‘I felt like the mountains were coming for me.’—The role of place attachment and local lifestyle opportunities for labour migrants’ staying aspirations in two Norwegian rural municipalities

Abstract

Abstract This article discusses two relatively underexplored topics in international migration research: place attachment processes and staying intentions in the new place of residence. The analysis is based on findings from semi-structured interviews with internal and international labour migrants in two rural Norwegian municipalities. In a study that primarily focused on migrants’ local social inclusion and belonging processes, several migrants on their own initiative brought up and elaborated on the importance of local material aspects (nature, climate, and localisation) and lifestyle options for their local contentment and staying aspirations. The interviewee accounts suggest that numerous factors can influence staying intentions, including social ties, work/career opportunities, local materiality, and lifestyle opportunities. By focusing on processes of place attachment, the findings bring to light some of the mechanisms that may lay behind the common proposition within international migration research that length of residence makes return less likely. The findings on these processes highlight how local contentment—and by extension staying aspirations—can change over time, thereby connecting the usually separated fields of migration and post-migration processes. Moreover, the findings show how local place attachment may also influence international migrants’ aspirations/decisions of internal migration within the new country of residence. Finally, the centrality of lifestyle for staying aspirations and place attachment in these labour migrants’ accounts underline a call by lifestyle migration researchers for increased attention to the role of lifestyle in all kinds of migration. The article’s conclusion notes the findings’ relevance also for urban settings.