Sustainable Migration and Depopulation: A Methodological Proposal From the Perspective of the SDGs

Sustainable development requires orderly migratory flows that avoid the resulting socio‐economic tensions in the countries of origin and destination. Issues such as climate, armed conflicts and the lack of job stability encourage human displacement towards large cities, simultaneously generating problems of human densification at the destination and depopulation in the abandoned areas. In this study, we analyzed the link between the determinants of quality of life and immigration, with the aim of identify the factors that need to be strengthened in the “emptied” territories and, in this way, achieve a reasonable distribution of the population. We use a methodological advance of the random forest in order to correctly address the complexity and variability of the data. The study is limited to Spain's 19 autonomous regions, which suffer from both depopulation and overpopulation, covering a broad period that guarantees the robustness of the results (2008–2021). There is evidence of the importance of the labor market, health and education in the settlement of migrants. Decision‐makers need to strengthen these aspects in under‐inhabited areas by directing financial resources towards enhancing their attractiveness. This will make it possible to redirect this human exodus by re‐establishing the economic and social order of the territories as a whole.