Looking for Rural Idyll ‘Down Under’: International Immigrants in Rural Australia
| Date | 01 February 2016 |
| Published date | 01 February 2016 |
| Author | Branka Krivokapic‐Skoko,Jock Collins |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12174 |
Looking for Rural Idyll ‘Down Under’:
International Immigrants in Rural Australia
Branka Krivokapic-Skoko* and Jock Collins**
ABSTRACT
This article outlines the empirical findings of the first national longitudinal study of almost
1,000 recent immigrants who decided to move to non-metropolitan Australia. The national sur-
vey (2008-2010) identified that new international immigrants tend to move to rural areas
because of the natural beauty, lifestyle and community spirit to be found there, as well as the
idyllic image of peacefulness and a relaxing environment associated with these areas. Natural
attractors, such as rurality and climate, were important features of the places which, according
to the survey, were particularly liked. However, there is tension between the imagined Austra-
lian rural ideal and reality, with remoteness, isolation and parochialism being the key features
in how the countryside may be misrepresented. The retention of new immigrants in rural
places is very strongly related to constructed attractors –the availability and quality of infra-
structure, as well as recreational, entertainment and cultural activities.
INTRODUCTION
Since the mid 1990s, regionalization in Australian immigration policy has become more apparent,
as a number of initiatives encouraging new immigrants to settle in non-metropolitan areas have
been introduced. These regional immigration policies and schemes have been described by some
scholars (Hugo et al., 2006) as “new paradigms in international migration”because they oppose
and challenge the predominantly metropolitan settlements of migrants from the 1950s onwards.
However, most of the research to date into the history of immigrant communities in Australia, and
the economic and social impacts of Australian immigration, has focused on metropolitan areas.
Urban sites were also at the focus of the general literature exploring the experience of recent immi-
grants in Australia. This article outlines the findings of a comprehensive cross sectional and nation-
ally-based survey of recent immigrants settling in rural and regional Australia (those who arrived in
2003-2008). The objectives of this national survey were to explore the skills and qualifications of
the immigrants, their employment and settlement experience and their satisfaction with the services
in the communities in which they were living. The study was explicitly designed to answer the
question: what would it take to attract and keep new immigrants in small regional townships and
rural areas?
The article starts by reviewing the literature on attraction and retention of new immigrants in
regional and rural areas in Australia and also by looking at the Canadian experience, as Canada is
considered to be rather successful in promoting the settlement of immigrants in non-metropolitan
* Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia.
** University of Technology Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
doi: 10.1111/imig.12174
©2014 The Authors
International Migration ©2014 IOM
International Migration Vol. 54 (1) 2016
ISSN 0020-7985Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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