Environment as a Multifaceted Migration Motive: Meanings and Interpretations Among a Group of Young Adults in Sweden

• The need for a change of living environment is an often-expressed motive in surveys of migrants– in addition to better-defined social, educational, and economic reasons. Studies also suggest that environmental motives have become more frequent and influential over time. While ticking the ‘change of environment’ box of a questionnaire is easy, the underlying concept is highly complex, wide-ranging, and difficult to measure and theorise. This study explores the meaning prospective migrants attach to the environmental motive in relation to experienced and/or anticipated future moves.We go beyond the conventional quantitative approaches of coding and classification, and draw empirically on in-depth interviews with 16 urban young adults living in Sweden. Results indicate that they attach many meanings to the concept: a felt personal need to encounter completely new situations, people, and places; a longing for big city social life and culture; a need to connect more closely to nature and outdoor activities; dissatisfaction with present living settings; and, overall, that recurrent relocation is a perceived social norm. Furthermore, the traditional view in which environmental motives contrast or are subordinated to job-relatedmotives is challenged. The results have implications for the understanding and theorising of migration motives, and for the more comprehensive classification of environmental motives in future research.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Social och ekonomisk geografi -- Kulturgeografi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Social and Economic Geography -- Human Geography (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Social och ekonomisk geografi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Social and Economic Geography (hsv//eng)

Keyword

interregional migration; environmental motives; young adults; amenities; qualitative study; Sweden

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)