Migration to Rural and Peripheral Destinations: Transnationalism, Integration, and Acculturation on the Margins

Current population movements involve both established and new destinations, often encompassing marginal and rural communities and resulting in a whole new set of issues for these communities. New Immigration Destinations examines structural forces along with individual strategies and behaviour to highlight the opportunities and challenges for ‘new’ destination areas arising from new economic and cultural mobility.

Representing a 'second wave' in studies of in-migration, this volume examines patterns in 'non-traditional' rural and peripheral migration destinations, with a particular focus on Northern Ireland. By examining events in the host city, this book shows how processes of migrant incorporation are complex and rely on multifarious influences, including the state, community, individuals and families. Accordingly, the book scrutinises theories of migration and social integration within rural/peripheral destinations. This subsequently provides clarification of many of the contested concepts, including transnationalism; integration, acculturation and assimilation; ‘new’ destinations; and migrants and ethnic minorities.

Focusing on the local and the micro within a context of social and policy reality, this timely volume critically engages with original theories of migration, thus providing a much fuller conceptual and theoretical understanding for an emerging field of migration studies within a rapidly changing and uncertain world. This book’s interdisciplinary nature will appeal to policymakers, scholars and both undergraduate and postgraduate students in a range of disciplines, including Sociology (Race and Ethnic Studies), Human Geography (Migration, Demography), Political Economy and Community Development.

Ruth McAreavey is a senior lecturer in Sociology at Newcastle University, UK.