Sustainable Rural Communities: Comparing migrant receptivity and the revitalisation of two rural towns in Spain and Ireland

Research description

In response to the decline of European rural areas, governments, and scholars gradually highlight the relevance of migration for rural regeneration and sustainability. However, rural areas’ limited receptivity capacity may hinder a migrant-led revival. While research recognises the local level's role in receptivity, current approaches studying the link between migrant receptivity and revival are limited. This project explores, first, the potential synergy between receptivity and regeneration in rural contexts. Second, it uncovers rural areas’ roles in multi-level migration governance. It addresses the influence of rural communities’ structural inequalities and migrants’ agency in receptivity and revival. Finally, it offers a typology of rural revival. This project applies an innovative mixed-method qualitative approach, transnationally comparing two cases of rural towns in Ireland and Spain. It follows the assumption that (1) greater migrant receptivity and openness result in broader revival processes, creating a more sustainable rural community. (2) It assumes that receptivity may be impacted by rural communities’ experiences with revitalisation and their collective memories of migration. Overall, this project describes the factors, actors, and processes relevant to receptivity and rural revival and innovatively defines “rural community sustainability”. This offers a much-needed contribution to academic and political debates on migration and the future of rural management.