Kvarboende och etablering bland landsbygdens nya invandrare
Abstract
Retention and Establishment Among New Immigrants in Rural Areas During recent decades, immigrants have settled in new (including rural) locations in many destination countries. In Sweden, a similar development has been encouraged by governmental authorities and generally welcomed by sparsely populated municipalities suffering from out-migration, ageing and depopulation. This study focuses on the local destinations of immigrants, the extent to which they stay at their initial destinations, and the individual attributes connected to staying. It is shown that a larger share of immigrants than previously ends up in rural destinations, although more in small towns than in the proper countryside. However, newly arrived immigrants have a high general propensity to move within the country, especially from rural destinations, where most move on within a year. Having a job and/or a family are attributes that counter the tendency to move on. The ruraloriented New Immigrant Destinations (NIDs) in Sweden differ from those in many other countries in the sense that they do not attract in-migrants through work opportunities, but through governmental policies to spread the immigrant population geographically. However, the objectives of these policies are threatened both as the immigrants move on and because there are reasons to believe that frequent moves may hinder integration achievements.