They leave everything behind in the Netherlands;friends, family, jobs and careers in order to start a new life in what theycall the land of opportunities, namely Sweden. Here, in the county ofVärmland in a little, rural town named Hagfors they see a chance to a brighterfuture and the possibility of accomplishing a better quality of life. They wantto buy houses, start companies and explore a new way of life in this land ofpromises. While people are migrating from the Netherlands, inhabitants ofHagfors are moving out to big, urban cities that can offer more possibilities.This is the reality for many rural areas like Hagfors, they lose populationthrough out-migration. Despite the negative population trend, the municipalityregains some of its lost inhabitants through the international migration fromlarge Dutch cities. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the practiceof place marketing has been used by Hagfors municipality in order to attractnew inhabitants from the Netherlands. Which place marketingstrategies have been utilized by Hagfors, how can the effect of theseapproaches be measured and how is the Hagfors brand perceived by the Dutch immigrants?These are the research questions that have been answered through qualitativeinterviews with municipal employees and Dutch immigrants. The results implythat Hagfors have marketed themselves through the internet and the EmigrationExpo in Utrecht but these strategies have not had any effect on the immigrants’motives for moving to the area. Instead of actively tryingto receive more immigrants to the area Hagfors municipality should invest timeand money on the Dutchmen who are already living in the area.The conclusion that Hagfors has not developed a brand platform has preventedthe Dutch immigrants from creating a uniform image of the brand.

The purpose of this study is to examine lifestyle migration as a cultural and everyday practice, with the emphasis being on observing how lifestyle changes from urban to rural are described, practiced and made meaningful by people who have left major Swedish cities behind, in favour of a life on the Gotlandic countryside. The empirical material has been collected through ethnographical methods and is based on observations and qualitative interviews with 13 individuals who all reside on farms and practice animal husbandry. Focus has been placed on the practices, conceptions and other expressions which are related to the informants’ animals and their keeping. The theoretical starting point of this study is phenomenological, where anthropologist Tim Ingold’s ideas of what it means to dwell are central. Also, the term authenticity and the concept of lifestyle migration are important tools to examine the collected material. The result of the study demonstrates that the idea of the rural idyll, in other words, the preconception of the countryside as a calm and harmonious refuge far removed from the stressful life of major cities, plays a large part in the in-migrants lifestyle migration. The informants’ decisions to move to the countryside, as well as their everyday practices once settled in, are characterised by these romanticised notions. The study also shows that the informants’ lives, with animals and their keeping, presents a series of unexpected challenges and difficulties that are not present in the preconception of the rural idyll. In reality, the informants experience more stress and even higher workloads in their rural everyday, than they were exposed to living their previous urban lifestyle. The animals and their care, however, provide a series of positive experiences and the interactions with the animals are seen as authentic and meaningful. The everyday interchanges with the animals become an important part of the informants’ being and wellbeing on the countryside. They are therefore crucial to their lifestyle migration.