Amenity Migration Research Articles

Leisure negotiation within amenity migration

Amenity migration is typically defined as the migration to places of extra-ordinary physical, recreational and cultural amenities. While much has been written about the impacts of amenity migration little is known about the experience of amenity migrants at the destination, and specifically how they negotiate for what is arguably their primary aim, leisure. The purpose of this paper is to provide a description of the how amenity migrants negotiate for their leisure and how the broader leisure negotiation process changes the physical attributes and character of the tourism destination. The paper reports on a grounded theory, inter-disciplinary study of the human-environment relationship within a high amenity destination resulting in the empirically based model, Leisure Negotiation within Amenity Migration.

How do amenity migrants learn to be environmental stewards of rural landscapes?

The changing socio-ecological dynamics in rural landscapes associated with amenity migration in post-industrial nations such as Australia has implications for environmental management. The number of non-farming landholders now occupying regions once valued primarily for agriculture has increased rapidly in the past decade, with property turnover rates in some rural Australian regions as high as 50 per cent. Given amenity migrants can shape rural ecologies through land management practice, it is vital that we understand how these management practices are informed. As such, we ask: how do amenity migrants learn to be environmental stewards of their land? We focus specifically on how the tangible interaction between landholder and landscape through experiential learning contributes to the emergence of environmental stewardship. We adopt a conceptual premise that recognises the agency of the biophysical landscape in the experiential learning process. To explore how amenity migrants learn about stewardship we undertook a qualitative case study in the hinterland regions of Melbourne, Australia. We found that initial struggles to implement land management informed by prior urban lifestyles saw landholders turn to experiential learning to fill a void of understanding about ecological processes and management practice. Over time, these experiences distilled into durable dispositions for environmental stewardship that directed either a passive (hands-off) or active (hands-on) approach to land management. Understanding how amenity migrants learn to be environmental stewards has implications for the location and timing of environmental policy engagements with new rural landholders.

Does Second-Home Ownership Trigger Migration in Later Life?

As a result of the ongoing urbanization trend in many countries, most rural and peripheral areas are suffering from depopulation and out-migration. Nevertheless, some rural areas are experiencing a net in-flow of older migrants. One explanation mentioned is that people own second homes that are converted into permanent homes in later life. However, this description has rarely been tested empirically. Rather, it has been described as residual for migration into rural areas. Three hypotheses have been put forward in relation to second homes as a trigger for migration in later life. The first is that second-home owners are less inclined to move but utilize their second home more as a substitute for permanent amenity migration. The second is that owners are more likely to move as they have the opportunity to move permanently to their second home, while the third is that second-home owners would be more likely to downsize from their permanent home and make housing adjustments. This study attempts to answer the question if second-home ownership triggers migration in later life and if it is a matter of housing adjustment or converting a second home into a permanent home. This is performed by analysing microdata covering all individuals in Sweden in the 55–70-years age range in the 1999–2008 period. Results support the hypothesis that second-home ownership triggers migration in later life and, by so doing, imply that a life course perspective is valuable for our understanding of migration in later life and that not only permanent migration but also experiences of temporary mobility are relevant for migration biographies. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Amenity migrants, animals and ambivalent natures: More-than-human encounters at home in the rural residential estate

In light of increased development pressure in rural landscapes, understanding how amenity migrants understand and experience nature is a vital project for rural studies. This paper investigates how residents living in a rural residential estate (RRE) negotiate more-than-human encounters in domestic settings. RREs are emergent forms of master-planned residential development on the rural–urban fringe, marketed and designed to meet an idyllic rural lifestyle. In the RRE, domestic nonhuman transgressions are both presumed as a part of the amenity migrant experience, and pre-empted by estate design and regulation. Border encounters in gardens were explored via semi-structured walking interviews with 27 residents of an RRE, located on the rural–urban fringe of Sydney, Australia. Nonhuman transgressions were found to both contribute towards, and challenge, homemaking practices. Some residents expressed a vernacular ecology at home entangled with more-than-human company, where nonhumans are ‘neighbours’. Gardens were shared, and maintenance practices altered. When domestic expectations of cleanliness and order were challenged, native nonhumans were negotiated in gardens with a ‘hoped-for absence’ (Ginn, 2014). These stories illustrate that a native politics of belonging foreshadows the homemaking practices of amenity migrants. The paper suggests settlements similar to RRE can be a positive intervention on the rural–urban fringe, encouraging different registers of interaction with nonhuman nature.

International amenity migration: implications for integrated community development opportunities

Amenity migration studies have been predominantly conducted in the global North. Furthermore, few have addressed issues directly associated with community development in the global South. In this study, we intend to fill this gap by examining the ways international amenity migrants and local rural residents interact with each other and engage in community development efforts. Findings from research in Costa Rica suggest that the relationships between members of both groups are mainly superficial, with no signs of the establishment of strong bonds between groups. Additionally, findings indicate that limited integrated efforts between the two types of residents exist, and local community development is primarily led by rural local residents. Suggestions are offered as to why members of both groups fail to establish joint community development efforts, and recommendations for improvements are provided.

Same but different: sources of natural resource management advice for lifestyle oriented rural landholders

Amenity migration to attractive and accessible non-metropolitan areas changes social and environmental relations with consequences for natural resource management and landscape composition and trajectories. Lifestyler oriented rural landholders are often cast as a problem for land management and extension. Managers and some researchers see them as a cause of landscape and social fragmentation and report difficulties in engaging such landowners on natural resource management issues and responsibilities. In contrast, limited existing research indicates that lifestylers do join and form networks of personal and other contacts for advice and support in land management. We contribute to this research with a survey of rural landholders in southeastern New South Wales (NSW). We explicitly compare the sources of advice for land management for lifestylers with those of farmers. We focus on the types of sources available to rural landholders in Australian regions and their relative importance to these two landholder groups. We find that lifestylers and farmers are different in their sources of advice but that both prefer personal sources rather than sources such as agencies. We reflect on the significance of the differences for engagement with lifestyle oriented rural landowners and for understanding landscape change.

Landscape Aesthetics and the Scenic Drivers of Amenity Migration in the New West: Naturalness, Visual Scale, and Complexity

Values associated with scenic beauty are common “pull factors” for amenity migrants, however the specific landscape features that attract amenity migration are poorly understood. In this study we focused on three visual quality metrics of the intermountain West (USA), with the objective of exploring the relationship between the location of exurban homes and aesthetic landscape preference, as exemplified through greenness, viewshed size, and terrain ruggedness. Using viewshed analysis, we compared the viewsheds of actual exurban houses to the viewsheds of randomly-distributed simulated (validation) houses. We found that the actual exurban households can see significantly more vegetation and a more rugged (complex) terrain than simulated houses. Actual exurban homes see a more rugged terrain, but do not necessarily see the highest peaks, suggesting that visual complexity throughout the viewshed may be more important. The viewsheds visible from the actual exurban houses were significantly larger than those visible from the simulated houses, indicating that visual scale is important to the general aesthetic experiences of exurbanites. The differences in visual quality metric values between actual exurban and simulated viewsheds call into question the use of county-level scales of analysis for the study of landscape preferences, which may miss key landscape aesthetic drivers of preference.

Exploring amenity migration towards coastal areas of Latvia: A case study of the Engure coastal area

Abstract Migration has key importance in explaining the spatial distribution of the population in Latvia. The study contributes to an understanding of population shift towards coastal areas affected by amenity-driven migration, beach-oriented tourism and land development. This research explores characteristics of the inhabitants of the Engure coastal area, with special attention to individual attitudes on specific life quality attributes. Using a survey of local residents conducted in 2010, we found statistically significant correlations between groups of the research population. The results show that in-migrants differ from long-term residents with regard to most socio-demographic and attitude variables studied. Similarly, differences were found by out-migration intentions of residents. The area selected for the case study serves as a prominent and instructive laboratory for our analysis due to its suburban location, comparatively stable population growth rates and richness in natural amenities. Moreover, the territory is set as a long-term socio-ecological research platform in Latvia.

Migration and Inequality in the Rural United States: Connecting Urban to Rural and Local to Global

AbstractThis article draws from several overlapping literatures to frame urban–rural migration in the United States as the cause of emerging dimensions of inequality. To begin, the article reviews the amenity migration field of research, noting that scholars often underestimate or overlook inequality within rural destinations because common research lenses and methodological decisions inadvertently mask it. The article then describes a second thread of research that explicitly implicates migration as a driver of inequality and a third that draws connections to gentrification. Finally, the article reviews more recent research that characterizes inequality in rural destinations using a more global sociological perspective. The author draws attention to work, which recognizes that migration constitutes a material and theoretical connection between inequality experienced locally and societal inequality at the national and global scales.

The Amenity Principle, Internal Migration, and Rural Development in Australia

Arguably, rural land markets in Australia are currently in a high state of flux, with a panoply of competing interests seeking to capitalize on both the traditional and a range of newly emergent values anchored in land. Amenity-led migration is, we argue, an important strand of this renewed interest in rural lands, albeit one that is highly spatially selective. Employing a predictive and synoptic model of migration attractiveness across southeastern and southwestern Australia, we test its associations with migration currents into and out of rural communities for the 1990s and 2000s. This article finds that communities with high relative accessibility—to metropolitan and urban centers and the coast—and an established or emerging tourism industry have been most likely to experience net migration gains. Yet amenity migration also intersects with more traditional rural land uses and, in particular, irrigated agriculture. Farming, and the biophysical environment and cultural landscape it both draws on and produces, is an important attractor of amenity migration.

Amenity Migration in the Southern Andes and the Southern European Alps – A Key Factor for Sustainable Regional Development?

For a long time, peripheral rural mountain regions in many countries were marked by emigration, particularly that of the young and well qualified. In recent decades, we can observe an apparently diametrical process in some regions: ‘amenity migration’, which implies the migration to remote, rural areas. This ‘new immigration’ is targeted at areas of natural beauty and favourable climatic conditions, many of them already known as tourist destinations. Several case studies for different mountain regions show a great variety, both of the migrating persons and the chosen destinations. Based on quantitative and qualitative methods, this paper examines four case study areas in different regions of the southern European Alps and the southern Andes and compares the onset and the intensity of the process, the motivation and the characteristics of the migrants and the significance of this phenomenon for regional development in the target regions. It ends by discussing opportunities and risks for the local population.

Moving narratives: Using online forums to study amenity out-migration in the American Midwest

Rural amenity communities attract in-migrants with natural scenery, recreational opportunities, and cultural charm. But the demographic story of amenity destinations in the United States is not one of simply arrivals, but of cyclical and simultaneous arrivals and departures. While scholars of amenity migration paint detailed portraits of the people moving toward amenities, far less is written about those who leave amenity communities. Accessing a sample of reverse amenity migrants is both beyond the purview of most research and difficult to achieve logistically, but learning from these reverse migrants will sharpen the academic rendering of amenity communities. This paper analyzes content from online forums in which reverse amenity migrants from one region of the American Midwest reflect upon their experiences. It examines the extent to which they attribute their move to unmet social and material expectations, finding that divisions based on wealth are not only present among posts but addressed directly in posts. The paper considers the implications of contrasting expectations, and proposes that online forums can help researchers more easily investigate factors that influence modern migration decisions.

Amenity migration to the global south: Implications for community development

Despite a growing trend of migration to countries in the global South fueled by their natural amenities (i.e., natural amenity migration), research on this topic has predominantly been conducted in the global North. This is problematic given the notable socioeconomic, attitudinal, and behavioral differences between amenity migrants (often urbanites from developed countries) and local people (often rural residents of developing countries). Grounded in community field theory, this study begins to fill this gap in the literature by increasing our understanding of the ways in which local residents and amenity migrants interact in the amenity-rich community of Nuevo Arenal, Costa Rica. We found that linguistic, cultural, and spatial barriers (real and perceived) created a social climate in which the interaction between local residents and amenity migrants was primarily based on mundane interactions and did not lead to social integration. This proved to be a hindrance to the creation of the community field, which led to a lack of joint planning and participation in activities and projects that sought to improve the overall living conditions in the community. Explanations of these findings and the implications of such a divide are offered.

Amenity Landownership, Land Use Change, and the Re-Creation of “Working Landscapes”

In recent years the “working landscape” concept has risen to prominence in popular, academic, and policy discourse surrounding conservation of both natural and cultural values in inhabited landscapes. Despite its implied reconciliation of commodity production and environmental protection, this concept remains contested terrain, masking tensions over land use practices and understandings of human–nature relations. Here we draw on a case study of landownership and land use change in remote, rural Wallowa County, Oregon to explore how working landscapes are envisioned and enacted by various actors. The arrival of landowning amenity migrants, many of whom actively endorsed a working landscape vision, resulted in subtle but significant transformations in land use practices and altered opportunities for local producers. The working landscape ideal, while replete with tensions and contradictions, nevertheless functioned as an important alternative vision to the rural gentrification characteristic of other scenic Western environs.

Living on the Edge: Lessons from the Peri‐urban Village

AbstractThe idea of an urban renaissance — based on a celebration of city life and its possibilities — is timely given half of the world's population now resides in urban areas. Yet, as appealing as this prospect may be, both in principle and planning theory, it remains at odds with the desires of many residents who seek ‘lifestyle living’ in low‐density suburban or ex‐urban settings. This article presents the results of a qualitative investigation of what it means to ‘live on the edge’ in a peri‐urban village, as understood by residents living in those settings. These results are evaluated in light of phenomenological literature on authentic and inauthentic places, and the myriad reasons so‐called amenity migrants choose the peri‐urban village as their preferred residential location. The results of in‐depth interviews with 28 residents are presented as a four‐part typology of ‘active’ lifestylers and those searching for community, and ‘passive’ speculators and those seeking a civilized society. Though prior work suggests people are attracted to the peri‐urban village for its bio‐physical environmental features, this research suggests socioeconomic factors and opportunities for active place‐making experiences are as, if not more, important.

Mobilities, community well-being and sustainable tourism

Tourism researchers are beginning to explore the implications of the “New Mobilities Paradigm” for improving our understanding of several aspects of tourism. This paper employs a study conducted at the intersection of this new mobilities paradigm, a consideration of destination community well-being, and the analysis of tourism sustainability through an examination of its positive and negative impacts on destinations. It describes a qualitative investigation of tourism impacts on community well-being in three Australian destinations that revealed six distinct types of tourists each characterised by different patterns of mobility. Types included Archetypal Tourists, Grey Nomads, Green Nomads, Backpackers, Temporary Workers and Amenity Migrants. The study found that patterns of impacts could be connected to these distinct types of tourists. Four key themes were identified and described – the consistent linkages between mobility variables and tourism impacts, the perceptions of tourists and tourism as providing resources for destination communities, the modification of impacts as a result of the physical, social and economic characteristics of destination communities and the emergence of conflicts and collisions between different types of tourists and residents in shared spaces. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for sustainable tourism planners and researchers, and especially for resident perceptions research.

Understanding wildfire vulnerability of residents in Teton County, Wyoming

PurposeThis research aims to examine the wildfire vulnerability of part‐time and full‐time residents in the wildland‐urban interface (WUI) of Teton County, Wyoming. Are part‐time residents creating more of a vulnerability to the community because they do not live in the community all year, they have limited experience with wildfires, and they perceive Firewise activities as not being effective mitigation practices?Design/methodology/approachData collection took place via a survey that inquired about respondents past wildfire experiences, if they do Firewise activities, and how effective they feel these wildfire home protection activities are. Responses were analyzed by Chi‐squared and t‐tests where appropriate.FindingsThe results of this study indicate that part‐time residents have the same past wildfire experiences and perceptions of Firewise activities, and do similar Firewise activities as full‐time residents. This suggests that these communities in Teton County may be more homogenous in their vulnerability than other wildfire communities.Research limitations/implicationsBecause of the limited geographic scope, results cannot be generalized for the entire county, the state of Wyoming, or other wildfire‐prone residential areas. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to investigate other WUI areas.Practical implicationsThis research suggests that local and federal agencies in and near these communities talk to the residents of wildland‐interface communities and help them become less vulnerable to the wildfire hazard.Originality/valueThis research adds to the limited know of wildfire‐urban interface vulnerability and perceptions. It is significant because this interface will expand as amenity migration into these natural areas continues to occur.

Protecting the idyll but not the environment: Second homes, amenity migration and rural exclusion in Washington State

Researchers are beginning to take notice of amenity migration processes and their impacts in exurban areas of the U.S. Our research explores second-home owners as contributors to processes of amenity migration. Using a mixed-method approach combining spatial data and interview analyses, we investigate both the structural and behavioral aspects of amenity migration in San Juan and Okanogan counties of Washington State. Results indicate that second-home owners’ desire for privacy and escape is reflected in patterns of spatial isolation among second homes in the study area. These patterns have potentially significant ecological effects. Second-home owners also seek to protect their investments by supporting regulations which support their version of a rural idyll. Therefore, policy-makers should be wary of strategies to promote regulations which promote aesthetic rather than social and ecological function.

Re-creating the Rural, Reconstructing Nature: An International Literature Review of the Environmental Implications of Amenity Migration

The term 'amenity migration' describes a broad diversity of patterns of human movement to rural places in search of particular lifestyle attributes. This review of international literature, drawn from the authors' own prior research and searches on relevant databases, synthesises findings on the implications of amenity migration for the creation and distribution of environmental harms and benefits. Further, we critique common framings of amenity migration-related environmental transformations and offer suggestions for future research. Analysis is positioned within a review of five common themes reflected in the cases we consider: land subdivision and residential development; changes in private land use; cross-boundary effects; effects on local governance institutions; and displacement of impacts. Within each of these themes, we discuss the uneven geographies of environmental transformation formed by diverse conceptions of 'nature', patterns of local management of amenity-driven transformations, and ecological contexts. We conclude that, through both intended and unintended environmental consequences of dominant activities and land uses, amenity migration results in a redistribution of environmental harms and benefits at multiple scales, as rural landscapes are (partially and incompletely) re-created in line with the ideals and expectations of amenity migrant populations.

Globalization and foreign amenity migrants: the case of foreign home owners in the Pomurska region in Slovenia

Slovenia became an independent state in 1991 with immigration flows in the country strengthening since 1998. The majority of the immigrants, mostly seeking employment, originate from the former Yugoslav republics. Parallel to this work migration flow from the south and after accession to the EU, Slovenia also attracted other types of migration from EU member states particularly amenity migrants. These amenity migrants show a strong interest in the Slovenian peripheral rural regions with its reasonably priced real estate and its natural landscape character. In the case of these foreign home owners an important question is whether and to what extent they are symptomatic of the processes of globalization? To address this, a detailed survey has been conducted in the Pomurska region located in eastern Slovenia and bordering Hungary, Austria and Croatia. The survey focused on foreign home owners who either became permanent residents or who are second home owners. The results of this empirical work prove very insightful of the processes going on in the region and the integration of migrants into rural society in Slovenia. Abstract: Slovenija se je osamosvojila leta 1991, priseljevanje pretežno iz obmocij bivsih jugoslovanskih republik pa se je okrepilo predvsem po letu 1998. Prevladovali so delovni migranti, z vstopom Slovenije v EU pa se je povecalo zanimanje tudi iz drugih držav clanic. Ce so se priseljenci, ki so iskali delo, selili predvsem v regionalna in gospodarsko mocna sredisca, so migracije na podeželje v veliki meri povezane z veliko privlacnostjo (naravnega) okolja, istocasno pa so (bile) cenovno zelo dostopne tudi nepremicnine. V primeru tujcev oziroma tujih lastnikov nepremicnin (his) na podeželju se sproža vprasanje, ali so le-ti nosilci ali že ucinek globalizacije v sirsem evropskem prostoru? Prav zato je bila izvedena raziskava med tujci v Prekmurski statisticni regiji, ki leži na skrajnem vzhodu Slovenije in meji na