“At the edge of their next life-course stage: residential choices of rural young adults starting their career and residing without a partner.”

Henk Hofstede , University of Groningen
Koen Salemink, University of Groningen
Tialda Haartsen , University Groningen

In response to the dominant focus on the motivations of migration, studies recently have adopted staying as a subject on its own. Accordingly, with regard to rural young adults a shift has taken place from focusing on the outmigration of rural youth to young adults who continue to reside in their rural home. However, we think that the ones who have just started their career and, yet, reside without a partner deserves more attention because we belief that this group is very promising for the rural staying literature and the life-course literature. One the one hand, in comparison with young adults who reside with a partner and who may have even reached the family-formation life-course stage, young adults residing without a partner are less settled and therefore more open with regard to future residential choices. On the other hand, young adults who have just started their career are likely to be more ready to make a residential choice, and thus have a more realistic view on the future, in comparison with their younger peers who are still in their studies. By means of a qualitative analysis of 14 in-depth interviews, this paper aims to understand the residential decision making process and future residential plans of young adults who currently reside in the rural areas of Oost-Groningen, The Netherlands, and Clogher Valley, Northern-Ireland and just started their career but are not, yet, residing together with a partner. In doing so, this paper also aims to compare two geographical settings.

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 Presented in Session P1. Postercafe