Australia's regional youth exodus

Abstract

In this paper, I report on preliminary findings arising from a more extensive doctoral project on Australia's regional youth exodus. One aim of this project is to stress the political moment lost in technical socio-demographic accounts of youth migration. Here, I examine the 'taken for granted' assumptions that frame conversations about regional youth migration, as well as the exclusionary limits of such discourse. In my review of popular media, I focus on the way young people are constructed by others (journalists, politicians, bureaucrats, and parents), and on how young people are positioned in other people's visions of their regional home towns. I discuss two narratives that recur in regional (Tasmanian) newspapers: support for strategies to keep young people at home and a preoccupation with the 'best and brightest' young people. I also discuss the emergence of these narratives in national forums.