Out-migration Of Young Adults Research Articles

Health and marital status of older Chinese couples and implications for intergenerational co-residence

AbstractOlder individuals who are in poor health or who lack spousal support are in many ways vulnerable in contemporary China. Declines in family size, combined with improvements in life expectancy and the out-migration of young adults from rural areas, have reduced the pool of potential care-givers for a growing number of older individuals. At the same time, state support for elderly people remains inadequate, further emphasising families’ role in care provision. This paper uses couple-level panel data from the 2012, 2014 and 2016 China Family Panel Studies to examine whether older couples with health-care or other needs receive help in the form of intergenerational co-residence. Multinomial logistic regressions are used to examine factors associated with the intergenerational solidarity framework from the older parents’ perspective that could motivate co-residence. Results show that when mothers report activity limitations or poor word recall at baseline, or when at least one parent has activity limitations in both waves, the probability of co-residence in both waves increases. Further, when both parents have depression at baseline, or when a parent loses a spouse, the probability of transitioning to co-residence increases. Findings suggest that adult children in present-day China do respond to parental needs by living together. Nevertheless, going forward, the state will likely have to play a greater role in old-age care provision.

Opioid mortality in rural communities

Opioid mortality has become a significant medical and economic burden in the UnitedStates, accounting for over 66.3% of drug-related overdoses and $78 billion dollars in healthcare costs. The current US “opioid crisis” has continued to grow with an estimated 2.5 millionpatients being diagnosed with opioid use disorders in 2016. In response, policy makers andgovernment agencies have initiated several programs to mitigate the adverse effects of opioidsthrough expanding access and delivery of evidenced-based treatment and rehabilitationprograms. Rural communities remain significant risk factors for opioid overdose and mortalityin areas lacking access to opioid therapy. Despite measures to provide access to rehabilitationand medical therapy, the opioid-related mortality rate in rural areas has increased significantlydue to greater opioid prescriptions in these areas, an out-migration of young adults, greaterrural social and kinship network connections, and economic stressors. However, limitedopioid-related mortality data in rural regions, such as West Texas, impede further analysisand investigation into effective programs for preventing and treating opioid overdoses in thesecommunities.

‘A one way ticket to the city, please!’ on young women leaving the Swedish peripheral region Västernorrland

Most rural and peripheral regions in Sweden suffer from an outmigration of young adults and particularly young women are over-represented in this outmigration. The outmigration of young adults in general and young women in particular is headed for the major towns in southern Sweden and the capital city Stockholm. This sex-biased out-migration has been on-going for more than 40 years for some rural regions in Sweden.This paper aims at explaining the outmigration and return migration of women 18–34 to and from the peripheral region Västernorrland in Northern Sweden. A qualitative method will be used in the analysis in this study. The empirical material consists of expert interviews and interviews with young women leaving Västernorrland, returning to Västernorrland or moving in without any prior connection to the region.The conventional driving forces for out-migration of young women are connected to studies and moving to more female-friendly labour markets. The findings in this study suggest that bad infrastructure and general service are factors causing out-migration and repel women to return. Furthermore, young women with weak social networks in the region appear more willing to leave and the ‘macho culture’ in the region appears a push-factor.

Understanding the rural-urban differences in nonmedical prescription opioid use and abuse in the United States.

Nonmedical prescription opioid misuse remains a growing public problem in need of action and is concentrated in areas of US states with large rural populations such as Kentucky, West Virginia, Alaska, and Oklahoma. We developed hypotheses regarding the influence of 4 factors: (1) greater opioid prescription in rural areas, creating availability from which illegal markets can arise; (2) an out-migration of young adults; (3) greater rural social and kinship network connections, which may facilitate drug diversion and distribution; and (4) economic stressors that may create vulnerability to drug use more generally. A systematic consideration of the contexts that create differences in availability, access, and preferences is critical to understanding how drug use context varies across geography.

Political Economy of Rural Schools in the Heartland

The sense of serenity and beauty of a drive through the Heartland often hides the desperation that many communities are experiencing as they struggle to survive. Among the winter wheat fields of western Kansas and Nebraska spaced between the center-pivot irrigated fields of corn and alfalfa, towns and cities struggle to maintain their vitality and quality of life. These communities are slowly giving up the civic institutions that for so many generations provided a sense of worth and pride. Children are bused or drive up to an hour to get to schools and in some of the more remote areas, families take up apartments and second homes “in town” where “mom and the kids live” during the week so they can mitigate the daily commutes. New immigrants fill the void left by the out-migration of young adults and families. They assume jobs that either pay poorly or are considered difficult and monotonous. In many communities, in particular some of the most vibrant communities, English is no longer the dominant language. With over 60% of the school-age students living in homes where English is not the first language, towns in Kansas like Garden City, Dodge City, and Liberal are thriving with the growth in feedlots and meatpacking plants. The social and cultural fabric in many of these communities in the western half of the Heartland is rapidly changing.

Ecological and population changes in fishing communities of the North Atlantic Arc

In the decades since World War II, large-scale ecological changes have affected fishing communities across the northern Atlantic. Substantial declines hit their historically important resources, most notably the Atlantic cod. Such declines were often accompanied by increases in other, previously less exploited, species. Interactions between fishing pressure and environmental variation have driven ecological change. Ecological changes in turn reshaped the fisheries, contributing to altered demographic profiles of fisheries-dependent communities. Many places lost population, especially through out-migration of young adults. Broad social forces also contributed to these trends, but the timing and geographical details of population changes often correspond to specific fisheries/ecological events.