Migrants' experiences of material and emotional security in rural Scotland: Implications for longer-term settlement

- Rural destinations chosen as places offering opportunities and future prospects.
- Material and emotional aspects of social security contribute to 'a normal life'.
- (In)securities in the present relate to past experiences and future plans.
- Importance of deeper engagement with specific rural contexts.
- Experiences shaped by opportunities and constraints of rural realities.

Drawing on qualitative research with Central and East European (CEE) migrants living and working in rural areas of Scotland, this article explores what it is that facilitates a desire to stay longer term and how this relates to theorisations of social security and migrant-led understandings of normality. The article makes three original contributions: (i) new empirical insight into the relationship between material and emotional aspects of migration and settlement in Scottish rural contexts; (ii) greater understanding of rural migrants' diverse lived experiences; (iii) attention to the changing nature of migration to rural contexts through a focus on longer-term settlement rather than seasonal or circular migration. The article is structured by three key questions: To what extent are rural destinations actively chosen by migrants? How are migrants' experiences shaped by the realities of rural life in the particular Scottish contexts studied? How do migrants interpret these experiences through their understandings of a normal life and how does this impact on longer-term plans? The qualitative insight which the article provides has wider relevance and significance for policy and practice across other rural contexts and can help to reveal ways in which rural social systems could better respond so that areas of 'new' migration may develop into positive places of settlement.