The primary objective of this study is to identify potentially successful strategies for residential recruitment and retention in sparsely populated rural areas. This will be accomplished through the compilation and analysis of detailed information from households that have chosen to relocate to one of Nebraska 's most rural regions: The eleven county western Panhandle.
These data will define the extent to which various recruitment strategies, ether currently in use or proposed, are most likely to successfully assist localities in attracting and retaining new residents. Ultimately the study will enhance the ability of rural places to attract and retain new residents by addressing critical questions related to rural in-migration.
Research Objectives -
1. Identify areas of in-migration both within and surrounding Nebraska 's Western Panhandle utilizing secondary data and GIS technology. The data will be utilized in a GIS analysis conducted at the Minor Civil Division level. Such a geographic presentation will allow the identification of micro regions in which in-migration is especially common, and will form the basis for further analysis and the collection of primary data and comparison of local economic and social characteristics related to migration.
2. Create a detailed profile of recent in-migrants using primary data in with a special emphasis on the amenities, recruitment strategies, and/or economic and social characteristics that influenced their decision to relocate. Primary data for households that have migrated to the Nebraska Panhandle between 2001 and 2006 will be collected through a representative sample household survey.
3. Identify and catalog various strategies across Nebraska (and the four adjoining Great Plains states of Colorado , Kansas , South Dakota and Wyoming ) that have been designed to attract new residents to rural communities and regions, and determine the extent to which such strategies are deemed attractive by households that have in fact relocated to the rural Great Plains . The primary data, gleaned from an on-line delphi survey of economic development practitioners across Nebraska and its neighboring states, will identify the array of strategies being used by communities and regions for attracting new residents and assess the extent to which such strategies are effective.
4. Identify recruitment tactics that positively and negatively impacted new resident relocation decisions as well as factors encouraging and discouraging the retention of new residents. This primary data will be obtained from carefully constructed focus groups of new residents in selected locations across the region.
5: Based upon the results of objectives 1, 2, 3 and 4, define and recommend “best practice” residential recruitment and retention strategies that will enhance the success and value of residential recruitment as a rural development tool.
