Integration, Immigration and Sustainability in European Small Towns and Rural Areas: Achieving Long-Term Immigrants’ Settlement Beyond the Metropolitan Areas?

2019 ◽  
pp. 47-107
Author(s):  
Ricard Morén-Alegret ◽  
Dawid Wladyka
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Metropolitan Areas ◽  
Small Towns

scholarly journals The Specificity of Family Firms Providing Accommodation Services—The Experience of a Post-Socialist Country 30 Years after the Economic Transformation

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 10404
Author(s):  
Hanna Górska-Warsewicz ◽  
Maciej Dębski ◽  
Krystyna Rejman ◽  
Wacław Laskowski
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Socialist Economy ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Two Stages

This study aimed to analyze the conditions and specificity of family firms (FFs) providing accommodation services in Poland 30 years after the beginning of economic changes. The research was carried out between 2017 and 2018 using the Computer-Assisted Website Interview (CAWI) method. In two stages of research, a total of 1300 questionnaires were sent to FFs providing accommodation services, and we received 83 fully completed questionnaires. This response rate indicates that there is still a lack of trust among FFs as a result of the activities of the socialist economy, which was negative towards private property. The respondents were generally business owners, but several questionnaires were completed by other members of the families running an accommodation service business. All companies participating in the survey provided their services in small towns or rural areas. In the structure of the surveyed FFs by type, guesthouses and lodgings had the largest share, and, in terms of location, FFs from the southern part of the country dominated. We found out that familiarity is an important feature of the Polish FFs providing accommodation services. The majority of FF representatives agreed that focusing on the specifics of family business allows them to compete with companies providing accommodation services. They also pointed out the long-term perspective of business and development and the provision of high-quality services. Such an approach is now possible because the period of a centrally planned economy had to be followed by a change in the way of thinking related to business activity in Poland.

scholarly journals Informal Practices, Unemployment, and Migration in Small-Town Poland

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 404-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne White
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Temporary Employment ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Home Networks ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
Unemployed People ◽  
Informal Practices ◽  
And Migration

The article applies a livelihood strategy approach to understanding how potential migrants in Poland make decisions about finding employment in Poland or abroad, in the context of a Polish labour market characterised by the highest incidence of temporary employment in the EU; regional economic inequality; and local pockets of high unemployment. More specifically, it examines the situation and perspectives of long-term unemployed people in depressed small towns and rural areas. It explores how—in the view of forty interviewees—informal practices influence their lives and prospects. It is well known that unemployment can lead to migration, but not all unemployed people migrate, begging the question of why and when do they do migrate. The article, based on a small sample, cannot provide definitive answers to such questions, but detailed interviews about individual livelihoods can establish some patterns of causation: for example, whether and why interviewees see migration as preferable to informal work in Poland. Interviewees tended to attribute their lack of employment in Poland to not having useful connections who could secure them “decent” work; they felt they were being pushed abroad because the only alternative was local jobs which were informal in the sense of being in breach of labour law. By contrast, many interviewees had more useful contacts abroad than at home; networks represented both escape routes and opportunities. Interviewees often expressed a preference for using informal channels to migrate, though their stories also illustrated the riskiness of depending on networks.

scholarly journals The Impact Of Shopping Centers In Rural Areas And Small Towns In The Outer Metropolitan Zone (The Example Of The Silesian Voivodeship)

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krystian Heffner ◽  
Małgorzata Twardzik
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Process ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Metropolitan Areas ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Systematic Research ◽  
Shopping Centers ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Shopping centers in the Silesian Voivodeship have a significant impact on smaller settlement units located in outer areas of agglomerations. It consists mainly in changes related to social, economic, as well as functional and spatial spheres. Studies shows that shopping centers take over more and more functions of higher order (services, public culture, administration) and restrict the economic activity in rural areas outer areas of agglomerations. At the stage of the irrepressible process of suburbanisation of rural areas surrounding large urban agglomerations and structural changes in towns, it is difficult to conclusively assess the consequences of the operation of shopping centers in outer metropolitan areas. The impact of shopping centers on small towns and rural areas is a very dynamic process and requires systematic research.

Starting School at Four: The Effect of Universal Pre-Kindergarten on Children's Academic Achievement

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria D Fitzpatrick
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Educational Achievement ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Disadvantaged Children ◽  
Mathematics Test ◽  
Level Data ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
Intent To Treat

Abstract Universal Pre-Kindergarten (Pre-K) programs differ from widely known and extensively evaluated programs like Head Start and Perry Preschool because access is open to all children of the appropriate age. To estimate the intent-to-treat effects of these programs on the long term educational achievement of children, I use a differences-in-differences framework and individual-level data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. For disadvantaged children residing in small towns and rural areas, Universal Pre-K availability increases both reading and mathematics test scores at fourth grade as well as the probability of students being on-grade for their age. Increases in some measures of achievement also were seen among other groups, though the patterns were less uniform across outcome measures. The results correspond with other work showing children living in less densely populated areas are those most likely to enroll in preschool because of the program's availability.

scholarly journals Urban Areas in the Transformation of the South: A Review of Modern History

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
John F. McDonald
Keyword(s):  
Population Growth ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Total Population ◽  
Metropolitan Areas ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Fort Worth ◽  
The South ◽  
Southern Us

Since the 1940s, the southern US has been transformed from a region of backward agriculture, low-wage industries located in small towns and rural areas, and unrelenting racial segregation into a modern society and economy. In 1950, there were no metropolitan areas in the South with a population of one million or more, but 18 had populations in excess of one million in 2000. The populations of the Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and Miami metropolitan areas grew to over 4 millions. Population growth in the 18 largest metropolitan areas accounts for 63% of the total population growth in the South from 1950 to 2000. The transformation of the South is, to a sizable extent, a transformation to an urbanized society. This paper documents this urbanization by examining population and employment growth in those 18 metropolitan areas.

scholarly journals Which families move out from metropolitan areas? Counterurban migration and professions in Sweden

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 276-289
Author(s):  
Erika Sandow ◽  
Emma Lundholm
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Metropolitan Areas ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Arts And Crafts ◽  
Population Geography ◽  
Urban Hierarchy ◽  
Migration Patterns ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Families With Children

This paper seeks to contribute to the ongoing revitalisation of the counterurbanisation research within population geography by nuancing counterurban migration beyond the rural–urban dichotomy, including all moves downwards in the urban hierarchy. The focus is to explore counterurban migration patterns among families with children leaving Swedish metropolitan areas, and whether some groups of skilled professions are more likely to make a counterurban move than others. Using register data on all families moving out from metropolitan areas in Sweden during the period 2003–2013, we found a small but steady outflow of families, mainly to medium-sized or small towns. The highly educated are overrepresented among these families, thus providing potential for an inflow of competence to the receiving areas. Contrary to expected, the assumed flexibility in time and space among knowledge sector professionals does not seem to enable them more than others to pursue counterurban moves. Instead, public sector professionals characterise families making a counterurban move to all destination regions, while men with a profession within arts and crafts to a higher extent move with their family to more rural areas.

International migration and economic participation in small towns and rural areas – cross-national evidence

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Danson ◽  
Birgit Jentsch
Keyword(s):  
International Migration ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Research Evidence ◽  
Metropolitan Areas ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Rural Migrants ◽  
The Usa ◽  
International Migrants ◽  
Cross National

This paper analyses the neglected labour market experiences of international migrants to non-metropolitan areas, mainly drawing on the evidence of a large, cross-national research project on immigration, as well as on other available research evidence. By examining migrants’ employment experiences in four different countries – Canada, the USA, Ireland and Scotland – we are able to discuss key themes and consider them from a comparative perspective. The focus here is on the frequent occurrence of different forms of underemployment of rural migrants; issues around pay and working conditions; and the importance of welcoming communities.

scholarly journals Response Path Adapted to the Unbalanced Shrinkage of Small Towns in Metropolitan Areas

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanqun Li ◽  
◽  
Hong Geng ◽  
Erpeng Shi ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Metropolitan Areas ◽  
Level Structure ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Industrial Transformation ◽  
Public Data

Along with the global wave of urbanization, urban agglomerations with megacities as the core have become the main form of urbanization in various countries. The polarization effect around the metropolis leads to the centripetal flow of capital, labour, land and other resource elements in the surrounding small towns, which causes the shrinkage of small towns in the metropolis, such as population reduction, economic recession, idle housing and dilapidated space. The shrinkage of small towns in the metropolis has become a global issue. However, as an important spatial unit in the spectrum of urbanization that serves, connects and couples urban and rural areas, the shrinking phenomenon faced by small towns has an important influence on the healthy development of urbanization. Exploring the development path of adaptive shrinkage for small towns has become an important part of the healthy urbanization of metropolises. Based on the public data of population, land and economy in Wuhan, China from 2004 to 2014, this paper uses GIS and other spatial analysis technologies to comprehensively measure the relevant characteristics of the shrinkage of small towns. The results showed that the small towns in Wuhan are in the form of "unbalanced shrinkage" under a local growth. And the towns present a spatial pattern of "circle increasing shrinkage" around the boundary of main downtown. With a further exploration of the formation mechanism of "unbalanced shrinkage", it is found that this shrinkage pattern is caused by a combination function of various factors, such as downtown deprivation in the policies supply, centripetal delivery of social capital and reconstruction of regional division of labour network. Based on this, this paper tries to propose some response paths for small towns in metropolitan areas to adapt to the "unbalanced shrinkage". First of all, the small towns should integrate into the regional differential development pattern and strive for the institutional dividend. Secondly, the small towns should promote an industrial transformation, and then attract the market release of social capital. Thirdly, the small towns should improve the living environment and promote intensive use of land. Through these paths, we can stabilize the three-level structure system of “urban-township-village”, and ensure the healthy urbanization of metropolitan areas.

scholarly journals 142 Missouri Master Gardener Demographics

HortScience ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 466B-466
Author(s):  
Denny Schrock ◽  
Mary Meyer ◽  
Peter Ascher ◽  
Mark Snyder
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Occupational Group ◽  
Master Gardener ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Demographic Group ◽  
Poor Predictor ◽  
Household Incomes

A survey was conducted of current and former Missouri Master Gardeners to identify the demographics of volunteers and to determine if Master Gardeners fit the demographic pattern of volunteers in general. Sixty-eight percent of survey respondents were active in the program, while 32% were inactive. Females accounted for 65% of respondents and males 35%. Nearly 60% of Missouri Master Gardeners were 50 years old or older; however, those in their 40s comprised the largest demographic group. The majority of Missouri Master Gardeners were married with children. Over 50% had at least a college degree, while 22% had post-graduate work. One-third had household incomes of $60,000 or greater; in addition, just under one-quarter had household incomes between $40,000 and $60,000. The largest occupational group was retired persons, at 26.9%; the second largest category was homemakers at 14.6%. Missouri Master Gardeners are more likely to be from small towns or rural areas than from medium or large cities. They tend to be long-term residents of their communities; 57.2% had lived at their current residence for more than 10 years. Missouri Master Gardener volunteer demographics fit the pattern of volunteers in general, but demographic data proved to be a poor predictor of intent to continue volunteering in the Master Gardener program.

Transgender clients in rural areas and small towns.

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 154-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie M. Koch ◽  
Douglas Knutson
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Small Towns
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