5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

In recent years, many initiatives have been developed in non-urban contexts to make these areas more welcoming and inclusive for all. However, despite the emergence of numerous “welcoming spaces”, restrictive migration policies and repressive measures represent a main challenge threatening mobility justice. Moreover, going against “anti-migration” policies and discourses, such initiatives are often invisibilized, if not even contested (Fekete, 2018). On the other hand, such initiatives can present different criticalities – social polarization, lack of job opportunities, political exclusion, among others (Rygiel, Baban, 2019). Drawing upon these reflections, the panel intends to explore the complex interconnections between human mobility and the development of rural areas. The aim is to reflect on the multidimensional role of migration in reshaping regional areas, creating new opportunities, generative well-being and, in some cases, counter-hegemonic imaginaries capable of challenging media distortions (Smets et al., 2019). To do so, it goes beyond an idea of migration as an asset for boosting socio-economic growth or a form of “subordinated inclusion”, inspired by the principle of moral indifference (Rye, O’Reilly, 2020). On the contrary, it embraces the concept of “generative reception” (Minervini, 2016), thus considering at the same time the needs of the territory and the local community as a whole, towards new forms of socioenvironmental justice. The panel welcomes critical papers focused on the intersections between migration and well-being from the point of view of citizenship, rights and equality, towards more equitable, democratic and sustainable models of development.