European Regional Science Association.
    14. Kashnitsky, Ilya, 2020. "Changing regional inequalities in ageing across Europe," OSF Preprints 6m4kg, Center for Open Science.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa12p297. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Gunther Maier (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ersa.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.