“I think that they should go. Let them see something”. The context of rural youth's out-migration in post-socialist Estonia

Abstract

This article aims to provide insights into the topic of rural out-migration in Estonia. By looking at media and in-depth interviews with rural youth workers, narratives surrounding young people are examined. These narratives enable rural youth to ground their choices of migration. Rurality is constructed in media through two powerful templates: one of structural marginalization and the other of the “pastoral idyll” based on the stereotypes of nation construction. Youth migration is often explained in media as self-realisation or inevitable moves. Rural youth workers are concerned about young people leaving their home areas, but at the same time they rationalise their leaving by contemporary narratives of self-empowerment and self-expression. Thus, leaving is depicted as moving “forward” rather than “away”. In addition, the constantly changing rural context in post-socialist Estonia contributes to a notion of non-fixity in life course decisions and the perception that it is always possible to come back.