Editing Rural flight (section)

==Examples==
===United States and Canada===
{{see also|Depopulation of the Great Plains}}
The terms are used in the [[United States]] and [[Canada]] to describe the flight of people from rural areas in the [[Great Plains]] and [[Midwest]] regions, and to a lesser extent rural areas of the northeast and southeast and Appalachia. It is also particularly noticeable in parts of [[Atlantic Canada]] (especially [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]]), since the [[collapse of the Atlantic northwest cod fishery|collapse of Atlantic cod fishing fields]] in 1992.

Rural counties in the United States make up about 70 percent of the nation's land mass. Historically, population increase from births in rural areas more than compensated for the number of people moving from rural areas to urban areas, but from 2010 to 2016, rural areas lost population in absolute numbers for the first time.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Rural Population Loss and Strategies for Recovery|url=https://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/econ_focus/2020/q1/district_digest|access-date=2020-08-30|website=www.richmondfed.org|language=en-us}}</ref>

===China===
[[File:Migrant Worker Style (12085578295).jpg|thumb|A Chinese migrant worker leaving the worksite after a shift in a city.]]
{{Main|Migration in China}}

[[China]], like many other currently industrializing countries, has had a relatively late start to rural flight. Until 1983, the Chinese government, through the [[hukou system]], greatly restricted the ability of their citizens to internally migrate. Since 1983, the Chinese government has progressively lifted the restrictions on internal migration. This has led to a great increase in the number of people migrating to urban areas.<ref name="Hukou">{{cite journal|last=Liang|first=Zai|author2=Zhongdong Ma |title=China's floating population: new evidence from the 2000 census|journal=Population and Development Review|year=2004|volume=30|issue=3|pages=467–488|doi=10.1111/j.1728-4457.2004.00024.x}}</ref> However, even today, the hukou system limits the ability of rural migrants to receive full access to urban social services at the urban subsidized costs.<ref name="Economist" /> As with most examples of rural flight, several factors have led towards China's massive urbanization. Income disparity, family pressure, surplus labor in rural areas due to higher average fertility rates, and improved living conditions all play a role in contributing to the flows of migrants from rural to urban areas.<ref>{{cite web|title=Labour Migration|url=http://www.ilo.org/beijing/areas-of-work/labour-migration/lang--en/index.htm|publisher=International labour organization|access-date=18 April 2014}}</ref> In 2014, approximately 250 million rural migrants lived in cities with 54% of the total Chinese population living in urban areas.<ref name="Economist">{{Cite news|title=China's cities: The Great Transition|newspaper=The Economist|url=https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21599360-government-right-reform-hukou-system-it-needs-be-braver-great|access-date=18 April 2014|date=2014-03-21}}</ref>

===England and Wales===

A focus by landowners on efficient production led to the [[enclosure of the commons]] in the 16th and 17th centuries.<ref>{{cite news|last=Beresford| first= Maurice| author-link = Maurice Beresford | year=1998|title= The Lost Villages of England (Revised ed.)|publisher=Sutton}}</ref> This created unrest in rural areas as tenants were then unable to [[grazing rights|graze]] their livestock. They sometimes resorted to illegal means to support their families.<ref>{{cite news|last=Shoemaker| first=Robert B.|date=1999|title= Prosecution and Punishment. Petty crime and the law in London and rural Middlesex, c. 1660–1725|publisher=Harlow|location=Essex: Longman| isbn= 978-0-582-23889-3}}</ref> This was followed, in turn, by [[penal transportation]] which sent offenders out of the country, often Australia. Eventually, economic measures produced the [[British Agricultural Revolution]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present |last=Landes |first=David S. |year=1969 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-09418-4 |pages=18}}</ref>

===Germany===
====Middle Ages====
Rural flight has been occurring to some degree in Germany since the 11th century. A corresponding principle of German law is ''[[Stadtluft macht frei]]'' ("city air makes you free"), in longer form ''Stadtluft macht frei nach Jahr und Tag'' ("city air makes you free after a year and a day"): by custom and, from 1231/32, by statute, a [[serf]] who had spent [[Year and a day rule|a year and a day]] in a city was free, and could not be reclaimed by their former master.

====German ''Landflucht''====
{{Main|Landflucht}}

''[[Landflucht]]'' ("flight from the land") refers to the mass [[Human migration|migration]] of peasants into the cities that occurred in [[Germany]] (and throughout most of Europe) in the late 19th century.

In 1870 the rural population of Germany constituted 64% of the population; by 1907 it had shrunk to 33%.<ref name="Schapiro, Shotwell p. 300">SchapiroShotwell; 1922, p. 300.</ref> In 1900 alone, the Prussian provinces of [[East Prussia]], [[West Prussia]], [[Province of Posen|Posen]], [[Province of Silesia|Silesia]], and [[Province of Pomerania (1815–1945)|Pomerania]] lost about 1,600,000 people to the cities,<ref name="Kirk p. 139">Kirk1969, p. 139.</ref> where these former agricultural workers were absorbed into the rapidly growing factory labor class;<ref name="Mises p. 8">Mises2006, p. 8.</ref> One of the causes of this mass-migration was the decrease in rural income compared to the rates of pay in the cities.<ref name="Shafir p. 150">Shafir 1996, p. 150.</ref>

''Landflucht'' resulted in a major transformation of the German countryside and agriculture. [[Mechanized agriculture]] and migrant workers, particularly Poles from the east (Sachsengänger), became more common. This was especially true in the [[province of Posen]] that was [[Prussian partition|gained by Prussia]] when [[partitions of Poland|Poland was partitioned]].<ref name="Shafir p. 150" /> The Polish population of eastern Germany was one of the justifications for the creation of the "[[Polish corridor]]" after World War I and the absorption of the land east of the [[Oder-Neisse line]] into Poland after World War II. Also, some labor-intensive enterprises were replaced by much less labor-intensive ones such as [[game preserve]]s.<ref name="Drage p. 77">Drage 1909, p. 77.</ref>

The word ''Landflucht'' has negative connotations in German, as it was coined by agricultural employers, often of the German aristocracy, who were lamenting their labor shortages.<ref name="Mises p. 8" /><ref name="McLean, Kromkowski p. 56">McLean, Kromkowski 1991, p. 56.</ref>

===Scotland===
{{Further|Highland Clearances|Lowland Clearances}}
The rural exodus of Scotland followed that of England, but delayed by several centuries. [[Highland Clearances|Consolidation of farms and elimination of inefficient tenants]] occurred over about 110 years from the 18th to the 19th centuries.<ref>{{cite book|last=Richards|first=Eric|year=2008|title=The Highland Clearances: People, Landlords and Rural Turmoil|chapter=Answers and Questions|publisher=Birlinn Ltd|location=Edinburgh}}
</ref> [[Samuel Johnson]] encountered this in 1773 and documented it in his work ''[[A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland]].'' He deplored the exodus but did not have the information to analyze the problem.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Johnson|first1=Samuel|title=A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides|date=2006|orig-year=1775|publisher=Penguin UK|location=London|edition=James Boswell}}</ref>

===Sweden===
Rural flight and out-migration in Sweden can be traced in two distinct waves. The first, beginning in the 1850s when 82% of the Swedish population lived in rural areas, and continuing till the late 1880s, was mostly due to push factors in the countryside related to poverty, unemployment, low agricultural wages, debt peonage, semi-feudalism, and religious oppression by the State church. Most of the migration was ad-hoc and directed towards emigration to the three big cities of Sweden, America, Denmark, or Germany. Many of these first emigrants were unskilled, barely literate laborers who sought farm work or daily wage labour in the cities.

The second wave started from the late 1890s and reached its peak between 1922 and 1967, with the highest rates of rural flight occurring in the 1920s and the 1950s. This was mostly "pull factors" due to the economic boom and industrial prosperity in Sweden wherein the massive economic expansion and wage increases in the urban areas pulled young people to migrate for work and at the same time drove down work opportunities in the countryside. Between 1925 and 1965, Sweden's GDP per capita increased from US$850 to US$6200. Simultaneously, the percentage of the population living in rural areas decreased drastically from 54% in 1925 to 21% in 1965.

=== Russia and the former Soviet states ===
[[File:Novospasskoe1.jpg|thumb|The defunct church in the abandoned village Novospasskoye, [[Saratov Oblast]], Russia]]Rural flight began later for the former states of the [[USSR]] than in [[Western Europe]]. In 1926 only 18% of Russians lived in urban areas, compared to over 75% at the same time in the United Kingdom. Although the process began later, throughout World War II and the decades immediately proceeding, rural flight proceeded at a rapid pace. By 1965, 53% of Russians lived in urban areas.<ref name="Wadekin">{{cite journal|last= Wadekin|first= Karl-Eugen|title= Internal Migration and the Flight from the Land in USSR|journal= Soviet Studies|date= October 1966|volume= 18|issue= 2|pages= 131–152|jstor= 149517|doi= 10.1080/09668136608410523}}</ref> Statistics compiled by M. Ya Sonin, a Soviet author, in 1959, demonstrate the rapid [[urbanization]] of the [[USSR]]. Between 1939 and 1959, the rural population declined by 21.3 million, while that of urban centers increased by 39.4 million. Of this dramatic shift in population, rural flight accounts for more than 60% of the change.<ref>{{cite journal|last= Sonin|first= M. Ya.|title= Vosproizvodstvo rabochei sily v SSSR i balans truda|date= March 1959|page= 144}}</ref> Generally, most rural migrants tended to settle in cities and towns within their district.<ref name="Wadekin" /> Rural flight persisted through the majority of the 20th century. However, with the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union|end of the Soviet Union]], rural flight reversed as political and economic instability in the cities prompted many urban dwellers to return to rural villages.<ref name="Wegren">{{cite journal|last= Wegren|first= Stephen K.|title= Rural Migration and Agrarian Reform in Russia: A Research Note|journal= Europe-Asia Studies|date= July 1995|volume= 47|issue= 5|pages= 877–888|jstor= 152691|doi= 10.1080/09668139508412292|pmid= 12320195}}</ref>

Rural flight did not occur uniformly throughout the USSR. Western [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russia]] and the [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukraine]] experienced the greatest declines in rural population, 30% and 17% respectively. Conversely, peripheral regions of the USSR, like [[Central Asia]], experienced gains, contradicting the general pattern of rural-urban migration of this period. Increased diversification of crops and labor shortages were primary contributors to the gains in rural population in the periphery.<ref name="Wadekin" />

Rural flight in Russia and the former USSR had several major determinants. The industrialization of agriculture, which came later in Russia and the former USSR, led to declines in available rural jobs. Lower living standards and tough work also motivated some peasants to migrate to urban areas.<ref name="Wadekin" /> In particular, the Soviet ''[[kolkhoz]]'' system (the collective farms in the Soviet Union) aided in maintaining low living standards for Soviet peasants. Beginning around 1928, the [[kolkhoz]] system replaced [[family farm]]s throughout the Soviet Union. Forced to work long hours for low pay at rates fixed by the government and often unadjusted to [[inflation]], Russian peasants experienced quite low living-conditions - especially compared to urban life.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Kolkhoz|url= http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/321400/kolkhoz|encyclopedia= Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date= 29 March 2014}}</ref> While [[Brezhnev]]'s wage reforms in 1965 ameliorated the low wages received by peasants, rural life remained suffocating, especially for the skilled and the educated.<ref name="Wegren" />

Although migrants came from all segments of society, several groups were more likely to migrate than others. Like other examples of rural flight, the young were more likely than the old to migrate to the cities. Young women under 20 were the most likely segment of the population to leave rural life. This exodus of young women further exacerbated the demographic transitions occurring in rural communities as the rate of natural increase dropped precipitously over the course of the 20th century. Lastly, the skilled and educated were also likely to migrate to urban areas.<ref name=Wadekin /><ref name=Wegren />

=== Mexico ===
Rural flight in Mexico occurred throughout the 1930s up until the present day. Like other developing nations, the beginning of industrialization in Mexico quickly accelerated the rate of rural flight.<ref name=Arizpe>{{cite journal|last=Arizpe|first=Lourdes|title=The Rural Exodus in Mexico and Mexican Migration to the United States|journal=International Migration Review|date=Winter 1981|volume=15|issue=4|pages=626–649|jstor=2545516|doi=10.2307/2545516|pmid=12265223}}</ref>

In the 1930s, President [[Lázaro Cárdenas|Cardenas]] implemented a series of agricultural reforms that led to massive redistribution of agricultural land among the rural peasants. Some commentators have subsequently dubbed the period from 1940 to 1965 as the "Golden Era for Mexican Migration."<ref name=Arizpe /> During this period, Mexican agriculture grew at an average rate of 5.7% outpacing the natural increase of 3% of the rural population. Concurrently, government policies favoring industrialization led to a massive increase of industrial jobs in the cities. Statistics compiled in [[Mexico City]] demonstrate this trend with over 1.8 million jobs created over the course of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.<ref name=Arizpe /> Young people with schooling were the segment of population most likely to migrate away from rural life to urban life, attracted by the promise of many jobs and a more modern lifestyle as compared to the conservative conditions in rural villages. Additionally, due to the large demand for new workers, many of these jobs had low entrance requirements that also provided on-site job training opening the avenue for [[human migration|migration]] to many rural residents. From 1940 to about 1965, rural flight occurred in a slow, yet steady pace with both agriculture and industry growing concurrently.<ref name=Arizpe />

However, as government policies increasingly favored industry over agriculture, rural conditions began to deteriorate. In 1957, the Mexican government began to regulate the price of maize through massive imports in order to keep low urban food costs.<ref name=Arizpe /> This regulation severely undercut the market price of [[maize]] lowering the profit margins of small farmers. At the same time, the [[Green Revolution]] had entered into Mexican agriculture. Inspired by the work of [[Norman Borlaug]], farmers that employed hybrid seeds and fertilizer supplements were able to double or even triple their yields per acre.<ref>{{cite book|last=Thurow|first=Roger|title=Enough: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty|year=2009|publisher=PublicAffairs|location=New York, NY|author2=Kilman, Scott }}</ref> Unfortunately, these products came at a relatively high cost, out of the reach of many farmers struggling after the devaluation of the price of maize. The combined effects of the maize price regulation and the Green Revolution was the consolidation of small farms into larger estates.<ref name=Shaw>{{cite journal|last=Shaw|first=R. Paul|title=Land Tenure and the Rural Exodus in Latin America|journal=Economic Development and Cultural Change|date=October 1974|volume=23|issue=1|pages=123–132|jstor=1153146|doi=10.1086/450773|s2cid=154768869}}</ref> A 1974 study conducted by Osorio concluded that in 1960, about 50.3% of the individual land plots in Mexico contained less than 5 hectares of land. In contrast, the top 0.5% of estates by land spanned 28.3% of all arable land. As many small farmers lost land, they either migrated to the cities or became migrant workers roving from large estate to large estate. Between 1950 and 1970, the proportion of migrant workers increased from 36.7% to 54% of the total population.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Osorio|first=S.R|title=Estructura Agrariay Desarrollo Agricola en Mexico|journal=Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Economica|year=1974}}</ref> The centralized pattern of industrial development and government policies overwhelmingly favoring industrialization contributed to massive rural flight in Mexico beginning in the late 1960s until the present day.<ref name=Arizpe />