Globalization and foreign amenity migrants: the case of foreign home owners in the Pomurska region in Slovenia

Abstract

Slovenia became an independent state in 1991 with immigration flows in the country strengthening since 1998. The majority of the immigrants, mostly seeking employment, originate from the former Yugoslav republics. Parallel to this work migration flow from the south and after accession to the EU, Slovenia also attracted other types of migration from EU member states particularly amenity migrants. These amenity migrants show a strong interest in the Slovenian peripheral rural regions with its reasonably priced real estate and its natural landscape character. In the case of these foreign home owners an important question is whether and to what extent they are symptomatic of the processes of globalization? To address this, a detailed survey has been conducted in the Pomurska region located in eastern Slovenia and bordering Hungary, Austria and Croatia. The survey focused on foreign home owners who either became permanent residents or who are second home owners. The results of this empirical work prove very insightful of the processes going on in the region and the integration of migrants into rural society in Slovenia.

International Migration, Agency and Regional Development in Rural Europe

“…The discussion here draws on a work package that focused on international migrants and mobility, involving contextual analysis across ten regions, primarily using published statistics and documents that provided an insight into the broad patterns of migration flows, and detailed case study research by consortium partners in six regions: Alytus county (Lithuania), Oberlausitz (Germany), Övre Norrland (Sweden), Pomurska (Slovenia), Saarland (Germany), and County Roscommon (Ireland). 1 A total of 113 qualitative interviews with migrants were conducted by researchers from the partner institutions across these case study regions between November 2009 and April 2010, including 50 with migrant workers (in Alytus, Dresden, Övre Norrland and Saarland), 39 with foreign homeowners (in Övre Norrland, Pomurska and Saarland), and 24 with return migrants (in Alytus and County Roscommon), as well as interviews with municipal leaders in two of the regions (Alytus and Pomurska) (for more details of the research see Farrell et al, 2012;McDonagh et al 2015;Kairyte, 2015;Lampič and Mrak, 2012;Lampič et al, 2015;Nadler, 2012;Frys, 2012, 2015).…”

“…Catalysts can be events, such as the accession of countries in Central and Eastern Europe to the European Union in 2004, but particularly interesting is the role that individuals can play as catalysts connecting specific migrant groups with specific localities (a role also noted by Mountz and Wright, 1996, with respect to Mexican migration to the United States). The presence of British migrants in Pomurska, for example, is in part attributable to the initiative of an early British émigré, married to a Slovenian woman, who in anticipation of Slovenian entry to the EU in 2004 started to systematically buy and renovate dilapidated houses in the region, marketed them in Britain as idyllic lifestyle-investments, and provided services to assist with the process of moving and settling in Slovenia (see also Lampič and Mrak, 2012). Similarly, the Brazilian community in Gort, Ireland, is the result of entrepreneurial initiative by an Irish ex-patriate in Brazil who, noting a labour shortage in the meat-processing industry in Ireland, set himself up as an agent recruiting skilled workers from a Brazilian town where a large abattoir had recently closed to work in plants in Gort and Roscommon; while the Muslim population in Ballyhaunis owes its presence to a Pakistan-born, London-based trader who was approached by the Kuwaiti government in the late 1960s to set up a secure supply of halal meat and who, after considering several options, bought-out a local family-owned meat plant in the town.…”

“…This paper aims to construct a more holistic perspective by drawing together evidence from three different research projects, conducted between 2006 and 2015, which collectively have involved empirical research in six European countries and across different categories of migrant, including labour migrants, lifestyle migrants, return migrants, cross-border commuters and refugees. The detailed results of each of these studies can be found elsewhere (see Farrell et al, 2012;Jones and Lever, 2014;McDonagh et al 2015;Lampič and Mrak, 2012;Nadler, 2012;Nienaber and Frys, 2012;Woods, 2011a;Woods, forthcoming;Woods and Watkin, 2008), with the discussion here focusing firstly on the key overarching trends and dynamics that emerge from the data, and secondly on the transformative capacity of international migration, and particularly its contribution to regional development.…”

Model of Local Economic Development in Hungarian Countryside

“…It contributes on one side the extremely strong force in direction of one settlement and on the other side it involves low rate of internal mobilities (Bálint, 2012;Kiss et al 2017;Kiss, 2018). But in the international context, the phenomenon of localism does not restrict only one place, the usual place of residence, (Nadler, 2012;Lampič, and Mrak, 2012) due to the translocal-transnational circular migration of individuals (Illés and Kincses, 2018). The enhancing action space of mobile persons multiplies the realm of local patriotism (Carson and Koch, 2013).…”

Global Change and Human Mobility

“…This amenity migration can be associated with retirement (e.g. British moving to Pomurska, Slovenia (Lampič and Mrak 2012)). Gallent et al 2005;Glorioso 2009; McIntyre 2009), with the desire for "subjective well-being" (e.g.…”