When the grass is greener on the other side

After 30 years of a profoundly Parisian life, Arthur and Constance settled in Sologne in 2020, two hours south of the French capital, leaving behind the tumult which no longer suited them. In 2020, they acquired a magnificent but abandoned farm to embark on sheep farming and agri-tourism.

This was a total reconversion for Constance, a former logistics engineer at Louis Vuitton, and Arthur, a real estate entrepreneur at Domaine de Chasse. They are now proud owners of 300 of the famous Brebis Solognote sheep, a traditional local breed bearing the local name. They also sell delicious Agneau de Sologne meat as part of their current business, Ferme du Poirier.

For a change of this scale, Constance is remarkably candid. “Our goal is to reconnect with nature, get back to basics. And, we want to share this experience through agri-tourism,” she says. For her, renewed interest in nature is an opportunity to recreate the link between the rural and urban world.

“Agriculture is a good way to recreate this link because both the urban and rural worlds need to be reconnected to agriculture,” says Constance. Before Louis Vuitton, she worked as a quantitative analyst at Crédit Agricole, and then as a consultant at Accenture.

Here is another story from another part of the world, furthering the same trend. Hokuto City is located in Japan’s far northwest Yamanashi Prefecture. Mostly forested, comprising elevated highlands and a population density of just 78 persons per square kilometre, it is characterised by hot and humid summers and relatively mild winters. Hokuto is also famous for constant sunlight, over 2,500 hours per year, making it a popular destination for outdoor activities such as cycling and hiking.

The rural municipality of Hokuto stands out for one more unique phenomenon: even as it experiences a pervasive population decline, it’s turning out to be a popular destination for migrants from urban areas. Sologne and Hokuto collectively suggest that more and more people — especially among the affluent class — are beginning to see greater value in countryside living. Some have made a move, while others are weighing options. It is only a matter of time before more such moves become the norm.

A Journal of Rural Studies paper — that deals with diverse values of urban-to-rural migration — highlights a niche migration trend from urban to rural areas, particularly in post-industrial economies. Going by its hypothesis, widespread teleworking acceptance after Covid-19 might offer working-age people more comprehensive work and life options. The pandemic drove millions out of big cities in the developing world, and, if reports are to be believed, a large chunk of them are yet to return.

Future urban-rural population flows will undoubtedly be fuelled by unprecedented population concentration into urban areas, which raises global sustainability and human well-being concerns. Their move back to the countryside may present rural employment challenges, but it could benefit the agriculture sector if they acquire farming and entrepreneurial skills. Italy set an example where thousands of young workers fled urban lockdowns to the countryside and were lured by village leaders to stay back.

The process of counter-urbanisation

Counter-urbanisation, or deurbanisation, is a demographic and social process whereby people move from urban to rural areas. According to ScienceDirect, it is recognised as a central, geographically, historically, and socially uneven demographic feature of most countries in the Global North, “having been first identified as a mass phenomenon in the US by researchers in the mid-1970s”. The UN Population and Development Commission describes urban transition as “a change in a population that is dispersed in small rural settlements, in which agriculture is the dominant economic activity”.

There is little consensus on what primarily drives this phenomenon and where it could lead the demography to. Moreover, different scenarios are unfolding in different parts of the world. While the developing world’s urban populations are concentrated in megacities, urban sprawl is thrust around dominant business and industry-specific hubs in more industrialised countries. Perhaps for these reasons, prominent economist Walter Elkan propounded the idea of circular migration. He called urbanisation “an essentially impermanent phenomenon”.

According to Elkan, migrants to cities do not generally or immediately cut their links with rural homes. Elkan’s theory was based on the premise that “part of the urban populations in East Africa and elsewhere consists of people who have close connections with their villages of origin, to which they may ultimately return.” In a way, this theory suggests that no migration could be deemed permanent as human priorities change with circumstances.

An MDPI research — on migration, rural-urban connectivity, and food remittances in Kenya — surmises that most migrants expect to return home for better lives and develop communities at the end of a migratory life. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said recently that new technologies — egged on by the Covid-19 pandemic —have opened up new opportunities for rural development.

“Opportunities exist to build a greener, more inclusive, and resilient future. The experience of the pandemic has shown that where high-quality Internet connectivity is coupled with flexible working arrangements, many jobs that were traditionally considered to be urban can be performed in rural areas too,” Guterres is quoted to have said. Hence, technology and infrastructure influence and expedite this process.

The disparity debates

There is also an in-between phenomenon catching people’s imagination. It is called in situ urbanisation, that results from efforts to ensure that the rural population enjoys the urban-style standard of living devoid of unsustainable urbanisation’s adverse effects. It has had its benefits in some parts of the world. According to a UN report, improved access to education and healthcare in Sri Lanka, Japan, and China enhanced investment in rural infrastructure. It also reduced rural-urban income disparity and improved rural populations’ living conditions.

Gauri Khandekar, a researcher at the Environment and Sustainability Cluster at the Brussels School of Governance, looks at the transformation from a haves and have-nots perspective, depending on which region one is looking at. According to her, in places like Asia, “where youth from farming backgrounds left the villages to the cities,” reverse migration is a good sign because the pressure on the cities increased significantly while agriculture suffered.

@e2sham