IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v13y2024i4p184-d1363282.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“Why Here?”—Pull Factors for the Attraction of Non-EU Immigrants to Rural Areas and Smaller Cities

Author

Listed:
  • Elisete Diogo

    (CARE-Research Center on Health and Social Sciences, VALORIZA—Centro de Investigação para a Valorização de Recursos Endógenos, Instituto Politécnico de Portalegre, 7300-110 Portalegre, Portugal
    Católica Research Centre for Psychological, Family and Social Wellbeing (CRC-W), Universidade Católica Portuguesa, 1649-023 Lisbon, Portugal)

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Elisete Diogo, 2024. "“Why Here?”—Pull Factors for the Attraction of Non-EU Immigrants to Rural Areas and Smaller Cities," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-21, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:13:y:2024:i:4:p:184-:d:1363282
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/13/4/184/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/13/4/184/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marta-Christina Suciu & Diana-Florentina Năsulea, 2019. "Intellectual Capital and Creative Economy as Key Drivers for Competitiveness Towards a Smart and Sustainable Development: Challenges and Opportunities for Cultural and Creative Communities," Springer Books, in: Florinda Matos & Valter Vairinhos & Paulo Maurício Selig & Leif Edvinsson (ed.), Intellectual Capital Management as a Driver of Sustainability, chapter 0, pages 67-97, Springer.
    2. Gary S. Becker, 1964. "Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education, First Edition," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number beck-5, October.
    3. Morén-Alegret Ricard & Milazzo Josepha & Romagosa Francesc & Kallis Giorgos, 2021. "‘Cosmovillagers’ as Sustainable Rural Development Actors in Mountain Hamlets? International Immigrant Entrepreneurs’ Perceptions of Sustainability in the Lleida Pyrenees (Catalonia, Spain)," European Countryside, Sciendo, vol. 13(2), pages 267-296, June.
    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. Sagarika Dey & Priyanka Devi, 2019. "Impact of TVET on Labour Market Outcomes and Women’s Empowerment in Rural Areas: A Case Study from Cachar District, Assam," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 13(3), pages 357-371, December.
    2. Marydas, Sneha & Mathew, Nanditha & De Marzo, Giordano & Pietrobelli, Carlo, 2025. "Digital Technologies, Hiring, Training, and Firm Outcomes," MERIT Working Papers 2025-004, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    3. Vito Peragine & Laura Serlenga, 2008. "Higher education and equality of opportunity in Italy," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Inequality and Opportunity: Papers from the Second ECINEQ Society Meeting, pages 67-97, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    4. Raj Aggarwal & Krisztina 'Z' Holly & Vivek Wadhwa, 2013. "Health Insurance Availability And Entrepreneurship," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 18(04), pages 1-21.
    5. Anakwuba Blessing Winny & Uju Regina Ezenekwe, 2024. "Prioritizing and Re-orienting Vocational Education for Sustainable Development in Nigeria," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(15), pages 141-150, November.
    6. Baert, Stijn & Picchio, Matteo, 2021. "A signal of (Train)ability? Grade repetition and hiring chances," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 867-878.
    7. Richard J. Murnane & John B. Willett & Kathryn Parker Boudett, 1999. "Do Male Dropouts Benefit from Obtaining a GED, Postsecondary Education, and Training?," Evaluation Review, , vol. 23(5), pages 475-503, October.
    8. Parla Onuk & Yılmaz Aydin, 2024. "Gender gap and the labour market structure: A neoclassical approach for the case of Turkiye," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 58(5), pages 4627-4640, October.
    9. Gregorio Sánchez-Marín & Gabriel Lozano-Reina & Mané Beglaryan, 2022. "HRM Policies and SMEs Performance: The Moderating Role of CSR Orientation," Central European Business Review, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2022(1), pages 85-110.
    10. Xinxin Ma, 2023. "Trade union and gender wage gap: Evidence from China," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 43(2), pages 1098-1110.
    11. Joao Pedro Azevedo & Marta Favara & Sarah E. Haddock & Luis F. Lopez-Calva & Miriam Muller & Elizaveta Perova, 2012. "Teenage Pregnancy and Opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean : On Teenage Fertility Decisions, Poverty and Economic Achievement [Embarazo adolescente y oportunidades en América Latina y e," World Bank Publications - Reports 16978, The World Bank Group.
    12. Kong, Dongmin & Zhang, Bohui & Zhang, Jian, 2022. "Higher education and corporate innovation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    13. Oli Ahmed, 2025. "Evaluating the Effectiveness of D-Nothi Training on Employee Performance and Efficiency in Bangladeshi Government Institutions," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 9(3s), pages 1408-1419, March.
    14. Stefano Bosi & Carmen Camacho & David Desmarchelier, 2023. "Human capital and welfare," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-03920429, HAL.
    15. Beine, Michel & Noël, Romain & Ragot, Lionel, 2014. "Determinants of the international mobility of students," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 40-54.
    16. El-Shal, Amira & Cubi-Molla, Patricia & Jofre-Bonet, Mireia, 2021. "Are user fees in health care always evil? Evidence from family planning, maternal, and child health services," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 506-529.
    17. Koral Zeynep Aktaş & Mercan Murat Anıl, 2021. "Assessing the gender wage gap: Turkey in the years 2002–2019," Economics and Business Review, Sciendo, vol. 7(1), pages 90-112, March.
    18. David Dorn & Florian Schoner & Moritz Seebacher & Lisa Simon & Ludger Woessmann, 2024. "Multidimensional Skills on LinkedIn Profiles: Measuring Human Capital and the Gender Skill Gap," Papers 2409.18638, arXiv.org, revised May 2025.
    19. Liaqat Ali & Naveed Akhtar, 2024. "The Effectiveness of Export, FDI, Human Capital, and R&D on Total Factor Productivity Growth: the Case of Pakistan," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(1), pages 3085-3099, March.
    20. Jie Gong & Ang Sun & Zhichao Wei, 2018. "Choosing the Pond: On-the-Job Experience and Long-Run Career Outcomes," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(2), pages 860-872, February.

    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:gam:jscscx:v:13:y:2024:i:4:p:184-:d:1363282. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.