Population Mobility in the Wake of COVID-19 in the US Northeast Region: Lessons for Regional Planning

Environmental factors motivate migration across the globe, calling for better planning. Although the US experienced such movements during the COVID-19 pandemic, literature on population mobility and outcomes for receiving communities in the US is scarce. We use a mixed-methods case study approach to explore the COVID-era population movement trends in the US Northeast (NE) Region and their outcomes for receiving communities to draw lessons for strategic regional planning aiming to achieve sustainable and equitable outcomes of disaster-induced movements. Utilizing the Statistics of Income data and focus group data collected from 27 local experts in 22 rural counties of NE, which experienced the highest relative numbers of in-movers between 2016 and 2020, the findings revealed the top receiving counties were predominantly rural areas where urbanites moved from within NE. This movement challenged the housing market and services, disproportionately burdening socioeconomically disadvantaged groups in receiving communities. The COVID-19 experience opened a window of opportunity for regional planning to prepare desirable outcomes of such mobilities by addressing existing issues in receiving communities while incorporating pulse and slow population movements into the agenda. The right policy timing and communication among communities are keys to building trust and ensuring integration of newcomers into receiving communities.