Rural communities in the inland areas of Northern Sweden have long suffered from a steady population decline as young people, particularly women, have moved to the growing urban areas for education/employment. However, in recent years, alongside strategies for survival relating to tourism/hospitality industry, refugee reception has emerged as a strategy for survival whereby these rural municipalities seek to staunch the downward spiral of decline by accepting refugees in the hope that this will provide not only job opportunities but also support for local services. Using thematic analysis, we focus on media representations of rural refugee reception in small municipalities Northern Sweden and aim to contribute to an understanding of how spatial and social relations are reproduced through these representations; to understand in how ‘the rural’ is constructed in relation to power relations such as race and gender and how these interact with a more explicit spatial power dimension. We are interested in understanding rural refugee reception as a contested hope for the future – a strategy for survival. Our analysis shows that the media highlight the stories of how the municipalities set their hopes on refugee reception to ‘save’ the place not only by bringing in new, younger inhabitants, but also employment opportunities. However, it also shows that refugee reception may become merely a short-term, temporary solution and not something that challenges or changes the more general migratory patterns in Sweden.

中文翻译：

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对未来的有争议的希望——农村难民的接待是城市的生存吗？

瑞典北部内陆地区的农村社区长期以来一直遭受人口持续下降的影响，因为年轻人，特别是妇女，已经迁移到不断发展的城市地区接受教育/就业。然而，近年来，除了与旅游业/酒店业相关的生存战略之外，难民接待也已成为一种生存战略，这些农村城市通过接受难民来寻求阻止衰退的螺旋式下降，希望这不仅能提供就业机会，同时也支持当地服务。通过主题分析，我们重点关注瑞典北部小城市农村难民接待的媒体表现，旨在帮助理解如何通过这些表现再现空间和社会关系；了解“农村”是如何与种族和性别等权力关系相关的，以及这些关系如何与更明确的空间权力维度相互作用。我们有兴趣将农村难民接待理解为对未来有争议的希望——一种生存策略。我们的分析显示，媒体重点报道了市政当局如何将希望寄托在难民接收上，不仅通过引进新的、年轻的居民，而且还提供就业机会来“拯救”这个地方。然而，它也表明，难民接收可能只是一种短期、临时的解决方案，而不是挑战或改变瑞典更普遍的移民模式。