Staying, leaving and returning: Rurality and the development of reflexivity and motility

Studies of rural areas have necessarily been occupied by discussions of migration, the experience of which is often concentrated among young adults in the years immediately following the end of secondary education. This dynamic has been attributed to a mobility imperative that equates leaving rural areas for the opportunities offered by urban centres with success, and staying in rural areas with failure. This article interrogates the distinction between those who leave rural areas and those who stay, drawing on life-course research that contextualises the post-secondary mobility imperative within individuals’ wider biographies in order to challenge claims that mobility is associated with the development of personal resources that lie outside the reach of those who are not mobile. The article presents data taken from a 20-year longitudinal panel study of individuals’ post-school pathways, drawing specifically on interviews conducted with participants who grew up in rural areas. By focusing on the significance of relational considerations, the authors contend that the mobility decision-making process results in the development of reflexivity about one’s mobility irrespective of its outcome.