Perceptions of sustainability in Ireland’s small villages during immigration times

Exploring discernments of social, economic, and environmental challenges in rural Cavan and Leitrim

Abstract

This paper approaches aspects of population change in small villages of rural Ireland. Along these pages, this paper contributes to improve the geographic knowledge about the perception of social, economic, and environmental dimensions of rural sustainability. This paper is mainly based on statistical, documental, and cartographical work as well as data collected during fieldwork, focusing on small villages of Cavan and Leitrim, where semi-structured interviews with various informants were conducted. Thus, this paper contributes to give voice both to rural immigrants and to locally born inhabitants. Among results of the qualitative analysis, some challenges for sustainability can be interpreted as (relatively) less entangled than others. For instance, prejudice or xenophobia are more clearly linked to the social dimension of sustainability (but can have an impact on the ability to attract foreign workers), while access to credit and support for rural business development are more clearly linked to the economic dimension (but have a social impact due to the scarcity/lack of jobs available or the low quality jobs on offer), and environmental education, recycling and waste management are more clearly linked to the environmental dimension (but there will be new job opportunities if more waste management policies are implemented).