New villagers: Motives and factors for moving from urban to rural areas∗

Abstract

In developed countries, along with urbanization, the opposite process — ruralization or deurbanization — is becoming increasingly noticeable. Ruralization is not only the movement of townspeople to the countryside, but also the development of villages and the increasing importance of rural areas as a place to live and work. Townspeople make the decision to move by comparing the advantages and disadvantages of living in urban and rural areas, and non-economic motives (the desire to get closer to nature, to find one’s roots, to live in silence, without haste, to eat natural products, etc.) play an important role in this decision. Among economic motives, the difference in the cost of urban and rural real estate and of life in general is the most important motive, i.e., families, especially young and large, can improve their living conditions by moving to the countryside. The study, the results of which are presented in the article, aimed at identifying those groups of townspeople that tend to resettlement, their motives, and factors pushing people to leave cities and facilitating/hindering resettlement to rural areas. The research is based on the study of special literature on the topic and on the data of the survey of resettled townspeople and experts in ruralization. Unlike most publications on ruralization, the author focuses on the positive aspects of the resettlement of townspeople to the countryside and insists on the removal of administrative barriers that prevent ruralization, because the resettlement of townspeople to the countryside does not have a negative impact on the city and is compensated by the influx of people from the countryside, who want to get education or a new profession.