Conference Agenda

Studies on diverse mobilities provide a broader holistic understanding of how mobilities impact social and economic life in left-behind areas. Spatial mobilities encompass a wide range of movements, including daily commuting, residential mobility, return, internal, circular mobility, international migration and geographical and spatialised mobilities related to life transitions (Geist & McManus, 2008; Kesselring, 2014; Greene & Rau, 2018). This innovative approach is used in the Horizon Europe project RE-PLACE to understand the experiences of people living in left-behind areas. The literature highlights the importance of spatial exclusion and its impact on social and economic structures in left-behind areas. Grasping the dynamics of mobilities or immobilities in left-behind areas hinges on a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted nature of mobility and its far-reaching impact on various societal aspects. As a result, there is a need to examine the dynamics of (im)mobility at various scales and understand the experiences of individuals in these areas.

The study's findings reveal a complex interplay of factors shaping mobility profiles in the two case study areas in Latvia, with significant implications for local development and policy-making. Everyday substantive forms of mobility emerged as a critical theme, highlighting residents' routine travel behaviours and reliance on various modes of transportation. Limited public transportation options, particularly in rural and peripheral regions, often force residents to depend on private vehicles, creating disparities in accessibility based on income and car ownership.

The availability and quality of amenities also play a significant role in shaping mobility patterns. Participants highlighted challenges such as insufficient healthcare services, educational institutions, and cultural facilities within reasonable distances. These deficits compel residents to travel longer distances, exacerbating mobility inequalities and contributing to feelings of marginalisation.

Left-behind places are characterized by limited socio-economic opportunities, often reflected in restricted access to stable, well-paid employment due to local labor market constraints. These limitations may also manifest in other forms, such as inadequate educational resources or negative peer influences. An expected consequence is reduced intergenerational social mobility, where children raised in these areas frequently attain lower socio-economic status compared to their peers elsewhere.

This study investigates whether spatial mobility—through either moving or commuting—can serve as a strategy to counteract the disadvantages of growing up and living in left-behind places, and facilitate upward social mobility. Both forms of spatial mobility have the potential to mitigate the constraints of regional opportunity structures and contribute to individual socio-economic advancement.

In my presentation, I will explore the interplay between intergenerational social mobility, residential relocation, and commuting. Using comprehensive data from the Czech Household Panel Study, supplemented with contextual information on childhood and adulthood places of residence, I examine how social status achievement is influenced by the interaction of family background, early-life residence, and spatial mobility in adulthood. Particular emphasis is placed on individuals originating from left-behind places, shedding light on the spatial mechanisms that shape and potentially disrupt regional inequality in opportunity.

In the face of economic decline and rural depopulation, regions like Beiras e Serra da Estrela in Portugal are striving to revitalize their communities and combat their “left-behindness”. This presentation focuses on the policies and actions taken by the local government in the mid-sized city of Fundão, and how they successfully attracted new investments and new residents in a period of 10 years.

Local investment focused initially on business attraction strategies, generating employment opportunities for a labour force from abroad. Newcomers came with different backgrounds, expectations, capacities and needs, putting some pressure on local authorities for renewed integration and social cohesion policies. Inspired by other European cities, Fundão embraced the opportunity and built an awarded ecosystem for migrants’ integration[1] and autonomy that is recognized by both, migrant, and hosting communities.

Today, Fundão has a thriving migrant community that includes qualified workers in high tech jobs, lifestyle migrants, digital nomads, low skilled seasonal workers and international students. These migrants have changed the landscape of the city, adding new local shops, permaculture farms, religious sites and migrants’ associative movements.

For this presentation, data from the 2011 and 2021 Population Census was analysed, 20 in depth interviews with key stakeholders were conducted, including migrants’ organizations and registered businesses. Then, 8 focus groups with migrants and a World café to discuss some recommendations were held.

Participants shared their experiences, highlighting the barriers and strategies in achieving autonomy and their expectations for the future. Findings indicate that along with covering basic needs and rights as housing and employment, migrants are improving their social life, want to mix more with the Portuguese community, show their culture and live as new and full citizens of Fundão

The example of Fundão demonstrates how the local investment in welcoming a diverse workforce of migrants promotes positive leadership and successfully boosts the rural development process, well beyond issues of integration. This study highlights the importance of articulated local policies that promote the mix autonomous migrants and nationals in shared goals, in strengthening community connections and enabling migrants to not only adapt, but also support others and excel.

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/just/items/795863/en

The proposed contribution considers the presence of foreign citizens in Italian left behind areas – with respect to which depopulation is a crucial issue (Albrecht et al., 2022) – as a potential resource for their repopulation and socioeconomic revitalisation (Membretti et al., 2022). In particular, I focus on people seeking international protection who, as a consequence of Italian migration policies and reception system, have been placed to live – not by choice – in these marginal areas. A strategy that combines the efforts in terms of repopulation, with a vision that wants the so-called integration of these people in small towns to be ‘easier’.

The logic that sees foreign nationals as resources for these areas, however, risks reducing their presence to a utilitarian purpose that reflects colonial approaches. In this sense, Mezzadra (2019) defines ‘reception logistics’ as the rationality that combines, in the migrant reception system in Italy, economic calculation, humanitarian logic, control and military logic with the aim of governing mobility in order to channel it to certain places and according to specific interests.

This contribution investigates the mobile sense of place (Butcher, 2010) of migrants. In particular, the following questions are central: what does it mean to move, live, work and operate in peripheral territories for these people? What kind of perceptions, representations and lived experiences do they have of peripheral areas? The contribution presents the results of interviews and mental mapping of two case studies located in mountainous areas of Abruzzo (Italy).

Albrecht, M., Halonen, M., Syssner, J. (2023). “Depopulation and shrinkage in a Northern context: geographical perspectives, spatial processes and policies”, Fennia - International Journal of Geography, 200(2), 91-97.

Butcher, M. (2010). From ‘fish out of water’ to ‘fitting in’: the challenge of re-placing home in a mobile world, Popul. Space Place, 16 (1), pp. 23-36.

Membretti, A., Dax, T., Krasteva, A. (2022). The Renaissance of Remote Places. MATILDE Manifesto, Routledge.

Mezzadra, S. (2022). “Logistica, mobilità e migrazioni. Un’agenda emergente per la ricerca sulle migrazioni?”, in Cuppini N., Peano, I., Un mondo logistico: Sguardi critici su lavoro, migrazioni, politica e globalizzazione, Milano, Ledizioni, 45‑62.