Young women and rural exodus – Swedish experiences

Abstract

Labour market structures which offer fewer options to women than to men, as well as relatively poor educational facilities, are usually mentioned as primary causes for why remote and economically weak regions are affected by selective out-migration and a shortage of young women. This paper is a spin-off from the ESPON-project SEMIGRA – Selective Migration and Unbalanced Sex Ratio in Rural Regions. Its aim is to analyse the out-migration patterns of young women from the Swedish rural region of Västernorrland – with its dual economic and social character – and contrast it to the migration patterns in the expanding Stockholm. The empirical evidence consists of age-specific gross migration data for cohorts in the ages between 18 and 34.By disaggregating the migratory flows during the period 2000–2014 some contrasting results can be shown. Net out-migration is only a reality in the ages between 18 and 24, while the opposite is true in the ages 25–29 and 30–34. This indicates that the ‘problem’ of out-migration of young women is connected to the pursuit of education and moving to more female-friendly labour markets. In the household creating ages there seems to be a return-migration flow, with net in-migration as one consequence. In the dualistic region of Västernorrland this was particularly evident, especially in the more densely populated coastal areas. It is also highlighted that immigration of both women and men hamper the population decrease and sometimes also result in population increase even if the internal migration is negative for all communities.The dual character of Västernorrland region is also highlighted, and the differing municipalities and cities are analysed. Here, different migratory patterns amongst young women seem to be related to economic, social, behavioural, and demographic structures that also accentuate the dualistic character if the region.