The roles of family and friends in the immobility decisions of university graduates staying in a peripheral urban area in the Netherlands

Abstract

Highly educated individuals constitute great assets for regional development and economic growth. Nevertheless, young university graduates are relatively geographically mobile and less likely to stay in peripheral regions. Based on semi‐structured, life‐calendar interviews, this study explored the immobility decisions of graduates who have stayed in a peripheral urban area in the Netherlands where they completed their university education. The study specifically focused on the roles of family and friends in the staying processes of these young adults. The results indicate that the decision to stay was frequently and consciously re‐evaluated by some, whereas for others, it resulted from a ‘lack of triggers’ for moving elsewhere. Notably, the interviews revealed that family and friends act as more than motives for staying or deterrents to migration. On various occasions, family and friends had played crucial roles as advisors, influencers, triggers, exemplars and facilitators in the staying processes of highly educated young adults.

Do Internal Migration Experiences Facilitate Migration Intentions and Behavior?

“…This is par tic u larly the case for migrants who faced adverse cir cum stances at des ti na tion, such as job dis sat is fac tion (Lin et al 1999;Niedomysl and Amcoff 2011) or mar i tal sep a ra tion (Spring et al 2021). However, research ers have been increas ingly rec og niz ing that return migra tion should not be viewed solely as a cor rec tive move and that it can be part of a planned strat egy fol low ing the com ple tion of ter tiary edu ca tion, for exam ple (Thomassen 2021).…”

Stayers or leavers? Spatial (im)mobility patterns of young university graduates living in rural areas in Poland

“…Other research shows that they play a crucial role in sustaining agricultural development and local governments in rural areas (Ye, 2018). Specifically, highly educated individuals, due to their skills and competences, may contribute significantly to rural development and endogenous economic growth (Artz & Yu, 2009; Thomassen, 2020).…”

“…Haartsen & Thissen, 2014), including those with a university degree (Rérat, 2014a). As Thomassen (2020) indicates, family and friends’ well‐being is an important factor when deciding about staying or leaving. These networks also constitute a great part of people's social capital to be used, for example, in times of need.…”

Family proximity and relocations in older adulthood

“…Older adults are likely to be in greater need of practical family support and, therefore, have more needs for family proximity than those in other life stages. Furthermore, events that occur in different life domains (e.g., deteriorating health, widowhood) might influence an individual's choice to move toward relatives if they live far or stay close if they already live nearby Thomassen, 2021). In other words, migration and immobility are instrumental to goals in other life course domains (Mulder, 1993).…”

“…The questions on the association between the needs-related life circumstances of older people and their own, as well as their relatives', migration and immobility addressed in this thesis could largely be answered using register data. The features of register data that make them suitable for exploring this association include (i) coverage of the complete population and thus no issues related to small sample sizes; (ii) the possibility to connect older adults with all their family members (in this thesis, partners, children, ; Thomassen (2021)]. We should also note that qualitative approaches have been successfully applied to explore the experiences of staying close to family but, to the best of our knowledge, have not been used to explore the experiences of people who moved toward family.…”