1247 | 319 | Exploring Western European migration to the post-socialist countryside: the case of Dutch and Belgian people in Hungarian rural towns. | Siel Defrancq

Studies on cross-border migration within the European Union have primarily focused on labour migration from east to west and from the urban to the rural. While there is also an increasing interest in (sunset) migration to Southern Europe, we are still unable to go beyond these dominant streams of migration and grasp the actual complexity of contemporary migration patterns in the EU._x000D_
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One phenomenon that has not received much attention by scholars is migration from the European core to post-socialist member states in the east, while their accession to the EU has made relocating to these countries much more convenient and attractive. The impact of the increasing immigration of EU citizens is not only manifested in the cities, but also in rural areas, which have already undergone dramatic changes in the last decades as a result to the transition to a market economy._x000D_
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This presentation will try to provide a better understanding of the migration of Western-Europeans to rural areas in post-socialist EU states, with a particular focus on Dutch and Belgian people who have relocated to the Hungarian countryside. Drawing on interviews with Dutch and Belgian residents, I will try to explain the elements that attract them to these places and what their presence means for the cultural, economic and social fabric of post-socialist rural towns. By doing this, we can try to assess the opportunities and threats that this kind of migration poses for the (re)development and revitalisation of the postmodern countryside. _x000D_

Siel Defrancq
Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest, Hungary)

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ID Abstract: 319