The changing rural idyll and the ideal migrant: The case of Scotland during COVID-19
通过访谈苏格兰乡村利益相关者，发现疫情放大了乡村田园理想，吸引城市居民迁入，但导致房价上涨和关键岗位人员流失，并催生了关于“理想移民”的排他性叙事。
The paper revisits the concept of the rural idyll and introduces the idea of an “ideal migrant”, asking how the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted people's preferences and the implications for rural communities. Drawing on in-depth interviews with rural stakeholders in Scotland at two points during the pandemic, we show that aspects of the rural idyll became magnified. Furthermore, the rural idyll became accessible to some city escapees as a result of a new culture of working from home. While this trend has potential to address longstanding issues of rural population decline, it is also introducing new challenges in the form of rising house prices and displacement of people in key roles. In response, a narrative is emerging around the “ideal migrant” desired by rural communities. Ideas of both the rural idyll and the ideal migrant are exclusionary and power-infused, and the paper discusses these and the implications for post-COVID-19 rural repopulation in Scotland. • In Scotland, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the rural idyll was infused with new meaning and pursued by some city dwellers. • Pandemic-era rural migration exacerbated the shortage of affordable housing and loss of key roles in rural communities. • Ideas of the “ideal migrant” emerged, which would maximise benefits of in-migration but were at odds with societal trends. • Notions of both the rural idyll and the ideal migrant are value-laden and exclusionary.