Migrations résidentielles en milieu rural péri-urbain : le Pays de Caux Central

Résumé En

Rouen: spatial extension and quantitative slackening of counter-urbanization Central Pays de Caux (cantons of Fauville and Yvetot) is very representative of the inversion of population growth at the expense of towns and to the benefit of country, which occurred in France during the decade 1970-1980. Because demographic rural growth is basically the result of a positive migratory balance, the analysis of migrations is particularly instructive. The first stage of the study is a systemic exploratory model in which immigration mainly consists in «rurbanisation» (counterurbanisation) from large cities, in return of adults born in country and in population coming from "deep Caux" (the more rural and urban-distant part of Caux), while emigration is essentially made up of young people. Two communes (Allouville-Bellefosse and Alvimare) have been selected for an analysis of migrations based on several sources: a special survey (a quarter of the households), the study of election file and planning permission file. The nature of migrants is first investigated (where are they coming from? where are they going to?, what are their age structure and occupations?) before the analysis of their motivations. Considering the results r of surveys, some premises of the model must be challenged. Counterurbanisation from Rouen is quite negligible and migration from "deep Caux" has been strongly reduced recently. Three main immigration shifts may be observed: The settling of workers coming from Yvetot and small industrial towns in the neighbouring Seine valley and more recently from Le Havre, because of cheap building land for sale in housing estates; a return of adults born in country (expected in the model, but less important than the first flow) which are settling preferably outside the housing estates, particularly the "white collars"; at last the coming of tertiary population mainly employed in services induced in villages by the population growth. Emigrants are mainly the young less than 25 years old who are leaving considering the lack of cheap rental houses in rural space, but also the elderly, because of the lack of amenities in scattered hamlets. The paper ends with an interrogation on prospects of population growth in suburban rural spaces. It seems that paradoxically the movement is quantitatively and globally slowing down, but carries on its spatial extension.