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Abstract
This research explores the consequences of out-migration for sending communities in rural Alaska. In particular, it describes the relationship between female out-migration and community viability, by comparing the age–sex structures of Alaska Native villages that are growing with villages in decline. The paper discusses out-migration and its connection to school closure. It provides a detailed description of out-migration from villages in northern Alaska, using data from several household surveys to better understand migrants. Villages that are decreasing in size show a loss of adult women over time. Many leave and few return or replaced by in-migrants. Also notable is the loss of children from villages in decline. In some very small places the departure of women and children leads to school closure and eventually the village disappears.
Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to National Science Foundation for funding this project and earlier projects on which this is based including the Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic and Social Transitions in the North. The work on this paper was supported by an award from the National Science Foundation (#0457662), Migration in the Arctic: subsistence, jobs, and well being in urban and rural communities.
Notes
1. From 1980 through 2000, moves are over the preceding five years. For 2005, 2006, and 2007 moves are in the previous year.
2. The US Census response categories for ethnicity changed between 1990 and 2000. ‘Two or more races’ was added in 2000. This report uses 1990 age–sex data for American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) and 2000 data for AIAN alone or in combination with some other race. This means Alaska Native population totals are higher in 2000 than they would have been under 1990 definitions, and out-migration between 1990 and 2000 is underestimated.
3. US Census does not include information on villages with populations of less than 25 so they are not included here.
4. Diomede, Wales, Deering, and Ambler.
5. The FAI survey covers Alaska Natives across the state, not just the northern region.
6. Not all small northern villages are losing population. Kobuk nearly doubled in size (69–109) between 1990 and 2008.