귀촌과 지역공동체 육성 정책의 연계 추진방안

Abstract

최근 베이비부머 세대의 은퇴와 맞물려 농어촌으로 이주하는 도시민이 늘어나고 있다. 이러한 현상은 앞으로 더욱 확대될 것으로 예상된다. 근대화 이후 지속적인 인구 유출을 경험했던 농어촌으로서는 반가운 일이 아닐 수 없다.

농어촌으로 이주하는 사람들은 농업 종사 외에도 은퇴 후 여가 생활이나 요양, 또는 지역사회 활동 참여 등 다양한 목적을 갖고 있다. 그 목적이 무엇이든 간에 그들이 농어촌에 원활히 정착할 수 있도록 돕는 정책적 관심이 필요하다. 그러나 그동안 정부 정책은 농업을 영위할 목적으로 이주하는 귀농인을 지원하는 데 초점을 두었다. 앞으로는 농업과 더불어 농어촌에서 새로운 삶을 시작하려는 귀촌인을 대상으로 정책을 확대할 필요가 있다. 더 나아가 그동안 소홀했던 귀촌 및 지역공동체 정책의 연계 협력에도 관심을 가져야 할 것이다.

이 연구에서는 농어촌 활성화에 초점을 두어 지역사회를 위한 귀농·귀촌인의 역할을 살펴보고, 정부와 지자체의 귀농·귀촌 정책과 지역공동체 육성 정책을 연계 추진하는 방안을 모색하였다. 특히 대통령 직속 지역발전위원회와 공동으로 전국 주요 권역별로 네 차례에 걸쳐 정책 세미나를 개최하여, 관련 정책들을 논의하고 귀감이 될 귀농·귀촌인의 지역공동체 활동 사례들을 살펴보았다.

Background of Research With the growing public's interest in a returning to rural areas, a growing numbers of urban residents are moving to rural areas. Moreover, expectations are high that the inflow of relatively young, highly educated people in the high-income category could play a big role in revitalizing the rural areas. From now on, it is necessary to break away from the early stage of policy development where the focus was placed on inflow of urban population into rural areas and seek a new direction of urban-to-rural migration so that it is mutually beneficial to the local community and the migrants alike. With such a background in mind, this study examines the role of the migrants and seeks to find a plan that can link the migration support policy with the local community development policy.

Method of Research To this end, this study employed literature review, collection of statistics, analysis of survey results, and holding of policy seminars. In the case of the policy seminars, which were held jointly with the Presidential Committees on Regional Development, they were held to discuss in each one of the four major regions of the country.

Research Results and Implications The increase in the urban-to-rural migration is a very encouraging sign from the perspective of rural development. Moreover, there is a high expectation for policy support in that the new inflow of population can contribute much to revitalizing the stagnant rural economy. On the other hand, however, there are many conflicting issues to consider. First, it is unclear as to who are the policy targets of rural migration. Especially in the case of those migrants who have not chosen farming as their occupation, it is unclear as to how they can be distinguished from those who have simply relocated their residence. In other words, the differentiation of those returning to a farm from those simply relocating to a rural village varies from one administrative region to another. Second, since rural migration has been highlighted as a means of attracting population into rural areas, policies have focused less on settling in of the migrants. Third, the local communities' expectations and interest in the migrants' role of revitalizing the local economy are high. This study examined what roles the migrants are playing in rural areas. In the case of urban-rural exchange projects or economic activities of various kinds, the activities tended to be livelier where there was a higher number of migrants. From an organizational perspective, too, there were contributions made by the migrants as they were able to increase the synergy effect of the rural migration policy by sharing their experience of migration and playing the role of helping new migrants to settle in a rural area. As the migrants' experience of providing assistance accumulated, their role as a partner to the local government expanded too. Based on these analysis results, for seeking solutions that can harmonize the migrants' activities with the local community, this study examined cases of the migrants' local community activities and presented implications to seek solutions that can harmonize the migrants' activities with the local community. Based on the summary of the above discussions, the following policy directions are suggested. The government should refrain from taking a leadership role in accelerating the urban-to-rural migration and focus on minimizing the mistakes that can be made by those who are preparing to move to a rural area. Since private organizations as well as the migrants are effective in helping the settling-in of migrants and inducing their participation in diverse activities, the policy focus should also be placed on revitalizing the role of private organizations so that they can cooperate with the administration on a horizontal footing. A number of policy measures can be devised to achieve this. First, efforts should be made to induce the distribution of an organizational model of private-public cooperation that can carry out the local government's rural migration policy. Second, policy measures should be sought to link the activities of rural migration organizations with the organizations of native residents. Third, the socio-economic fields of private organizations working for urban-to-rural migration should continuously be expanded.

Researchers: Joo-In Seong, Jeong-Seop Kim, Sang-Jin Ma and Byeong-Seok Yoon Research period: 2012. 4. - 2012. 10. E-mail address: jiseong@krei.re.kr