Book Explores Problem Of Out-Migration From Rural Communities

In a posting at Wired.com, journalist Jonathan Liu has written a review of a new book on the problem of out-migration that has negatively impacted the Great Plains and rural America for the past three decades.

"Hollowing Out the Middle: The Rural Brain Drain and What It Means for America" is a new book by Patrick Carr and Maria Kefalas. Liu, who recently moved to a small rural town in western Kansas (population: 800), decided to read the publication because of his interest in community development and his concern that the "brightest kids" from rural America "often leave for bigger cities and don’t come back."

Liu writes that authors Carr and Kefalas are a husband-and-wife team of sociologists who reside in rural town in northeastern Iowa. The couple interviewed hundreds of people, focusing mostly on the young adults who graduated from the small town in the 1990s. Liu says, "What they found makes for a fascinating story about the 'hollowing out' of middle America, and they argue unequivocally that, yes, it matters, whether you live in New York City or Tribune, Kansas."

The book's authors sorted their subjects into four basic categories: Achievers, Stayers, Seekers, and Returners. Achievers are the ones who show promise early on -- and are academically (or sometimes athletically) gifted -- and typically leave their small communities for college, never to return. Stayers are those who take over the family business or get a job during high school and end up living out their adult lives in the same town. Seekers are those who can’t wait to leave, but don’t have the grades or scholarships to do it; they often end up in the military as an escape. Returners are those who come back to their small town after leaving; sometimes out of a sense of responsibility and purpose, but often because the outside world turned out to be less pleasant or more challenging than they expected.

The authors "devote an entire chapter to each of the four groups, outlining the reasons many of these young people make their respective decisions," Liu writes.

He adds: "Rural communities expend a disproportionate amount of effort, resources, and training on the very kids that aren’t likely to stay; and the ones who stay often get little attention. ... (T)his inefficient practice is what has gutted so many small communities across the Midwest and it has had a devastating effect."

Liu said what troubled him the most is that when the book's authors talked to administrators at the small-town Iowa high school, "there was no surprise that their smartest kids were being put on a path to leave: it’s what they’d always done, and they knew they were doing it. ... After you spend ten years training a kid to think he’s 'too good' for his small town, can you turn around and convince him that he should stay?"

Liu concludes that the book's authors make a compelling argument for why the rural brain drain matters (both to the rural communities and for the entire nation) and then offer possible solutions. You can purchase Hollowing Out the Middle from Amazon or your favorite bookseller.