Rural economies in the 'age of migration' : perspectives from OECD countries

An important feature of globalisation processes has been the increased level of immigration. For the most part, this has been considered an urban phenomenon. As a consequence, a less well-known feature of contemporary global immigration patterns is that an increasing proportion of immigrants are now settling in rural locations. Over the last decade, however, there has been a burgeoning of research into the political-economic processes that have produced an increased level of immigration into rural regions in many OECD nation-states. This paper begins by reviewing some of the reasons why this dimension of rural demographic change has gone under the radar of both researchers and policy makers. It then examines how immigration into rural regions is both an important feature of the multifunctional rural transition and a product of the ‘regionalisation’ of immigration policy as a distinct regional development strategy employed regarding rural areas.