Doctoral Dissertation Research: Assessing the Impacts of Global Amenity Migration on Land Use, Livelihoods, and Communal Identities

该项目审查从全球北方的高收入地区向全球南方的中低收入地区的宜人迁徙的影响。随着北美和欧洲高舒适性目的地的房地产价格上涨，越来越多的美国、加拿大和欧洲公民寻求在全球范围内购买住宅物业，使他们能够以相对较低的成本享受热带气候、海滩和其他以生活方式为导向的便利设施。这种移民及其相关的住宅开发往往被宣传为给贫穷的农村社区带来经济发展，但这些流动对当地居民的土地所有权和使用、住房获取和谋生手段的具体影响并不是很好的了解。学者们已经开始记录全球便利移民如何加剧社区的不平等和社会分裂，但关于这种移民对当地土地使用、生计和住房的影响，以及历史上经历过社会和经济边缘化的少数族裔群体如何经历这些变化，人们知之甚少。该项目将解决这些差距，并创造有助于制定地方、国家和国际政策的知识，以缓解日益增长的全球宜人移民对宜人目的地社区的一些潜在负面影响。此外，该项目将培训两名本科生研究助理，并提供支持，使一名研究生能够建立独立的研究生涯。该项目旨在展示来自北美高收入地区的以便利为导向的移民如何影响收容社区中不同种族、阶级、性别和国籍的土地所有权和使用、谋生手段以及获得住房的机会。通过分析哥斯达黎加加勒比海沿岸一个以非洲裔为主的社区的这些影响，这项研究推动了对舒适移民的研究，超越了以美国和欧洲为基础的经典背景，转向更仔细地审视种族和阶级如何塑造舒适目的地居民的体验。该项目采用混合方法进行研究，包括对卫星图像进行地理空间分析，以确定研究地区土地利用变化的广泛模式；分析土地销售记录，以显示所有权模式和财产分割率；以及对过去和现在拥有土地的家庭进行调查，以展示不同种族、阶级、性别和民族群体的土地所有权、住房准入和谋生手段的模式。最后，半结构化访谈和民族志观察将提供个人和社区对土地使用、生计和社区身份变化的体验的洞察。通过社区圆桌讨论，该项目将扩大当地社区在市容发展项目以及地方和国家规划工作中的代表性。

This project examines the impacts of amenity migration from high income regions in the Global North to middle and lower income regions in the Global South. As property prices increase in high amenity destinations in North America and Europe, a growing number of U.S., Canadian, and European citizens have sought to buy residential property globally, allowing them relatively low-cost access to tropical climates, beaches, and other lifestyle-oriented amenities. Often this migration and its associated residential development has been heralded as bringing economic development to poor rural communities, yet the specific impacts of these flows on local residents' land ownership and use, housing access, and means of making a living are not well understood. Scholars have begun to document how global amenity migration increases inequality and social fragmentation in communities, but little is known about the effects of such migration on local land use, livelihoods, and housing, nor how these changes are experienced by racial minority groups who have historically experienced social and economic marginalization. This project will address these gaps and create knowledge useful for constructing local, national, and international policies to mitigate some of the potentially negative impacts of growing global amenity migration on amenity destination communities.  Further, the project will train two undergraduate research assistants and provide support to enable a graduate student to establish an independent research career. This project seeks to demonstrate how amenity-oriented migration from high income regions in North America impacts ownership and use of land, the means of making a living, and access to housing across race, class, gender, and nationality in receiving communities. By analyzing these impacts in a predominantly Afro-descendant community on Costa Rica's Caribbean coastline, this research advances the study of amenity migration beyond its classic U.S.- and European-based contexts toward a more careful examination of how race, alongside class, shapes the experiences of residents in amenity destinations. The project employs mixed-methods research, including geospatial analysis of satellite imagery to establish broad patterns of land use change in the study area; analysis of land sale records to indicate ownership patterns and property subdivision rates; and a survey of past and present land-owning households to demonstrate patterns of land ownership, housing access, and means of making a living for groups across race, class, gender, and nationality. Finally, semi-structured interviews and ethnographic observation will provide insight into individual and communal experiences of land use, livelihood, and identity changes in the community. Through community round table discussions, the project will broaden local community representation within amenity development projects and local and national planning efforts.