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- Eimermann, Marco, 1979-
(author)
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Dutch migrants in the Swedish countryside at the beginning of the twenty-first century : international lifestyle migration, transnational entrepreneurship and the Bergslagen area
- 2009
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In: Change. - 9789512939596 ; , s. 171-
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Even though different sources may present somewhat different figures, the message is clear; the number of Dutch emigrants is rising sharply at the beginning of the twentyfirst century. A significant part of these migrants leaves for Sweden. Why are they leaving in such large numbers, and what attracts them in the country of destination?In this article, both Dutch and Swedish statistics about international migration are taken as starting point in order to describe and analyse Dutch migrants who migrated to the Swedish countryside from the year 2000 onwards. Where in the Netherlands are they from, and where in Sweden do they settle? What is their demographic and socioeconomic background? Building on these keycharacteristics, examples of Dutch settlers are taken from the Bergslagen area in central Sweden. In this article, I describe and analyse a number of different recruitment strategies, as deployed by Swedish rural municipalities. I also focus on the Dutch migrants’ prospective employment and life after migration. I argue that transnational entrepreneurship is both a trigger for migration and makes (at least a number of) them an interesting group to research. With the help of a longitudinal database, I will reveal more details about the employment of the Dutch migrants.Based on the large body of literature about international lifestyle migration and some of my previous studies, I identify particular factors that play a large role in the migrants’ decision to leave. I also focus on the migrants’ motives for choosing the Bergslagen area and for aspiring a certain postmigration lifestyle. The purpose of the article is to attempt to describe in what way the concept of lifestyle can be used in this study, as well as defining the most significant features of the postmigration lifestyle of the Dutch migrants. This article concludes with a discussion of subjects for future research on this phenomenon that I call “the orange wave”.
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