The Countryside dream : amenity Migration and the new transit-oriented communities

Abstract: This is a final thesis in landscape planning, at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). The study examines the current phenomenon of amenity migration and the international discourse applicability of the a "Countryside dream" in a small neighborhood in Käglinge, part of the transit-oriented community Oxie just outside of Malmö in the southern part of Sweden. The critical starting point of the study is the how many planners idealize the dense city with its positive proximity qualities. However, since the late 1900s, many people have instead started to idealize living in more rural or naturally appealing landscapes, often just outside a bigger city, with good transit possibilities (both by car and bus as well as by train). The phenomenon of amenity migration – the migration to a new, more appealing everyday environment considered to have more amenities, is very relevant today since many smaller communities are becoming more transit-oriented, allowing the inmigrants to work in some bigger, dense town while living in a small-scale, less dense semi-rural community. More dense transit-oriented communities are however also an ideal to planners in Sweden, but to what extent can Käglinge in Oxie – a neither rural nor urban community - fulfill a possible countryside dream, and what role does the train station have in the in-migrants everyday life? The study has a theoretical starting point in literature regarding amenity migration, countryside ideals, representations of the countryside and the possible migrants themselves, giving a broad perspective on these related issues. The case study of Käglinge in Oxie is then presented, including interviews with Käglinges in-migrants. The study reveals interesting themes regarding the in-migrants’ motivations and use of the everyday landscape, in order to approach their ideal living environment. A crucial amenity for the interviewees turned out to be the closeness to nature in Käglinge, but not always necessarily the cultural landscape. Other important motivational amenities for the interviewees were the wish of raising their children in a healthier environment, the freedom to have one’s own house and garden, the safety related to the neighborhood itself, and the rare possibility to get shape their own private space according to their ideals - together with Oxies strategic position in the Öresund Region. Interviews also revealed that the demand for unique dwellings and housing areas seems to be getting bigger, and that people are willing to spend a lot of money to access certain amenities despite limited finances. For future planners, a final suggestion is to attract many kinds of migrants by making both cities and central parts of the smaller transit-oriented communities more flexible, allowing more customized, denser housing areas for the common man. Providing many different types of housing is also crucial to avoid any rural gentrification in connection with new developments. The dialogue as planning tool is a way of understanding peoples’ ideals, and compromise is the key when planning for a sustainable future – in rural transit-oriented communities as well as in other everyday landscapes.