Abstract
This report provides an overview of the processes of immigration in European rural and mountain areas, i.e. labour, forced, student, family and amenity/lifestyle migration.
For this purpose, Section A presents a literature review of migration studies from various subdisciplines of the social sciences, e.g. demography, economy, geography, sociology and regional studies. Section A further presents the prevailing immigration processes, including a diachronic perspective, as well as the framework for the description of MATILDE regions basedon socio-economic, socio-demographic and territorial indicators. Finally, MATILDE regions are portrayed in terms of immigration of TCNs and spatial characteristics.
In Section B, country and regional profiles are provided. As a basis for understanding current developments in MATILDE regions, for each region, the relevance of immigration phenomena and specific migration and integration policies in a given MATILDE country are presented from a historical perspective. Then, demographic, economic and migration-related developments in MATILDE regions are illustrated by means of a collection of statistical data from EUROSTAT and National Statistical Offices.
As a conclusion, in Section C, patterns of immigration of TCNs to MATILDE countries and regions are classified in light of wider structural transformations.