Migration Against the Tide

: Case Studies of South Australia, Sweden and Croatia

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to examine in-migration to depopulating SPAs in three different countries through a conceptual framework that explores the in-migration effects on the migrant, place and community. The thesis argues that the effects of these processes are ingrained and dependent on the relationship between migration and mobilities. The focus was on the spatial, social and temporal aspects of in-migration to depopulating SPAs. Migration was positioned as a complex, contextual and dynamic process that is enabled through mobility. For interpretation, this thesis proposed a particular framework to theorise such processes in depopulating SPAs. It positioned the experiences of the in-migrant, characteristics of the place and community responses to the in-migration processes as the products of the broader mobility context. It identified the four crucial dimensions in this process: migrant, place, community and mobility. Finally, it offered an insight into the complex interplay of these dimensions in three countries over five years using different qualitative methods. By combining interviews, ethnographic approaches, quantitative descriptive data and an extensive literature review, this thesis attempted to further elaborate the effects of ‘migration against the tide’ in depopulating SPAs and provide a more comprehensive system-wide view of this process.

Date of Award	Feb 2019
Original language	English
Supervisor	Doris Carson (Supervisor) & Ruth Wallace (Supervisor)