This book brings small places to the main stage in an exploration of the nature of immigration in rural areas and small towns in Europe. Extending recent efforts to study migration at a sub-national scale, the authors focus their analysis on non-metropolitan areas to consider how globalisation and modernisation processes are experienced at a local level. Morén-Alegret and Wladyka weave themes of livelihood, social participation, justice and equity into human and planetary sustainability debates, drawing on quantitative population data as well as qualitative information on challenges for rural and small town sustainability in four different European countries (Portugal, France, Spain and England). Highlighting the interlinked relationship between rural sustainability, migration and ethnic diversity, this research is a valuable resource for policy-makers and academics alike, with far-reaching implications across geography, sociology,political science, anthropology and environmental sciences.

Autorentext

Ricard Morén-Alegret is Tenured Associate Professor of Geography at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain.

Dawid Wladyka is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, USA.

Inhalt

1. Introduction: Small Can Be More Than Beautiful. - Part 1. Setting the European Stage in a Changing World: Sustainability and Migration Challenges. - 2. Conceptualising (Rural) Sustainability in the Migration Age. - 3. Integration, Immigration and Sustainability in European Small Towns and Rural Areas: Achieving Long-Term Immigrants' Settlement Beyond the Metropolitan Areas?. - Part 2. Outcomes of Investigating in Various European Small Towns and Rural Areas. - 4. International Comparative Research in Europe: Introducing Research Methods. - 5. Southern Europe: Comparing the Cases of Empordà in NE Catalonia, Spain, and Atlentejo Litoral in SW Portugal. - 5. North-West Europe: Comparing the Case of South Warwickshire in Central England, UK, and the Case of Poitou-Charentes, in New Aquitaine, West France. - Part 3. Beyond Small Towns Talks: Reflections and Proposals for a Better Europe and Planet. - 6. Final Considerations: How to Improve Future Policies on Rural and Small-Town Sustainability and Immigrants' Integration?.