The expansion of cities has been going on for a long time and is the result of a longtime urbanization. Migration from sparsely populated areas is particulary common among young adults, which means that the dismantling of sparsely populated areas are reinforced by negative demographic changes. There is no definitive solutions to this problem, but with deeper konwledge of young adults motives for moving, it can slow down the negative population growth in sparselypopulated municipalities. The purpose of this essay was to investigate which factors influence young adults choice to move from a sparsely populated area to larger cities. The research questions that this study preserves arhe the following: what are the most prominent factors that influenced young adults decision to move from the sparsely populated municipality, how does young adults perceived relationship to the local community affect their decision to move from the sparsely populated municipality, and what social, educational and caeer conditions do the interviewees feel are lacking in Pajala. Semi-structured interviewes were used when collecting data. The results of this study showed that education, career opportunities and social factors were the most prominent motives behind the interviewees decision to move from their hometown. There is a certain connection between moving and the perceived relationship with the local community. The personal relationship with the local community functions rather more as a driving factor than the main motive for moving. There is a lack of aspirational education and career opportunities in Pajala municipaltiy. There was also a lac of leisure activities and meeting places for young people in Pajala.

Den negativa demografiska utvecklingen i glesbyden förväntas leda till en avveckling av flertalet samhällen runt om i landet. Det finns ingen universell lösning för att motverka denna utveckling men förståelse för individers motiv för att flytta till glesbygden kan hjälpa regioner att forma strategier för kompetensförsörjning och bromsa de negativa demografiska förändringarna. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka anledningarna till att individer från andra samhällen har valt att flytta till glesbygdskommunen Pajala samt hur de har integrerats till samhället. De forskningsfrågor som formulerats ämnade att undersöka följande: motiven till varför individerna valt att flytta till Pajala kommun, om det finns några likheter i individernas beskrivning av sig själva, hur väl individer upplever att de integrerats i samhället samt vilka samhälleliga åtgärder som skulle kunna vidtas för att öka kommunens attraktionskraft samt underlätta nyinflyttade individers integrationsprocess. För insamling av data användes semistrukturerade intervjuer som metod och för bearbetning och analys av data genomfördes en tematisk analys. Resultatet indikerade att sociala faktorer utgjorde de mest förekommande motiven till att flytta till Pajala, den mest framträdande personliga egenskapen var “social försiktighet”, undersökningsdeltagarna hade en upplevelse av ett öppet och inkluderande samhälle men trots detta fanns det integrationssvårigheter samt att det på flera områden fanns potential för utveckling av integrationsunderlättande åtgärder och marknadsföring. / Rural areas today face a negative demographic change that results in a disassembling of local communities. There is no universal solution to these demographic changes but an understanding of individual motives for moving to rural areas could help regions to form strategies to ensure the supply of competence and prevent the negative demographic changes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the reasons why individuals from other societies choose to move to the sparsely populated municipality of Pajala and how their integration process has developed. The scientific questions that were formulated were designed to investigate the following: motives to why the individuals had chosen to move to Pajala, if there was any resemblance in how they described themselves, how well they perceived that they have been integrated in the society and what measures that the society could undertake to increase the attractiveness of the municipality and facilitate the integration process. For the collection of data a semi structured interview was used as the method and for processing and analysis of data a thematic analysis was conducted. The results indicate that the most common motive for individuals to move were based on social factors and the most common trait was “social carefulness”. The participants described Pajala as an open and inclusive society but despite this there were difficulties with integration. Potential for development of both integration and marketing were detected.