Amenity Migration in the Context of Landscape-Ecology Research

Amenity migration is a specific type of migration that is not economically motivated. Rather it is brought about by a desire to render more valuable the natural or socio-cultural environment of the target territory, and it is often directed from metropolitan to rural areas. This phenomenon has been strongly supported by the spread and growing accessibility of mass information technologies. As with any other kind of migration, it can lead to changes in the spatial distribution of human activities in the target territory. Under specific conditions, it can become one of the driving societal forces determining the socio-economic development of a given rural region. In the European context, amenity migration appears to be in its early stages of development. As such, it has been the subject of theoretical debate rather than being documented by empirical evidence. Amenity migration can be seen as an ambiguous phenomenon. Optimistic hypotheses claim that it could support local development of rural space and thus diminish the disproportionate development of particular regions and that it can maintain or even improve these region's environmental and cultural quality. On the other hand, it can also lead to a massive invasion of urban behavioural patterns into rural areas, making them culturally uniform. Tried and tested GIS methods exist for identifying a landscape's potential for amenity migration. The use of qualitative and quantitative techniques is a useful and progressive approach to landscape ecological research. We can expect further progress in the methods used to study amenity migration and for evaluating rural development within a landscape context following further research on amenity migrants, which will take place over the coming years.