Youth Migration from Rural Areas: Moral Principles to Support Youth and Rural Communities in Policy Debates

Literature on rural youth has often described this group as disadvantaged with regard to, for example, education and employment opportunities, which results in young people being forced to leave their rural communities. Hence, policy interventions and the allocation of more resources to rural areas are called for. However, it is unclear on what moral assumptions the advocacy for more provisions rest. No explicit links have been made to policy principles, such as needs, rights, equity, or social justice, which are commonly invoked when increased resources for a particular group of people are advocated. This article considers to what extent the notion of equity may offer support to the case of rural youth by examining the extent to which equal opportunity perspectives are applicable. The article concludes that there is one concept originally used to advance gender equality – gender mainstreaming – which can usefully be adopted also for our purposes. While youth mainstreaming can serve two aims, that of empowering youth and promoting community development, it also accepts that the interests of youth and their communities may sometimes be in conflict.