Rural Border Region Research Articles

Employment of Migrants as a Response to the Needs of Entrepreneurs in Rural Border Regions—Examples from Poland

The aim of the study was to identify the needs of entrepreneurs in the context of labor shortages on the local labor market and supplement them with immigrants from Ukraine. The focus was on border enterprises from rural areas located on the external border of Poland and the EU. It was determined in which industries cross-border entrepreneurs are looking for migrants to work. A research questionnaire was created to determine the migrant’s profile from the point of view of the entrepreneur’s needs. It covered 400 enterprises, 100 from each of the surveyed voivodeships of Eastern Poland: Warmia-Masuria, Podlaskie, Lublin and Subcarpathia. Correspondence analysis was used to help determine differences in entrepreneurs’ preferences in the studied voivodeships. Entrepreneurs are most likely to employ qualified immigrants with professional experience in flexible forms of work. They expect that immigrants will be more available and will have lower wage requirements compared to local workers, which will translate into lower labor costs and better economic results. They believe that employing immigrants will improve productivity, quality and work discipline. The main limitations include ignorance or poor knowledge of the language of the host country, premature termination of contracts and working under the influence of alcohol.

Cross-Border Central Places in the Bavarian-Czech border region – Closing the gap for services of general interest?

Creating equal living conditions in rural border regions poses a particular challenge for policy-makers and planners. In addition to demographic factors, national borders negatively affect the sustainability of services of general interest. However, overcoming border-related barriers also holds potential to compensate for gaps in service provision. It is therefore noteworthy that Bavarian federal state planning has designated so-called cross-border central places (GRZO) since 1994. Since the instrument is not legally binding abroad, its effectiveness appears to be limited. Moreover, it is unclear to what extent cross-border public services on the basis of cross-border central places are perceived as a potential by the population concerned. In order to discuss this, guided interviews were conducted with citizens in affected Bavarian municipalities on the Czech border and complemented by expert interviews. On the one hand, the results indicate a limited perception of cross-border public services as a relevant potential. On the other hand, they point to some concrete expectations of the cross-border central places designation that have not yet been fulfilled and at times reinforce a latent feeling of being left behind.

Epidemiological Impact of Neurodegenerative Diseases in the Rural Spanish-Portuguese Cross-Border Region

Introduction: Epidemiological data indicate that neurodegenerative diseases show a high prevalence with a progressive increasing trend, especially in aging populations, as is the case in rural areas. The objective of this study was to assess the quantitative impact of neurodegenerative diseases in rural areas of the Spanish-Portuguese border region and to describe the epidemiological profile of the most prevalent disorders in one of the most depopulated and aged regions of Europe. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was designed to estimate the prevalence of subjects diagnosed with the most common neurodegenerative disorders: dementia (Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias), Parkinson’s disease and Parkinsonism, and multiple sclerosis in the Spanish-Portuguese cross-border border region in 2020. It includes Bragança and Guarda Districts (Portugal) and Salamanca (Castilla y León, Spain). Results: Neurodegenerative diseases accounted for 1.85% in the Spanish-Portuguese cross-border region in 2020; a total of 5,819 records were reported: 987 (prevalence, 2.51%) in Salamanca (Spain); 2,332 (prevalence, 1.87%) in Bragança; and 2,500 (prevalence, 1.66%) in Guarda. Female population suffered from them in higher proportion (2.35 vs. 1.32%). Dementia represented 1.19% (3,744), Parkinson’s disease and Parkinsonism 0.58% (1,823), and multiple sclerosis 0.08% (252). These disorders impacted older age groups. In the rural border region of Spain, 1 out of 4 cases were institutionalized. Conclusion: The findings reveal the health impact of neurodegenerative diseases in the Spanish-Portuguese cross-border region. The epidemiological data emphasize the region’s circumstances and highlight research priorities. Intervention strategies must be implemented in the region to ensure quality healthcare in rural areas.

Understanding the public participation of young people in border regions of mainland Portugal: youth as local development agent

ABSTRACT Although young people are recognized as stakeholders who should be involved in public participation, engagement by youth advocates in local development and decision-making is scarce. Young people’s input tends to be seen as less valuable, especially when the prevailing positions on development overemphasize economic interests. This article is based on research conducted in rural border regions in mainland Portugal. We conducted semi-structured interviews with representatives of the municipalities (n = 36), a questionnaire (n = 3968) and biographical interviews with young people (n = 50). The results suggest that young people see themselves as capable of contributing to the development of their regions, whilst demonstrating innovative views, with some even proposing a paradigm shift that encompasses a new way of thinking about sustainability and quality of life. We argue that local bodies of governance would benefit from an intentional involvement of young people in local policy making processes, especially when they are focused on local development.

Local Knowledge Integrated in Learning Experiences

Development, smartness, and equity are often defined through cosmopolitan perspectives. Schools and communities from rural regions in Portugal must develop additional measures to compensate for structural disadvantages. These measures often serve to achieve urban models and standards with which comparisons are made. This article explores rural schools and community leaders’ strategies to integrate place-sensitive knowledge into their students’ educational experiences. These place-based approaches are developed against the erosion of local knowledge and may contribute to broadening a perspective on development, keeping schooling still accountable to local contexts. This contribution grounds on a national-level study on young people growing up in border regions, their schools, and communities’ resilient approaches, and draws on semi-structured interviews conducted with schools’ head teachers (N=38) and policymakers from municipalities (N=36). The study took place in all 38 municipalities of Mainland Portugal that border Spain. Findings indicate that the majority of schools and municipalities cooperate to promote the best conditions for students’ school success, developing strategies that acknowledge communities as a resource and as curriculum, while meeting national-level demands and students and families’ expectations for high performance on national-level standardise exams. Other strategies include the incorporation of local knowledge into various learning experiences, in which students are co-creators and active participants and local-based subjects focus on local sustainability and development, environmental challenges, preserving traditions, heritages, and patrimony. These topics are often explored in the context of citizenship education, non-formal education activities promoted by schools or the community, or in purposeful and structured projects. Although schools from rural border regions recognise the national policy of curriculum flexibility as an opportunity to incorporate local knowledge they do not fully benefit from this opportunity.

Influences of Windblown Particulate Matter on Children’s Respiratory Health Residing Near the Salton Sea, California

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The production of wind-blown dust and dust storms is expected to accelerate as climate change drives land use changes and diminishes water resources. For instance, in the rural U.S./Mexico border region of the Imperial Valley, sources of wind-blown particulate matter (PM) are growing due to anthropogenic activities and the shrinking of the Salton Sea, a land-locked saline “sea” situated in the Southern California region. Residents of this environmental justice community have expressed growing concern about these environmental changes, including the health implications of worsening air quality. METHODS: To assess the impacts of PM on children’s respiratory health in a structurally marginalized community, we administered a survey to parents of elementary school children (n=456). We estimated children’s exposure to PM2.5 and PM10 using air monitoring data from governmental regional monitors based on residence at time of survey. RESULTS:22% of children reported wheeze in the past 12 months. Individual annual exposure estimates for children were on average 7.55μg/m3 (SD: 1.9) and 42.44μg/m3 (SD: 6.75) for PM2.5 and PM10, respectively. In models adjusted for age, sex, parental education, and survey language, a 1SD increase in PM10 was associated with an increased risk of wheezing in the last 12 months (OR: 1.35, 95% CI: 0.9-1.8, P=0.06). Among asthmatics, a 1SD increase in PM2.5 or PM10 was associated with an increased risk of wheezing (PM2.5 OR: 2.2, 95% CI: 1.4-3.4, P=0.0006; PM10 OR: 1.9, 95% CI: 0.9-4.0, P=0.07), and any asthma medication usage (PM2.5 OR: 1.9, 95% CI: 1.2-2.9, P=0.005; PM10 OR: 2.4, 95% CI: 1.1-4.9, P=0.01). CONCLUSIONS:These results suggest that PM2.5 and PM10 air pollution may influence children’s risk of wheezing in this rural border region. Future work aims to identify additional environmental and modifiable risk factors to facilitate implementation of targeted intervention programs to improve health. KEYWORDS: Environmental Justice, rural health, border health, respiratory health

Learning to Leave and to Return: Mobility, Place, and Sense of Belonging amongst Young People Growing up in Border and Rural Regions of Mainland Portugal

This article examines how mobility is incorporated into the lives of young people growing up in rural border regions of continental Portugal. It also explores how municipalities are dealing with the contemporary imperative of mobility and its consequences. Young people from these regions are affected by decisions to leave to continue studying in higher education, or to find a job. Combined, these lead to an outward migration trend and thus loss of human capital. This paper is based on a multi-method research project carried out in the border regions and involves young people and other stakeholders from 38 municipalities. The data were selected from a questionnaire completed by young people (9th–12th grade; n = 3968), 38 semi-structured interviews with local policymakers, 50 biographical interviews, and 5 focus groups with young people. Results indicate that although most young people aspire to further education and do not fear leaving their region, they nonetheless tend to integrate the necessity to be mobile into their biographies. Hence, they do not associate it with displacement or as being tantamount to abandoning their region, and to which some of them want to return. We consider that in parallel with learning to leave local sentiments, policies, and actions are emerging towards coalescing a trend of learning to stay and returning. We propose an interpretation of this tendency as indicative of new understandings around these peripheral territories and which are shaped by young people’s experience of reconciling a sense of belonging to place and any associated mobilities.

Inter-regional innovation cooperation and structural heterogeneity: Does being a rural, or border region, or both, make a difference?

This paper analyses the determinants of inter-regional innovation cooperation in European knowledge networks. Our main goal is to assess whether structural heterogeneity in the context of the “urban-rural dichotomy” and international borders can explain differences in the regions’ engagement in inter-regional innovation cooperation. We estimate a gravity equation to model innovation cooperation, proxied by inter-regional co-patent applications, as a function of region-specific context conditions as well as technological and geographical distance. Our data comprise dyadic information on 203 NUTS2 regions in 15 European countries (EU-15) for the year 2010. The empirical results show that the basic gravity mechanisms drive the direction and strength of innovation cooperation between EU regions; i.e., geographical distance acts as an impediment to inter-regional co-patent applications. Regarding the importance of structural heterogeneity, we find that pairs of rural regions have lower levels of innovation cooperation compared to urban regions. Similarly, border regions are generally disadvantaged compared to non-border regions in terms of the intensity of innovation cooperation. However, while the latter result points to a negative border effect, our gravity model estimates also show that pairs of border regions are more active in terms of close geographical innovation cooperation (e.g., through international cross-border cooperation), which partly compensates for the negative border effect. This finding not only holds for urban but also rural border regions and may reflect policy attempts to support border regions, e.g., by strengthening the level of international cross-border cooperation within the EU.

Environmental influences and predictors of children’s respiratory health in the Imperial Valley, California

PDS 68: Outdoor air pollution, mortality and morbidity, Exhibition Hall (PDS), Ground floor, August 26, 2019, 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Background: Particulate matter (PM) in the form of wind-blown dust is emerging as an increasingly prevalent exposure of health concern. In southern California, wind-blown PM is increasing due to drought, changing weather patterns and the shrinking of the Salton Sea, a 350mi2 land-locked “sea” situated near the rural border region known as the Imperial Valley. A regional water transfer agreement has accelerated the Sea’s drying, exposing large swaths of the lakebed and leaving behind highly emissive, contaminant-laden salt flats. Methods: To begin to assess the impacts of PM on children’s respiratory health this rural environmental justice community, we administered a health survey to parents of elementary school children (n=357). We estimated children’s exposure to PM10 and PM2.5 using data collected from a community-owned PM sensor network, locally maintained and operated by Comite Civico del Valle. Results: Individual exposure estimates for children, based on the year prior to baseline survey, were on average 11.19μg/m3 (SD: 3.17) for PM2.5 and 48.76μg/m3 (SD: 8.58) for PM10, comparable to estimates based on federally regulated air monitors. In preliminary models, adjusted for age, sex, parent education and language of survey, a 10μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 exposure was associated with an increased risk of asthma diagnosis (RR: 2.0, 95% CI: 1.0, 4.1, P=0.049). Additional factors that were associated with asthma diagnosis at baseline were having an asthmatic mother (OR: 3.7, 95% CI: 1.8-7.7), pneumonia (OR: 8.1, 95% CI: 2.4-27.4) or bronchitis (OR: 3.8, 95% CI: 1.7-8.2) prior to age 2, private insurance (OR: 2.3, 95% CI: 1.1, 4.9) and household income >$50,000 (OR: 3.0, 95% CI: 1.3, 7.0). Conclusions: These results suggest that PM2.5 air pollution, among other factors, may impact children’s risk of developing asthma in this rural border region. Future work aims to identify modifiable risk factors to facilitate earlier intervention to improve health.

On Watery Borders, Borderlands, and Tania Kovats’ Head to Mouth

With a relational view of landscapes and natural environments as continuously “in process” and formed from the over-layered and interdependent connections between nature and culture, the human and the non-human, this paper considers some recent practices by artists who have worked in the largely rural border region of Northern England and Southern Scotland. Expanding from a focus on the artist Tania Kovats’ 2019 Berwick Visual Arts exhibition, Head to Mouth, and a wider frame of non-anthropocentric ecological thought in relation to the visual arts, it explores the significance of diverse creative engagements with water, here with the River Tweed, and their potential value in a current cross-border context of social and environmental challenges and concern.

The disappearing Salton Sea: A critical reflection on the emerging environmental threat of disappearing saline lakes and potential impacts on children's health

Changing weather patterns, droughts and competing water demands are dramatically altering the landscape and creating conditions conducive to the production of wind-blown dust and dust storms. In California, such factors are leading to the rapid shrinking of the Salton Sea, a 345 mile2 land-locked “sea” situated near the southeastern rural border region known as the Imperial Valley. The region is anticipated to experience a dramatic increase in wind-blown dust and existing studies suggest a significant impact on the health and quality of life for nearby residents of this predominantly low-income, Mexican-American community. The discussion calls attention to the public health dimensions of the Salton Sea crisis. We know little about the possible long-term health effects of exposure to mobilized lakebed sediments or the numerous toxic contaminants that may become respirable on entrained particles. We draw on existing epidemiological literature of other known sources of wind-blown dust, such as desert dust storms, and related health effects to begin to understand the potential public health impact of wind-blown dust exposure. The increased production of wind-blown dust and environmental exposures to such non-combustion related sources of particulate matter are a growing health threat, due in part to drought coupled with increasing pressures on limited water resources. Recent population-based studies have linked dust storms with cardiovascular mortality, asthma hospitalization and decrease in pulmonary function in both adults and children. A growing number of studies provide evidence of the acute health effects of wind-blown dust exposures among children, which with repeated insults have the potential to influence respiratory health over time. The shrinking of the Salton Sea illustrates a public health and environmental justice crisis that requires action and attention to protect the health and well-being of local communities.

Disappearing Seas: Assessing Dust and Respiratory Health in a Changing Climate

Across the southwestern US, particulate matter (PM) in the form of wind-blown dust is emerging as an increasingly prevalent exposure of public health concern. Changing weather patterns, droughts and competing water demands are dramatically altering the landscape and creating conditions conducive to the production of wind-blown dust. In California, such factors are leading to the rapid shrinking of the Salton Sea, a 350-square mile land-locked “sea” situated near the southeastern rural border region known as the Imperial Valley. A regional water transfer agreement will accelerate the Sea’s drying and it is anticipated that large swaths of the lakebed will become exposed, leaving behind highly emissive salt flats containing toxic metals, pesticides, and other contaminants. Through a community-academic partnership with Comite Civico del Valle and local elementary schools, we developed a children’s respiratory health survey among 1st and 2nd graders to assess baseline health conditions in a rural environmental justice community and collected PM filters at schools to assess the composition of respirable dust. 292 families at four schools participated in the 2017 baseline survey (73% participation) of which 93% identified as Latino/a and 56% reported a household income below $30,000 per year. 45% of children reported wheezing and 42% had allergy symptoms. Over one-quarter of the children (range 16-30% by school) reported having doctor diagnosed asthma and had used rescue medication in the past year. Preliminary analyses of filter samples during 3 sampling periods showed variability in PM levels by location and by sampling period. Highest average PM10 and PM2.5 levels were observed in May 2017. Filter samples also contained detectable levels of biological contaminants, including endotoxin and glucans, which also varied spatially and temporally, independent of PM levels. This work suggests a population vulnerable to the potential impacts of a disappearing Sea.

Integrated Community Development in Rural Border Region (Case Studi in Tanjung Hulu Village, Nunukan, North Kalimantan)

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Landform values for rural sustainability: Recognition and assessment in a Spanish–Portuguese border region case study

Abstract Landform assemblages may be used to define sites of geomorphological interest which are resources for rural sustainability. This paper focuses on the valuation and significance of such sites in the context of one European internal border region, illustrated using a case study from the inland mountains of the Spanish-Portuguese border: the Serra do Larouco. The theoretical and methodological approach used includes the recognition, inventory and assessment of a preliminary list of twenty-eight sites. They comprise diverse granitic landforms which characterise the rural inland landscapes in the North West of the Iberian Peninsula. The results from the qualitative and quantitative assessments were the basis for a final selection of nine sites as significant land resources. An analysis of their key values supports the proposal of different use and management options to promote rural sustainability. A review of the methodology applied and the consideration of other case studies provide a means to interpret and discuss the regional and local significance of the selected sites. The conclusions emphasise the crucial role that values linked to landforms can play in little-known mountainous and rural border regions, suggesting a future research agenda.

Ongoing transmission of hepatitis B virus in rural parts of the Netherlands, 2009-2013.

BackgroundReported acute hepatitis B incidence in the Netherlands reached its nadir in 2013. However, regional signals about increased number of hepatitis B cases raised the question how hepatitis B incidence was distributed over the country. In this study, regional differences in hepatitis B epidemiology were investigated using epidemiological and molecular data.MethodsAcute hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections, reported between 2009–2013, were included. If serum was available, a fragment of S and C gene of the HBV was amplified and sequenced. Regional differences in incidence were studied by geographical mapping of cases and cluster analysis. Regional differences in transmission were studied by constructing regional maximum parsimony trees based on the C gene to assess genetic clustering of cases.ResultsBetween 2009 and 2013, 881 cases were notified, of which respectively 431 and 400 cases had serum available for S and C gene sequencing. Geographical mapping of notified cases revealed that incidences in rural border areas of the Netherlands were highest. Cluster analysis identified two significant clusters (p<0.000) in the South-western and North-eastern regions. Genetic cluster analysis showed that rural border areas had relatively large clusters of cases with indistinguishable sequences, while other regions showed more single introductions.ConclusionThis study showed that regional differences in HBV epidemiology were present in the Netherlands. Rural border regions showed higher incidences and more ongoing transmission, mainly among MSM, than the more urban inland areas. Therefore, preventive measures should be enhanced in these regions.

Social Media in Health Education, Promotion, and Communication: Reaching Rural Hispanic Populations along the USA/Mexico Border Region

Social media is changing how individuals gather information and relate to others. Public health professionals can use social media in their efforts to assess health needs, set policy, and communicate health concerns as they focus on protecting and improving the health of the community. It has been estimated that traditional health messaging campaigns reach less than 10 % of the targeted population. The purpose of this article is to discuss ways that social media can be used as a tool to reach rural border health populations along the USA/Mexico border. The USA/Mexico border region is one of the fastest growing areas in the nation and infamous for health disparities due to low socio-economic conditions. The border region contains many rural areas; the rurality creates an additional barrier of distance and further increase of health disparities. Through well-developed and targeted social media campaigns, public health professionals can assess and develop effective health strategies to reach this hard-to-reach population and improve the health and quality of life for those living in the rural border region.

"Our Clock Moves at a Different Pace": The Timescapes of Identity in Estonian Rural Tourism

One of the effects and results of tourism is that it marks our sense of time, differentiating the extraordinary and 'heightened' time and the time of the mundane. An important role in this is played by the hosts - in the case of rural tourism by the farm owners and tour guides. The tourism farmers and tour guides act as mediators of the temporal experience, therefore creating and providing various timescapes for their guests. An altered perception of time, a distinctive temporal experience of place is offered to guests as a specific and special characteristic and a counterbalance to the rush of everyday life in the lo- cal identity of two rural border regions. Some meaningful and meaning-forming, interconnected and sometimes opposite notions of temporality are analysed as narrated by tourism farmers and tour guides in two very popular tourism regions in Estonia: Hiiumaa Island and Voru County. The ways in which these hosts (re)construct and perceive temporality are identified and presented and some distinctive elements of those rural timescapes are considered.

Local Impacts of the Balloon Effect of Border Law Enforcement

While discussion of borders in the post-9/11 world invokes images of national security lapses and in early 2006 the economic and social challenges of undocumented workers was again making headlines in the United States, residents of rural border regions face a more immediate set of troubles. Their issues are byproducts of past national debates and the resulting increase in law enforcement efforts in urban locations which have converged crossing pressure onto more remote, difficult-to-cross, less publicly-visible, and less politically powerful rural areas. In particular, this article looks at the impact this squeeze has had on the Tohono O'odham reservation along the US-Mexico border in south central Arizona.

Understanding Community Attitudes Towards Tourism and Host—Guest Interaction in the Urban—Rural Border Region

An improved understanding of both community attitudes toward tourism and host–guest interaction is vital for the sustainable development of tourism. However, there are significant research deficiencies and gaps in these two related research areas. This conceptual paper looks into these glaring research gaps through a review of literature and attempts to provide solutions suggested by an ongoing research project being conducted in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. In particular, while this paper addresses the impacts of personality and ethnicity on community attitudes toward tourism and points to the urgent need for a well-established theoretical framework in order to understand and predict host–guest interaction, it also highlights the above issues in the context of the urban–rural fringe, the bordering region connecting neat ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ areas.

Austrian Border Regions and Eastern Integration. A Low Competitiveness - High Growth Paradoxon

Many regions on the EU Eastern borders have developed favourably after the opening up of the border and the implementation of association agreements with the CEECs. This was often seen as a positive sign for the further perspectives of these regions after EU enlargement. In this paper we take a closer look at the mechanisms involved in a case study for Austria. Based on a very disaggregated data set at a regional as well as sectoral level we find that neither sectoral preconditions nor locational advantages can explain the good performance of (rural) border regions after 1989. Using multivariate cluster analyses we group 3-digit-industries to theoretically founded typologies indicating different sector characteristics and find that (fast growing) rural border regions are dominated by industries that show disadvantageous characteristics for eastwest trade. Furthermore, we identify locational factors relevant for regional growth in a traditional Barro-style growth regression and find a regional distribution of these factors in Austria, which also places rural border regions at a disadvantage. Rather than these factors or advantages from proximity to the new markets, impacts internal to the Austrian markets seem to determine regional growth patterns in the 1990s. Therefore it would be misleading to take a stable development of rural border regions after EU enlargement for granted due to past experiences.