Islands research survey

Island connections and return migration survey – Kirsten Gow

Taking part

I am looking to speak to islanders, former islanders, and people with island connections as part of my research.

Want to know more?

Hello from Jura – I am an islands researcher and I am looking for:

• people who have lived on a Scottish island before but now live elsewhere;
• people who have other long-term connections with the Scottish islands;
• people who have returned to live on a Scottish island.

I would love these folk to complete my 10-minute survey looking at how people maintain connections to islands when living elsewhere, as part of my PhD looking at island connections and return migration.

You can see more info on the survey here

My name is Kirsten and I am a PhD student in the Department of Geography, School of Geosciences at the University of Aberdeen. I would like to invite you to take part in my research project which includes exploring people’s connections to Scotland’s islands to look at if and how this might affect return migration.

My PhD research looks at the role that people with connections to Scotland’s islands could play a part in the future of the islands. This includes looking at how those with island connections might contribute to a sustainable and balanced repopulation of the islands via return migration.

The aim of this phase of my research is to understand more about people who feel that they have a connection to one or more Scottish islands, even though they don’t live on an island at the moment. This includes people who have grown up on islands or who moved there as adults, but have since moved away. It also includes people with family and long term social connections to an island and who actively stay connected with their island though they currently live elsewhere.

I want to understand more about how people maintain connections with the islands when living elsewhere. I also want to understand more about the reasons why people currently live off-island and whether or not people might like to return to live on the island they have connections with, or a different island, in the future.

I plan to work with this group of people, who I call the ‘islands diaspora’, to find out more about how they stay connected to their islands while living elsewhere. I will also be talking to people who either want to return to live on an island or have already made the move to understand more about their hopes and the realities of return.

Thanks for your interest in taking part in my research.