Striking roots: Place attachment of international migrants, internal migrants and local natives in three Norwegian rural municipalities

Abstract

Based on responses to a survey of international migrants and Norway-born residents in three rural municipalities, this article analyses place attachment at various levels of scale. It compares international migrants to Norwegian-born internal migrants and local natives. Three questions are addressed: 1) Are there differences in the three resident categories’ levels of place attachment at different levels of scale?; 2) What are the predictors of place attachment, and is being a migrant a predictor in its own right? and 3) Are the predictors of place attachment the same for international migrants, internal migrants and local natives, and for different levels of scale? After controlling for other factors, the study found that all three categories have similar place attachment levels to the local scales. However, place attachment predictors differ, and predictors of place attachment have different relevance on different scales for the three categories. Institutional trust, usually not addressed in the research tradition, predicts place attachment for all categories.