Been meaning to post this, but in case you didn’t hear, my thesis passed. This means I will graduate and receive my Master’s from QUB on Dec 8th. Of course, I’m going back to Belfast for the ceremony.
My thesis was titled, “Rural Brain Drain: Exploring and Comparing the Crisis in Alabama and Northern Ireland.” Of course, given the economic hardships in the Republic of Ireland & numerous stories of young people again fleeing Ireland, it appears this is somewhat timely. Glad this didn’t break while I was writing or it would have probably threw me off course. Regardless, below is the abstract and an excerpt from my final conclusion. If you are interested or need some bedtime reading to help you sleep, you can always read the whole thing!
Abstract:
Objective: To explore the rural brain drain crisis in Alabama and Northern Ireland in order to provide a comparative narrative on the problems faced and solutions proposed by the two areas.
With little prospect of quality career options and a limited range of social services and leisure activities, many young adults have chosen never return to their rural communities after finishing university degrees, which has led to a brain drain crisis. An extensive literature review was carried out to provide a framework of rural brain drain theories and existing research on the problems in the two regions. The researcher employed semi-structured focused interviews in discussions with elected officials, rural policymakers, farming interest groups, and young people that have left rural areas in both Alabama and Northern Ireland to investigate the causes, effects, and proposed solutions for rural brain drain. The presented narratives identified the lack of quality job opportunities as the primary cause of rural brain drain in both Alabama and Northern Ireland. Participants also expressed that the lack of services and entertainment and the insular nature of rural communities were a contributing factor to the problem. In terms of effects, the rural brain drain was believed to cause a further decline in rural areas, including more brain drain, a loss of future community leaders, and a declining number of young farmers. The research illuminated four potential solutions to the rural brain drain crisis: creating more quality rural jobs, the deployment of broadband, youth engagement and outreach, and using partnerships and incentives to encourage local development.
Conclusions:
After the review of literature and the completed study, the researcher agrees with the premise that jobs are the key concern when dealing with rural brain drain. In order to create jobs in rural communities, the researcher recommends that both Alabama and Northern Ireland develop schemes that encourage entrepreneurial young people to move into rural communities and create small businesses. Through a programme that provides support and mentoring to these young people and offers financial incentives such as start-up funding, loans, or tax credits, young people would be enticed back into rural areas. As such, a young entrepreneursip proposal could also specifically target areas of potential economic growth such as renewable energy and organic/local farming as discussed in Chapter 2. In addition to creating small businesses, Northern Ireland and Alabama must strive to recruit industries into rural communities. Recruitment efforts could be more successful by following the ideas proposed by Ivey to target high-tech firms in emerging sectors such as biomedical and aerospace while also attempting to better match industry size to community size and capacity. The researcher also recommends broadband deployment as an essential solution in improving the economic competitiveness of rural communities and improving the quality of life for residents. Lastly, the researcher recommends that rural areas must be more innovative in outreach and more inclusive in engaging with rural youth in order to build leaders who will want to reside and play a role in rural communities.
If places like Alabama and Northern Ireland are going to put an end to, or at least slow down, the rural brain drain crisis, they will have to get serious in understanding the need for jobs and the quality of life issues that could entice and retain young people to live in rural areas while also building young leaders who have a strong community bond. Change will have to be driven through the political processes by concerned and committed stakeholders who understand that these policies must be implemented in order to save rural communities. Without a formal recognition of the problem and attempts at aggressive action to solve it, rural areas will continue on a cycle of brain drain as they struggle to survive.
