“The Rural” Intervening in the Lives of Internal and International Migrants: Migrants, Biographies and Translocal Practices

Abstract

In the 1990s, parts of the Swedish countryside experienced an inflow of people with an urban background. This counter-urbanisation movement was explained both by outside effects, such as an increase in opportunities to live far away from work and to commute, and inside effects, such as values and a desire for another way of life. In the beginning of the 21st century, rural areas in Sweden are receiving new groups of migrants with an international background. This chapter discusses the rural as a space for living and explores how the rural is given meaning, with the basis being these two migration movements: voluntary internal migration and international refugee migration. The chapter compares the values and experiences of the two migrant groups and argues that merging the migrants’ perspectives will make a more progressive understanding of rural space possible. Moreover, the chapter asks how we can understand the translocal networks involving rural and urban places in a globalised world, and what needs these linkages fulfil. Lastly, the chapter suggests the need to regard “the rural” as an actor intervening in and affecting the lives of the migrants.