Reasons for Migration Reverse in Estonia

Authors

• Mare Ainsaar

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23979/fypr.45018

Keywords:

internal migration, deconcentration, migration reasons, Estonia

Abstract

During the past 30 years migration trends in most European countries have revealed
some signs of deconcentration. The aim of this paper is to analyse the reasons of
such deconcentration. For that purpose we will give an overview of literature on
reasons of migration turnaround and provide a deeper case analysis of one country
- Estonia. In Estonia internal migration ? rst turned in favour of rural areas in 1983.
The trends of deconcentration continued and rural population increased at the expense
of urban population at least until the end of the 1990s. The Retrospective Estonian
Living Conditions Survey of 1999 is used to analyze the possible changes in reasons
for migration turnaround. That survey provides a unique opportunity for comparing
reasons of migration during periods of concentration and deconcentration. In the
empirical part of this paper deconcentration will be de? ned as an out? ow of population
from administrative town borders into rural areas. We will not distinguish between
particular types of deconcentration for practical reasons of data limitation. We are
particularly interested in migration because migration seems to be the most important
factor contributing to quick population changes.