Paper short abstract:

My paper addresses the concept of Cultures of Migration in the context of rural areas in Finland. I challenge the idea of countryside being only a place where people flee from, and focus on in-migration by exploring the reasons why people return to areas they have once left behind.

Paper long abstract:

Rural areas in Finland are demarcated by out-migration especially when the life choices of rural youth and elders are studied. The young have to leave their homes in order to educate themselves and find jobs and the elderly move closer to daily needed services. On the other hand, recent research has shown how rural migration is becoming increasingly two-way process. Young couples and families moving from urban centers to countryside are changing the patterns of Cultures of Migration especially in rural areas near cities, but in-migration also takes place in more remote areas.

What allures people to migrate and dwell in areas with lack of jobs and no services? I will scrutinize this question by charting individual reasons why young people move from rural areas, and especially, why they come back. I use the concept of home as a starting point of my analysis, which illuminates the meanings attached to rural areas and rurality within the Cultures of Migration. My research is based on interview data I collected from people who reside in remote rural areas. The themes of the interviews encompassed informants' relation to their (rural) home regions and current place of residence, daily living in the country and meanings attached to place of home.