Learning to Return: Residential Sorting Among Rural College Graduates

• In Event: 248 - Regular Session. Rural Sociology 2: Diversity, Inequalities, and Attainments in Rural Places

Abstract

Due to the low demand for highly-educated workers in rural areas, many rural adolescents have to choose between staying close to home and facing limited economic opportunities, and leaving to pursue higher education and socioeconomic advancement. But what of those young people who want both—the college degree and the return to rural living? The purpose of this study is to build on Carr and Kefalas’ work on the “rural brain drain,” with a focus on what policymakers concerned with the sustainability of rural communities might call success stories—college graduates from rural areas who return to rural areas as young adults. Through in depth interviews, this study explores the factors that motivated respondents to pursue a college degree, the supports they drew on in the process of attaining their degree, the factors that influenced their decision to return to a rural area, and the supports that enabled them to complete this transition. This study finds that family ties, rural lifestyle, and religious affiliations tended to motivate respondents to return to rural areas. Respondents tailored their college majors and career aspirations to jobs available in their hometowns, mainly in educational and social service fields. Further, respondents selected colleges with campus cultures that were compatible with their hometown culture, to avoid experiencing dissonance and facilitate easy movement between the two spheres.

Author

• Ingrid Nelson, Bowdoin College