Last week, we started talking about problems related to rural depopulation, and today I want to look at a specific case study in the French region of Limousin, where the population had been steadily decreasing—and steadily aging too—up until the year 1990. That was the year the Regional Council set up a special commission focused on repopulation, and they introduced what is known as a 'voluntarist policy' in the attempt to attract newcomers. Curiously, one of the first problems they came up against was persuading the local population that it was necessary and possible to attract new people to the area. They found that many villagers, whose own kids had gone off to live elsewhere, couldn't believe that their region was actually capable of attracting what they considered to be sophisticated people from the cities. But eventually, they succeeded in getting the majority of locals on board and, over one decade, Limousin managed to attract 15,000 new residents.
So how did they go about it? Well, basically, they worked in collaboration with the media and several organizations dedicated to bettering rural life. They did presentations at local trade fairs and conferences and they managed to make contact with a large number of city dwellers who wanted to move to the country. They also provided help and follow-up for newcomers as they were settling in.