Mobilities, Migration and Rural Transformations: Rethinking Countryside Futures in Motion

This study examines the spatial and social transformation of Küçükköy, a rural settlement in Ayvalık, in the context of historical migration, cultural heritage, and contemporary rural gentrification. Formerly known as Yeniçarohori, Küçükköy is one of the important rural settlements of the shared Aegean geography. Its Greek cultural heritage, rural architectural fabric, the experiences of communities settled after the population exchange, and the social structure formed by Bosnian migrants have transformed the village into a distinctive space bearing the traces of layered mobilities. Based on a research project comparing rural settlements in Ayvalık and Lesvos, as well as recent fieldworks in Ayvalık, this paper discusses the transformation of Küçükköy in terms of economic, cultural, symbolic, and spatial restructuring. Traditionally defined by agriculture, olive cultivation, and livestock breeding, the local economy has diversified in recent years through art workshops, cultural tourism initiatives, boutique accommodation, and alternative production methods. This process has transformed Küçükköy into a rural settlement whose value is being redefined through images of rural attractiveness, authenticity, and the “rural idyll.” However, this process of revaluation also gives rise to tensions, including the transformation of property relations, demographic change, the reorganisation of everyday life, spatial differentiation, and indirect exclusion. In this context, Küçükköy is a prime example of a rural settlement historically shaped by migration and reproduced through new forms of urban-to-rural mobility, cultural economies, and tourism-oriented investments. While addressing Küçükköy as a transforming rural settlement, this study proposes to conceptualise it as a “geography of mobilities,” in which mobilities from different periods accumulate and gain new meanings through contemporary transformation processes. Considering the shared cultural landscape across the two shores of the Aegean Sea, it discusses the future of rural areas along the axes of mobility, cultural heritage, identity, belonging, and gentrification. Migration, Rural mobility, Rural tourism, Rural gentrification, Küçükköy

Research on migration in rural Greece has increasingly examined migrants’ incorporation into agricultural labour markets and their contribution to rural economies. However, migrants’ lived experiences of mobility and their social and spatial trajectories remain underexplored. This paper investigates how migrants living in rural Western Greece negotiate mobility, social positioning, and belonging at different stages of their lives and migration journeys. Drawing on qualitative research conducted between 2017 and 2022 with 30 Albanian, Romanian, and Bangladeshi migrants living in villages and small towns of Western Greece, the paper adopts a biographical perspective to explore migrants’ trajectories across places, labour markets, and social worlds. Through life-story interviews carried out at two time intervals, the analysis examines how aspirations, expectations, and perceptions of social mobility are reconfigured over time through experiences of migration, work, family life, and settlement in rural areas. The findings show that migrants’ trajectories are shaped by complex forms of spatial mobility, including transnational migration, everyday rural mobilities, and movements between urban and rural labour markets. These mobilities are deeply intertwined with migrants’ efforts to achieve social recognition, economic security, and a sense of stability and belonging. Migrants’ narratives reveal that belonging is not fixed but is continuously produced through everyday practices, social relationships, and emotional attachments to place. The paper further highlights how migrants assess their life trajectories through relational comparisons between origin and destination contexts, past and present selves, and different social groups. Such comparisons reveal the deeply temporal and spatial dimensions of migrants’ understandings of social mobility and inclusion. By focusing on socio-spatial trajectories and everyday mobilities, the paper argues for a more processual understanding of migrant incorporation in rural areas, one that recognises belonging as shaped through movement, settlement, and the continuous negotiation of place and identity.

This paper examines how migrant labour precarity in Greece is shaped by spatial context, focusing on the differentiated conditions of urban and rural reception and settlement. It argues that precarity is not simply the outcome of insecure employment or unstable legal status, but a socio-spatial condition produced through the interaction of labour-market structures, migration governance, access to services, and place-specific opportunities and constraints. The paper draws on qualitative fieldwork conducted between 2022 and 2023 in four reception facilities: Eleonas and Schisto in metropolitan Attica, and Filippiada and Katsikas in rural mainland Greece. The empirical material consists of 79 interviews, including 52 with Syrian migrants, 23 with staff in reception facilities, and 4 with senior officials from the Ministry of Migration and Asylum. The comparative design enables an examination of how urban and rural settings mediate access to work, everyday survival strategies, and aspirations for onward mobility. The findings show that spatial location matters not as a single explanatory factor, but as a framework within which different forms of precarity are produced and experienced. In rural areas, migrants encounter limited labour demand, seasonal and uninsured agricultural employment, weaker institutional support, and heightened isolation. In urban areas, access to informal work and services is broader, but employment remains unstable, poorly paid, and marked by intense competition. Across both settings, language proficiency, social networks, and legal-institutional uncertainty play a decisive role in shaping labour-market incorporation. By foregrounding the spatial dimension of precarity, the paper contributes to debates on migration, rural transformation, and uneven development, showing how urban–rural differences structure migrants’ work trajectories, everyday lives, and sense of future in contemporary Greece.

The interconnection between cultural infrastructure, cultural activity, and cultural work with vibrant and attractive insular space has been widely discussed, particularly in relation with the so-called "return to the countryside". Supporting cultural development is vital for fostering healthy, inclusive, and sustainable communities. Culture contributes to the formation of identity and local pride while affirming values, embracing diversity, and reflecting the aspirations of the communities it serves. Equal access to culture remains a central objective of cultural strategies, with the coordination of diverse actors—including public, private, and voluntary stakeholders—being a significant challenge. Recent critiques of the "cultural industry" concept have highlighted concerns regarding the economic instrumentalization of culture, the precarious conditions faced by cultural workers, and unequal opportunities for local populations in cultural production and consumption (Bell & Oakley, 2016; Mould, 2018; O'Connor, 2024). However, opportunities for cultural participation add to the attractiveness of a place and are, arguably, one of the criteria for choosing life on an island. This paper critically examines cultural strategies within this context, drawing on extensive field research and a participatory cultural planning meeting/workshop conducted on the islands of Samos and Chios. The study explores whether cultural industries/activities can serve as a developmental pathway and identifies the support mechanisms required for such integration. The fieldwork consisted of two parts: (a) interviews with stakeholders, including representatives and artists active in contemporary culture and key participants in the islands’ cultural events and a questionnaire survey with inhabitants, and (b) a face-to-face participatory workshop involving representatives from public and private institutions, associations, and cultural professionals in each island. This research critically evaluates the synergies and networking opportunities among artists, local institutions, creative and cultural industries, and tourism actors, with a particular focus on the role of participatory processes in shaping cultural strategies.

This paper reflects on seasonal labour migration in Mediterranean agriculture and argues for a more nuanced geographical understanding of mobility, labour, and precarity in rural contexts. While migration studies have traditionally approached labour migration as primarily an urban phenomenon, the increasing dependence of agricultural production on migrant workers across Southern Europe has repositioned rural regions as critical sites of transnational mobility and labour restructuring. Since the early 2000s, international migration to peripheral, agricultural, and remote areas has emerged as a major field of inquiry within migration and rural studies. Drawing on examples from Greece, Italy, and Spain, the presentation examines how different agricultural systems across the Mediterranean rely on seasonal migrant labour despite important national and regional differences. In Greece, migrant workers have become central to labour-intensive agricultural production under conditions marked by informality and legal insecurity. In Italy, highly segmented labour markets and subcontracting systems have intensified forms of labour exploitation and spatial segregation. In Spain, export-oriented agribusiness and circular migration schemes reveal how mobility is institutionally organised to meet the demands of flexible agricultural production. Despite these differences, common patterns emerge across the Mediterranean: labour shortages in rural areas, the increasing casualisation of agricultural work, dependence on migrant labour, and the production of precarious living and working conditions. The paper critically repositions the “seasonal” dimension as a constitutive feature of agricultural labour regimes rather than a secondary characteristic of migration. It explores how temporality, mobility, and legal precarity shape labour hierarchies in the fields, while also examining the ways migrant workers exercise agency within restrictive labour arrangements. By connecting migrant mobility to the restructuring of rural labour markets, the paper contributes to broader debates in human geography on migration, rural transformation, and the spatial organisation of precarious labour in contemporary Mediterranean agriculture.

As Greece’s countryside faces demographic decline, it has become structurally reliant on international migrants to fill labor market gaps. Since the influx of migrants from Eastern Europe in the 1990s, these groups have diversified significantly in terms of employment strategies, settlement patterns, network accessibility, legal status, and migration trajectories. This study maps the structural conditions shaping differential emplacement of migrants working in rural Thessaly, exploring how socio-cultural predispositions, labor market structures, civic stratification, and networked social relations jointly shape place-making and social inclusion. Situated within the session’s focus on "Mobilities, Migration and Rural Transformations," this research explores the lived experience of emplacement of migrants and their role and agency in rural transformation. Countering dominant discourses of displacement, the concept of emplacement reframes migrants not as threats to social cohesion, but as active agents in the process of spatial transformation and place-making. Employing ethnographically informed mixed-methods—including participant observation, narrative interviews, and GIS-mapping—the multi-sided study analyzes a heterogeneous sample of migrant backgrounds to compare how distinct legal and social positions shape integration. Preliminary analysis suggests that while economic necessity drives spatial presence, "civic stratification" and varying access to social capital critically determine whether migrants can transition from temporary laborers to active community members. By foregrounding migrant agency within rural power dynamics, this research contributes to underrepresented scholarship on rural migration in Southern Europe. It offers a nuanced geographic perspective on local inclusion mechanisms, providing actionable insights for planners. Ultimately, this work argues that successful integration is not merely a humanitarian goal but a prerequisite for the sustainable future of the Greek countryside, where the long-term viability of the countryside depends most strongly on the mutual flourishing of migrants and local communities.