Focus Issue: Implications of Out- and In-Migration for Sustainable Development in Mountains
Today, about 1 billion people worldwide are international or internal migrants (IOM–GMDAC 2016:5) and migration is taken into account in several targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (IOM 2017). Migration is also greatly affecting mountain societies and mountain ecosystems, with direct negative and positive implications for their development. Migration processes are very diverse, context-specific, highly complex, and often poorly understood. Although general data on population changes exist, they often fail to reveal dynamic local out- and in-migration patterns and do not account for migration within mountain areas, for example from rural to urban areas. Nor do demographic data reveal the reasons for people’s migration choices, the types of migration, and the social, economic, cultural, institutional, and ecological negative and positive impacts of migratory processes on both places of origin and destination areas.The papers in this Focus Issue offer a rich exploration of such details in several mountain regions of the world and contribute to improving our understanding of the outcomes of in- and outmigration for sustainable development in mountains. In the MountainDevelopment section, Marcher et al analyze how asylum seekers are being integrated socially and economically in 2 mountain villages in Italy, where all regions have been asked to take more responsibility in hosting migrants; they conclude that strong relations between actors are beneficial for labor and social integration. In the next paper, Gretter et al compare research conducted in 3 mountain areas where in-migration has increased: the inflow came from young people in the Italian village, from amenity migrants in Romania, and from asylum seekers in Austria. The authors conclude that a supportive social environment, engaged local actors brokering between groups, and meeting spaces can help build a welcoming culture.
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Authors
Molden, D.,Breu, T.,von Dach, S.W.,Zimmermann, A.B.,Mathez-Stiefel, S.-L.
Publication year
2022
