Migration and Counter-Urbanization in the Edwards Plateau of Texas, 1985-1990

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Migration and Counter-Urbanization in the Edwards Plateau of Texas, 1985-1990 University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences Great Plains Studies, Center for Fall 2003 Migration and Counter-urbanization in the Edwards Plateau of Texas, 1985-1990 Jason Holcomb Morehead State University, Morehead, Kentucky Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsresearch Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Holcomb, Jason, "Migration and Counter-urbanization in the Edwards Plateau of Texas, 1985-1990" (2003). Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences. 673. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsresearch/673 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Great Plains Research 13 (Fall 2003): 311-27 © Copyright by the Center for Great Plains Studies MIGRATION AND COUNTERURBANIZATION IN THE EDWARDS PLATEAU OF TEXAS, 1985-1990 Jason P. Holcomb Department of Geography, Government, and History 350 Rader Hall Morehead State University Morehead, KY 40351 [email protected] ABSTRACT-Unlike most of the Great Plains, Texas's Edwards Pla­ teau lies near large, rapidly growing metropolitan centers. County-to­ county migration data for the period 1985-1990 were used to examine migration patterns in Edwards Plateau counties. Weighted standard dis­ tance and stream efficiency values were used to analyze county in­ migration fields of 28 nonmetropolitan counties. A key finding was that net in-migration to counties closest to metropolitan areas was not mere "urban spillover." There were also indications that counterurban migra­ tion extended beyond metropolitan-adjacent counties to more sparsely populated destinations. Counterurbanization was occurring from central counties of the nation's largest metropolitan areas and some Texas metropolitan areas. In-migration from the Gulf Coast of Texas played an important role in the Edwards Plateau. The migration system of the Edwards Plateau appears to have functioned differently than non­ metropolitan counties in the High Plains. Continued change is supported by data from the 2000 census. KEY WORDS: counterurbanization, Edwards Plateau, Great Plains, migra­ tion, stream efficiencies, weighted standard distance Introduction The Edwards Plateau of Texas is a region at the fringe (Fig. 1). Geo­ graphically, it lies at the southern margin of the Great Plains and is perched between zones of opposing population trends. To the west and north of the Edwards Plateau are the High Plains and Rolling Plains, two areas that have had historically high out-migration rates throughout the 20th century. East of the Edwards Plateau are burgeoning metropolitan areas that line Inter­ state 35, including the rapidly growing cities of Austin and San Antonio. Some recognizable characteristics of the Edwards Plateau are the German 311 312 Great Plains Research Vol. 13 No.2, 2003 •Amarillo High Plains Population 5,000 - 25,000 • 25,001 - 200,000 • 200,001 - 2,000,000 c=J Interstate 35 corridor Figure 1. Study area and selected cities in Texas. culture area of the dissected Hill Country, its history of goat and sheep production, and the invasion of grassland by woody plant species. Because of its location, the Edwards Plateau is an interesting subject of population inquiry. Caught between worlds of rural population decline and expanding metropolitan areas, the Edwards Plateau appears to be undergoing changes Migration in the Edwards Plateau of Texas 313 in population that are not present in most parts of the Great Plains. Evidence of this transformation can be found in recent population growth in counties with historical decline. The Edwards Plateau may be an emerging Great Plains anomaly that is an attractive destination for streams of counterurban migration. This study examines county-to-county migration flows in the region between 1985 and 1990 in order to determine whether or not counterurbanization took place during the latter half of the 1980s when nonmetropolitan counties lost population as general rule. These methods and results are a foundation for additional research when county-to-county migration data from the 2000 census become available. Studies of "counterurbanization" (Berry 1976) and a "population turn­ around" (Deavers and Brown 1980) became common themes in population research after data for the 1970s showed aggregate non metropolitan growth in the United States. During the 1980s nonmetropolitan counties nationwide reverted to net out-migration (Beale 1990; Frey and Speare 1992; Johnson 1993), followed by another period of aggregate growth during the 1990s (Beale 1996; Beale 1999; Johnson 1999; Johnson and Beale 1998). How­ ever, the Great Plains as a whole was synonymous with nonmetropolitan out-migration throughout most of the 20th century, even during periods of nonmetropolitan growth in other regions of the United States. Non­ metropolitan counties in the Great Plains generally maintained a more consistent trend of net out-migration from 1970 through 2000 as the aggre­ gate trend fluctuated. Out-migration from the nonmetropolitan Great Plains was lower dur­ ing the 1970s than in previous decades, and net in-migration took place in some years. In the 1980s net out-migration from the nonmetropolitan Great Plains was greater than for other regions of the country, reaching levels of 2% per year. Out-migration abated during the 1990s, and some non­ metropolitan county types had individual years of net in-migration (Cromartie 1998). However, Great Plains counties have demonstrated con­ sistently higher levels of net out-migration when compared to aggregate trends for the United States, regardless of decade. The Great Plains was the largest of the "emptying" areas described by Lonsdale and Archer (1998). Heaviest out-migration in the region has historically occurred in the most remote and rural counties, while stable populations have more recently been tied to counties with significant irri­ gated agriculture (White 1994), larger urban areas (White 1992), and a relatively small number of counties at urban fringes or with natural ameni­ ties (Cromartie 1998). From population change data for the 1980s and 314 Great Plains Research Vol. 13 No.2, 2003 1990s, it appears that the Edwards Plateau fits into the categories suggested by Cromartie (1998). A combination of natural amenities and proximity to metropolitan areas may explain why only 8 of the 28 counties in the study area lost population during the 1990s, while a significantly larger propor­ tion of counties in the remainder of the Texas Great Plains lost population (US Bureau of the Census 2001a). Though sparsely populated, many nonmetropolitan counties in the Edwards Plateau had net in-migration dur­ ing the 1990s. But did the Edwards Plateau experience counterurbanization during the 1980s when rural out-migration peaked? If so, this would be a marked contrast from other sparsely populated areas of the Great Plains and an indication of a different migration system. In particular, this study exam­ ines characteristics of county-level migration that may have contributed to greater population stability in the 1980s and may indicate future change in the region. Methods County-to-county migration data from the 1990 census (US Bureau of the Census 1990) were used to calculate stream efficiency and weighted standard distance values for the 28 nonmetropolitan counties in the Edwards Plateau (Fig. 1). The data reflect changes in residence that took place between 1985 and 1990 but do not include any intervening moves. Stream efficiency values for county-to-county moves demonstrate how "effective" particular migration streams were at redistributing population from one county, or in this case a cluster of counties, to another location (Plane and Rogerson 1994). Stream efficiencies were calculated as eij = lOO(nij / tij) where e .. is migration stream efficiency, n .. is the net exchange between U lj regions i and j, and tij is the total migration between regions i and j. Stream efficiencies were calculated for migration between non­ metropolitan counties in the Edwards Plateau and the following sets of counties: (1) all US counties (aggregated) that lie outside the study area, (2) each of the ten county classes (ERS codes) that comprise a rural-urban continuum defined by the Economic Research Service (ERS) (Butler 1990), and (3) selected Texas metropolitan areas. In all cases, flows were aggre­ gated for the 28 counties in order to single out net movement to and from the region. Internal flows within the study area were not included in the calcu- Migration in the Edwards Plateau of Texas 315 lations. Thus, efficiency values reflect only the redistribution that took place between Edwards Plateau counties as a whole and counties that lie outside the Edwards Plateau. In the first set of calculations, for example, a positive efficiency value would indicate the percentage of total migration that was redistributed to the Edwards Plateau from counties outside the study area. A negative value would indicate net redistribution from the Edwards Plateau to counties outside the study area. For the second set of calculations, efficiency values represent redistribution that took place be­ tween the Edwards
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