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This article discusses the drivers behind why Swedes move to Portugal and who these migrants are. The conceptual framework is based on lifestyle migration and considers migration as a process. Using a semi-structured interview guide, designed according to a life-course approach, 36 in-depth interviews with Swedes permanently residing in Portugal were conducted. The findings display that only a small minority of the respondents claimed that the climate, the sense of privilege/affluence and the prospects of being a permanent tourist made them move to Portugal. A majority of the respondents expressed a disenchantment with Sweden, political correctness, and a perceived collapse of the Swedish welfare system. Simultaneously, the respondents describe an escape from everyday problems. Notably, it is not the Swedish middle-class that seems to be moving, and emigrants come from mainly the top or bottom of the social hierarchy. ; published version ; peerReviewed

AbstractThis article offers a theoretical discussion on the role of informal institutions in the integration process of immigrants to a new country. Previous research on how immigrants become integrated and assimilated into the host countries demonstrates that integration/assimilation takes long time, often occurring over several generations; formal institutions matter; such theories are good at explaining how integration takes place, but not why integration/assimilation fails or succeeds. The informal institutions of both immigrants and native populations are examined. The discussion is based upon institutional theory in economics and political science. The findings suggest that informal institutions can explain why integration take place, and why some nationalities integrate into a new country, while others do not.

AbstractThis paper discusses the emigration process by the Swedes permanently residing in Portugal and their emotional ties to the Swedish society. The focus is on those who have no ambition nor desire to keep up any ties with Sweden after they have emigrated to Portugal. Hitherto, the non‐intention to return is, both empirically and theoretically, underexplored in migration research. To enrich the conceptual framework, we incorporate Hirschmann's theory on loyalty, voice, and exit with Elias's established/outsider‐theory. The findings suggest that many of the Swedes in Portugal with no intentions to return were Eliasian 'outsiders' before leaving Sweden. We conclude that all lifestyle migrants do not migrate to'practice privilege' or'self‐fulfilment', partly contesting what is known about lifestyle migrations associated with European north‐south migrations; some have done a Hirschmann 'exit', left their native country and try to prosper somewhere else. The added value of this paper is its potential to explain why emigrants choose not to maintain ties with their country of origin.

AbstractSituated in the intersection of the literature on QoL and lifestyle migration, this paper contributes to the discussion of three subjective components of QoL after migrating to another country. These are hedonic (happiness), evaluative (life satisfaction) and eudaimonic (having a purposeful or worthwhile life). Based on 36 in‐depth interviews to Swedish citizens permanently living in Portugal, a group understudied in the lifestyle migration framework, three groups of individuals were identified according to the drivers of migration. Following a life‐course approach, the research question exploring in what way has the QoL changed (or not) after migrating to Portugal is responded. Swedes compare different issues premigrating and postmigrating, cutting across the drivers that brought them to Portugal. The findings suggest differences in happiness, life satisfaction and purposefulness differ according to one's relative economic comfort, standards established for oneself moral principles on how to live, and identity making projects. Despite the challenges that remain, the perceived QoL has generally increased after settling in Portugal comparatively to what it was in their home country, especially in the evaluative and eudaimonic components.

The effects of the EU Cohesion Policy are debated, and while some studies find positive effects, others point to negative effects. Many of the methodological approaches that have so far been used to measure the EU Cohesion Policy are simple benchmarking exercises, focusing on a few indicators covering a short time period. Other evaluations are fragmented, qualitative in nature, and narrow in scope. This paper aims at analysing the EU Cohesion Policy and its impact for the period 2006–2016. We construct a Territorial Cohesion Development Index with target posts in order to analyse the impact at a NUTS2 level. The findings indicate that bigger cities and highly urbanised regions in Central Europe benefited the most from the policy, while non-core and peripheral regions fell further behind. ; published version ; peerReviewed

The access to Services of General Interest (SGI) is a highly relevant factor for territorial cohesion and in creating economic opportunity. Although the topic of SGI was not on the top of the policy agenda during the last decade, it attracts far more interest since the start of the economic crisis. Moreover, it is likely to be high on the regional development policy agenda for the years to come. The timely and consistent delivery of SGI is critical to the functioning of the modern welfare state which provides implicit and explicit support for the innovative and economically productive parts of the economy. Empirical evidence demonstrates the emergence of such trends in some regions of Europe (ESPON 2013). Historically, rural areas have been disadvantaged when it comes to what is today named as SGI. This has changed during the last decades and three arguments are usually given for this: (1) One of the EU?s key political goals is territorial cohesion, which aims at improving the conditions for the least advantaged regions; (2) SGI forms a central element in the ?European Model of Society?, i.e. access to services is considered a central element of quality of life, and increasing service accessibility a mechanism for overcoming social exclusion and isolation; and (3) SGI addresses the crucial question of what role public authorities should play in societies that are committed to both free markets and social goals (Nugera-Tur et al. 2009). This conclusion can thus be criticised as it only cover the period up to the financial crisis and mainly focuses on infrastructure, i.e. Services of General Economic Interest. SGI is not a homogeneous concept, but contains Services of General Economic Interest and Social Services of General Interest (Foss et al. 2013), and there are significant differences in the provision of Social Services of General Interest (SSGI) at a regional level in the EU (Humer & Palma 2013, Humer 2014). The knowledge gap when it comes to SSGI in rural areas calls for investigation. This paper aims at discussing the provision of SSGI in rural areas and three questions will be addressed: (1) what determines the provision of SSGI in rural areas. (2) How is SSGI provided in rural areas? If we find a gap between how SSGI can be provided and how it is actually provided we face a challenge to overcome which raises the question (3) how can this challenge be addressed?

The place marketing concept is one of the popular concepts to analyze and promote countries, regions, cities and towns. The intensification of competition for investment, tourism and human resources among European cities and towns has increased the importance of being unique. Consequently this has opened up the field for specialists in marketing and branding in terms of geographic, social, economic, political, cultural and historical and ethno-cultural development. Most of studies on place marketing however focus on the unique selling points and brands of countries, the capitals and the big cities, while rural towns need more marketing attention due to overcoming the lack of material and non-material resources in the towns. This is based on the idea of promotion to target markets of unique selling point of the town. These rural towns have lots to offer â?? unfortunately nobody have heard about them and the towns do not know what to promote! The aim of this paper is to discuss to what extent the place marketing concept as a necessary condition for an effective promotion of 80 rural towns in the seven northernmost regions in Sweden. Towns with more than 50,000 inhabitants have been excluded from the analysis. The paper presents reasons for using the place marketing concept by rural towns in Northern Sweden. Also it contains features of the place marketing concept and its key elements for rural towns, describes the target audience for rural towns with their specific needs and wants. This is of outmost importance to these municipalities where a majority of them struggle with declining populations. The theoretical framework of this paper consists of marketing theory, the theory of place marketing, place branding and place development. The empirical material is based upon statistics on local economic development and population trends as well as information about the towns provided on their homepages. A qualitative research method, theory building, and comprehensive integrated approach to practices of place marketing for rural towns is used in this paper. The study is giving recommendations for rural townsâ?? government how to find its unique selling point and to start use the key elements of place marketing concept in more effective and systematic way.