Rural exodus (or rural flight) is a term used to describe the migratory patterns that normally occur in a region following the mechanisation of agriculture. In such a situation, there tends to be a movement of peoples from rural areas into urban areas. This is related to the fact that with mechanization (or any other change in the method of production which increases productivity) fewer people are needed to bring the same amount of agricultural output to market.
The term is used in the United States especially to describe the flight of people from rural areas in the Great Plains region of the Midwest, where, historically, farmers have had difficulties in developing agriculture and have had to migrate to urban areas. An example of this is the Dust Bowl in the 1930s, where people had to flee because of large dust storms. This problem persists to the present day in the western parts of Great Plains states such as Nebraska and Kansas.
Rural flight from the Great Plains has been mentioned in various fiction books, like in John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath, in which a family from the Great Plains migrates to California during the Dust Bowl period of the 1930s.
The phenomenon of rural flight is also well-known in developing countries, where many people in the countryside live below the poverty line. They migrate to cities to find employment or to get money by begging.
References
- Ravenstein, E. G. (1885): "The Laws of Migration", in London: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society - vol. 48, nº. June, 1885, pp. 167–227.
- Ravenstein, E. G. (1889): "The Laws of Migration", in London: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society - vol. 52, nº. June, 1889, pp. 241–301.
See also
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