next_migration | Real human communities

In a moment I will talk about how to embed yourself among the residents of your new community, but first let’s think of the community you are leaving behind. If you move away from a place that is likely to face major hardship in the short term, perhaps you will leave behind family or friends who will remain at risk. You may have known these people since childhood; in the best case, your ties with them may be stronger than any new friendships you will ever form. Once you have established yourself somewhere, one of the best things you could do, for yourself and others, is to offer to help selected loved ones to move and get established in the same area.

If your brother or best friend from high school doesn’t have enough money to move, and you can trust him not to be a leech or cause trouble for you, you could invite him to stay in your guest room or crash on your couch until he gets a job. He could then be part of your local social network for the rest of your life, each of you able to give the other a hand when it’s needed. Or if he’s doing very well where he is and doesn’t want to move, then if someday things go badly for him, you can step in and offer him that couch.

Unfortunately, you do need to be a bit selective, because some of our loved ones can’t be trusted. If you know that your brother or friend currently has serious drug or drinking problems, for example, the likelihood that he’ll ever get off your couch and stand on his own feet is low. You could be stuck with him for a long time, or have an unpleasant scene trying to get rid of him, and at worst, he could attract the attention of law enforcement and get your door kicked in at 3 AM. Is your family member chronically dishonest, a mooch or freeloader? She probably will never change unless circumstances absolutely force her to buckle down and take responsibility. You might let her move in if her house burns down, but otherwise, be glad of the distance between you and keep it that way; your enabling her won’t help either of you.

In the Great Migration of African-Americans from the apartheid South to the North in the 1930s to 1960s, sequential migration was the rule. The first person from an extended family or community who moved to Chicago or Detroit struggled mightily to secure basic housing. Once they were well established, they could invite relatives to join them one or two at a time, and give those people a roof over their heads while they got settled and found work. Neighbors would hear about their improved lives and decide to move to the same place. They then had local social networks of people with a shared history who would help out in times of need, watching each others’ kids and so forth. If the 21^st-century outmigration from the Southwest and other unsustainable places can be handled similarly, it will spare a lot of suffering.

A caveat, though: With Northern housing also segregated, most of the people in the Great Migration went to a small number of fairly large cities, where they knew from the experience of earlier migrants from their community that homes and jobs would be available. Whole communities’ worth of migrants might mostly go to the same city: from Palestine, Texas to Syracuse, from Chickasaw Co., Mississippi to Beloit. Their children thereby ended up living in a limited number of crowded, unsafe, unhealthy urban centers, which would later be targeted for oppression by white-ruled state governments. This must not be repeated as the era of hyperurbanization winds down. Supplying and maintaining huge cities is going to get harder in future, not easier. Furthermore, too many “Californians” concentrated in one place could well become targets, just as “Okies” were targets in California ninety years ago. People whose group affinities might make them targets in a brewing civil war should be careful not to cluster in ways that make them easy to find and attack.

Thus, the importance of individuals’ and families’ selecting their new destinations based on their differing values, needs, abilities, interests, and even whimsy. If the first wave of migrants go to several hundred different cities and towns rather than a relative handful of metropolises, then family or friends follow them, that second wave can be better distributed than the people who participated in the original Great Migration. By the time a third wave is ready to depart, the first migrants will be more familiar with their region, some perhaps making another move into a smaller community nearby. They will be able to suggest to newcomers which nearby towns are good or bad choices, so that migrating populations can be still more broadly dispersed.

It is even more important, though, that you make deliberate efforts to form ties with people in your new community. If you choose to move to a small town, it is essential. By now at least a thousand commentators must have bemoaned the decline of community in American society. We are less likely than our parents to stay in our hometown, to socialize with our neighbors or even know their names, to belong to a church or civic or fraternal organization or be active in a political party, even to get together with our own immediate families. Occasionally we’re found “bowling alone”, but more often we’re sitting indoors, staring at screens. (I will argue shortly that the addictiveness of those screens is a major factor in the decline of our society.)

Complaints about loss of community are often presumed to derive from a politically conservative viewpoint that yearns for “the good old days” during which, for the supposed good of the collective, individuals from many subgroups of society were subordinated or invisible. In our individualism-obsessed culture, saying that we should devote more time and effort to being a part of our community is heard as saying we should sacrifice our own interests for those of people who don’t even like or value us. But liberals ought to be at least equally worried about the decline of community. People who suffer from anomie, feeling isolated from and powerless within their communities, are more likely to adopt political extremist viewpoints, especially authoritarian, xenophobic or conspiracist views. Sound familiar? Humans are social animals who need social connections, and if real connections are lacking, the false connections supplied by fascist movements can seem more appealing.

Community organizations, such as churches, fraternal organizations, and civic groups, also used to play an important role in protecting members and their families during hard times. Nowadays, there is usually enough social safety net in America to keep people from actually starving to death if they lose their jobs, get sick or injured, or are widowed. It wasn’t always that way, and we can’t be confident that it will always be that way in future. Someday the official government support systems might be falling apart, whether by deliberate design or by being overwhelmed by disasters, and local organizations may step up to fill the gap for their members. But you will have to have been an active participant before your time of need in order to expect help.

Small-town living practically forces prosocial behavior because if you don’t have any involvement with the community you’re in, people will notice and think ill of you. At the very best, if you don’t really care about anyone there, none of them will care about you, so if you need help, nobody will be there for you. You need to shop at local stores whenever possible, attend important local events, find someplace to volunteer or an organization to join, try to make friends. Whether the town is big or small, it’s important to patronize local agriculture, such as the farmers’ market, as much as you can. Get one of those local cookbooks like church women’s groups put out and learn to cook and enjoy regional products. Not only will this help you fit in at potlucks, but if the supply of veggies from California should be disrupted, you’ll know what to do with the food that’s locally available.

In larger urban areas, it is sometimes harder to arrange to do things that get you out of the house and dealing with others, and it’s easier to refrain from doing them. You don’t know if your immediate neighbors are participating in the community, and they won’t know if you do. You can just sit inside and watch TV or YouTube, buy everything you need online, and remain totally isolated. But it’s bad for you, physically and emotionally, and it leaves you without real human connections to draw upon in time of need. It will require effort, even struggle and painful self-discipline, at first, but wherever you go, find ways to make yourself a part of the community. You’ll be glad you did in the long run.