Leaving theVillage!!
No no.
theSam!! isn't threatening to leave theVillage!!.....he already has!!
d:oP
this is an article from theAnchorageDailyNews about theVillage!!
Read all about it.
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Leaving the village
More people from the Bush are moving to urban areas
By TOM KIZZIA
Published: May 14th, 2008 12:02 AM
Last Modified: May 14th, 2008 01:43 AM
The migration of rural Alaskans from village to city has accelerated in the last two years, though the reasons are complex and cannot be easily linked to higher energy costs, a new university study says.
Out-migration has been a fact of modern Alaska life for decades. But with young women leading the way, the annual net population loss from rural Alaska has more than doubled since 2006, according to the new study by the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
What makes the numbers stand out, said ISER interim director Steve Colt, is that the birth rate in rural Alaska has declined as well. Some villages that used to be growing, despite the loss of city-bound families, are now shrinking as new babies can't keep up with the migration.
Other villages, such as Chevak and Hooper Bay on the Bering Sea coast, have continued to grow. Indeed, crowding and lack of housing is a common reason given for moving away.
But the overall trend is shifting in the other direction, the ISER study suggests, as people move in search of jobs or education. The impact is felt especially in the smallest villages, where schools are closing and houses are being shuttered.
The study draws on state demographic data to show a net out-migration of 2,700 people annually for the past two years from rural areas of the state, compared with 1,200 annually in the three previous years. The study's authors cite a number of factors that may be at work but say it is too soon to know whether the change is ongoing or a statistical blip.
Villages may be losing population faster than those numbers indicate, because they don't account for migration within rural regions, to hub communities in the Bush. In Nome, for example, so many villagers are moving to town, partly for a local mining boom, that housing is hard to find, according to officials with the regional nonprofit agency Kawerak.
Like similar nonprofits around the state, Kawerak has put together information packets to help villagers move to bigger communities.
YOUNG WOMEN LEAD THE WAY
Young women of child-bearing age are especially disappearing from some villages. The ISER study points to 41 small villages that had zero or one woman in the 20-29 age bracket at the time of the 2000 census.
The study notes that men often have a subsistence role in villages that is seen as more fulfilling, and that hunting and fishing success depend on place-specific knowledge that does not easily transport to a new life.
The ISER study was prepared for the state-federal Denali Commission, which released it this week. The commission asked ISER to go through existing studies and unpublished data to find out about migration trends and the effects of higher fuel costs on Bush communities.
The study will help focus on the sustainability of infrastructure projects the Denali Commission wants to build in rural Alaska, said Tess Rinner, the commission's director of programs.
The report says the recent spike in oil prices has been painful to rural residents, calling it an "urgent challenge." But fuel costs do not appear to be a deciding factor for those who move to the cities -- at least according to available data. People responding to surveys did not cite "fuel costs" as a primary reason for leaving, the study says.
"The people who are hardest hit by high fuel costs may be least able to afford to move," the study says.
HIGH FUEL COSTS A FACTOR
Some rural leaders said this week they do think fuel costs have played a bigger role in people's decisions, especially this winter.
"There's not many people in the villages who have jobs that can pay for $5-plus per gallon heating oil," said Myron Naneng, president of the Bethel-based Association of Village Council Presidents.
"There's a direct link to people moving away for economic reasons," said Rep. Mary Nelson, D-Bethel. "It's hard to have an economy without affordable energy."
The high cost of fuel is also choking subsistence, where it can cost $500 for a fishing trip in a skiff and make berry-picking by ATV too expensive, said Dale Smith, a former Mekoryuk resident who now works on rural energy issues for the First Alaskans Institute.
State population data point to particular zones where population decline stands out, including Bristol Bay, rural Kodiak and the middle portions of the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers.
"There's a real graying of our communities," said Rep. Bryce Edgemon, D-Dillingham. Some eastern Bristol Bay villages have shrunk to a few long-established households, he said, "people who would never leave for any reason."
While out-migration can sap a village's strength, the study notes that return migration can restore vigor, as people return with better education and job skills. The study said many people move back and forth several times in their lives.
Reversing the trend won't be easy. The study says good rural jobs are often cited as an answer, but notes that the North Slope Borough has had high out-migration in recent years, despite fuel subsidies, ample housing, and good-paying jobs flexible enough to allow for subsistence.
ALCOHOL AND DRUGS
Several surveys cited by the study describe alcohol and drug problems in the villages as a prime reason for moving away. Respondents also spoke of lack of police, domestic violence, child abuse and suicide.
In one survey, former rural residents were asked what would motivate them to return. Two-thirds responded that nothing could get them to go back.
Sharon Lind, the public information officer for the Denali Commission, called that response "a little shocking."
Migration is also linked to income levels, the ISER study suggests, with skilled workers best able to manage the move. In this way, the Alaska phenomenon reflects much-studied rural migration trends around the world: The poorest rural residents cannot afford to move successfully.
In Anchorage, tribal and social service agencies say they are well aware of the growing rural migration. The Municipality of Anchorage has a rural affairs coordinator who is drawing up a guidebook for new arrivals. Yup'ik has become the fifth most-spoken language in the Anchorage School District.
"Last year when I ended the school year, I probably had about 95 Native students here," said Kerri Wood, who tutors Native students at Tyson Elementary School in Mountain View. "Right now I have 132."
The passage from smaller communities to larger has been going on a long time. Researchers say there were several hundred distinct communities in the Aleutian Islands alone in the 1800s. By 1970, there were 24. Alaska saw a brief reversal during the oil boom extending to the mid-1980s, when construction of rural high schools and increased state spending drew residents back to the Bush.
"This historical pattern doesn't necessarily mean that another round of spending would reverse current migration trends," the ISER study says.
Daily News reporters Kyle Hopkins and Julia O'Malley contributed to this story. Find Tom Kizzia online at adn.com/contact/tkizzia.
Downward spiral
"Population decline in small rural communities may be a cumulative process. A plausible scenario is that following cuts to the revenue sharing program, local city jobs disappeared, and some people left. As those people left, some of the jobs they supported went away, and more people left. When the population became very small, the school closed, more jobs ended and more people moved away. As people leave, the quality of life for people remaining in villages may deteriorate because they have fewer friends and family members to do things with."
-- from the ISER report on rural migration
theSam!! isn't threatening to leave theVillage!!.....he already has!!
d:oP
this is an article from theAnchorageDailyNews about theVillage!!
Read all about it.
---------------------
Leaving the village
More people from the Bush are moving to urban areas
By TOM KIZZIA
Published: May 14th, 2008 12:02 AM
Last Modified: May 14th, 2008 01:43 AM
The migration of rural Alaskans from village to city has accelerated in the last two years, though the reasons are complex and cannot be easily linked to higher energy costs, a new university study says.
Out-migration has been a fact of modern Alaska life for decades. But with young women leading the way, the annual net population loss from rural Alaska has more than doubled since 2006, according to the new study by the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
What makes the numbers stand out, said ISER interim director Steve Colt, is that the birth rate in rural Alaska has declined as well. Some villages that used to be growing, despite the loss of city-bound families, are now shrinking as new babies can't keep up with the migration.
Other villages, such as Chevak and Hooper Bay on the Bering Sea coast, have continued to grow. Indeed, crowding and lack of housing is a common reason given for moving away.
But the overall trend is shifting in the other direction, the ISER study suggests, as people move in search of jobs or education. The impact is felt especially in the smallest villages, where schools are closing and houses are being shuttered.
The study draws on state demographic data to show a net out-migration of 2,700 people annually for the past two years from rural areas of the state, compared with 1,200 annually in the three previous years. The study's authors cite a number of factors that may be at work but say it is too soon to know whether the change is ongoing or a statistical blip.
Villages may be losing population faster than those numbers indicate, because they don't account for migration within rural regions, to hub communities in the Bush. In Nome, for example, so many villagers are moving to town, partly for a local mining boom, that housing is hard to find, according to officials with the regional nonprofit agency Kawerak.
Like similar nonprofits around the state, Kawerak has put together information packets to help villagers move to bigger communities.
YOUNG WOMEN LEAD THE WAY
Young women of child-bearing age are especially disappearing from some villages. The ISER study points to 41 small villages that had zero or one woman in the 20-29 age bracket at the time of the 2000 census.
The study notes that men often have a subsistence role in villages that is seen as more fulfilling, and that hunting and fishing success depend on place-specific knowledge that does not easily transport to a new life.
The ISER study was prepared for the state-federal Denali Commission, which released it this week. The commission asked ISER to go through existing studies and unpublished data to find out about migration trends and the effects of higher fuel costs on Bush communities.
The study will help focus on the sustainability of infrastructure projects the Denali Commission wants to build in rural Alaska, said Tess Rinner, the commission's director of programs.
The report says the recent spike in oil prices has been painful to rural residents, calling it an "urgent challenge." But fuel costs do not appear to be a deciding factor for those who move to the cities -- at least according to available data. People responding to surveys did not cite "fuel costs" as a primary reason for leaving, the study says.
"The people who are hardest hit by high fuel costs may be least able to afford to move," the study says.
HIGH FUEL COSTS A FACTOR
Some rural leaders said this week they do think fuel costs have played a bigger role in people's decisions, especially this winter.
"There's not many people in the villages who have jobs that can pay for $5-plus per gallon heating oil," said Myron Naneng, president of the Bethel-based Association of Village Council Presidents.
"There's a direct link to people moving away for economic reasons," said Rep. Mary Nelson, D-Bethel. "It's hard to have an economy without affordable energy."
The high cost of fuel is also choking subsistence, where it can cost $500 for a fishing trip in a skiff and make berry-picking by ATV too expensive, said Dale Smith, a former Mekoryuk resident who now works on rural energy issues for the First Alaskans Institute.
State population data point to particular zones where population decline stands out, including Bristol Bay, rural Kodiak and the middle portions of the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers.
"There's a real graying of our communities," said Rep. Bryce Edgemon, D-Dillingham. Some eastern Bristol Bay villages have shrunk to a few long-established households, he said, "people who would never leave for any reason."
While out-migration can sap a village's strength, the study notes that return migration can restore vigor, as people return with better education and job skills. The study said many people move back and forth several times in their lives.
Reversing the trend won't be easy. The study says good rural jobs are often cited as an answer, but notes that the North Slope Borough has had high out-migration in recent years, despite fuel subsidies, ample housing, and good-paying jobs flexible enough to allow for subsistence.
ALCOHOL AND DRUGS
Several surveys cited by the study describe alcohol and drug problems in the villages as a prime reason for moving away. Respondents also spoke of lack of police, domestic violence, child abuse and suicide.
In one survey, former rural residents were asked what would motivate them to return. Two-thirds responded that nothing could get them to go back.
Sharon Lind, the public information officer for the Denali Commission, called that response "a little shocking."
Migration is also linked to income levels, the ISER study suggests, with skilled workers best able to manage the move. In this way, the Alaska phenomenon reflects much-studied rural migration trends around the world: The poorest rural residents cannot afford to move successfully.
In Anchorage, tribal and social service agencies say they are well aware of the growing rural migration. The Municipality of Anchorage has a rural affairs coordinator who is drawing up a guidebook for new arrivals. Yup'ik has become the fifth most-spoken language in the Anchorage School District.
"Last year when I ended the school year, I probably had about 95 Native students here," said Kerri Wood, who tutors Native students at Tyson Elementary School in Mountain View. "Right now I have 132."
The passage from smaller communities to larger has been going on a long time. Researchers say there were several hundred distinct communities in the Aleutian Islands alone in the 1800s. By 1970, there were 24. Alaska saw a brief reversal during the oil boom extending to the mid-1980s, when construction of rural high schools and increased state spending drew residents back to the Bush.
"This historical pattern doesn't necessarily mean that another round of spending would reverse current migration trends," the ISER study says.
Daily News reporters Kyle Hopkins and Julia O'Malley contributed to this story. Find Tom Kizzia online at adn.com/contact/tkizzia.
Downward spiral
"Population decline in small rural communities may be a cumulative process. A plausible scenario is that following cuts to the revenue sharing program, local city jobs disappeared, and some people left. As those people left, some of the jobs they supported went away, and more people left. When the population became very small, the school closed, more jobs ended and more people moved away. As people leave, the quality of life for people remaining in villages may deteriorate because they have fewer friends and family members to do things with."
-- from the ISER report on rural migration
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