Geographical Mobility of Young People in Quebec: The Territorial Significance

A number of surveys of young Quebecers who still live in their places of origin have shown that a weak feeling of belonging was one of the main factors liable to lead to their exodus. Based on semidirected interviews drawn from the qualitative study by the Groupe de recherche sur les migrations des jeunes, in a context in which the development of means of transportation & communication & the increasing interconnection between the local & global spheres bring into question the sense of territory as the locus of belonging in terms of identity, the author has tried to find out whether young migrants have a feeling of belonging toward their places of origin & toward their new destinations, & what effect the experience of mobility may have on their relationship to space. The research shows that the young people studied place significant importance on the different places of residence, expressed either by a feeling of territorial belonging or by what the author calls an attachment to the "symbolism of the countryside.". 33 References. Adapted from the source document.