Retaining and Increasing Population in Island Communities: A Comparative Case Study of Two Islands in Norway and Croatia

ABSTRACT Population loss is one of the main challenges facing smaller island communities in Europe. In this study, we conduct a comparative analysis of population challenges in two island communities: one in Croatia and one in Norway. These two island communities have been struggling with slow, but very long‐term population decline. They have also both experienced an economic upswing in recent decades, resulting in fairly large numbers of labour immigrants coming to the islands. However, the large‐scale labour immigration resulted in differing long‐term outcomes. The island community in Norway has been able to reverse the population decline by retaining labour immigrants, while the Croatian one has not been able to do so. We provide explanations for the diverging outcomes, focusing on the nature of employment possibilities, the housing market, and immigrants' social networks. The findings are relevant to broader discussions on the role of immigration in demographic revival, as well as the potentials and limitations of labour and lifestyle migration for population increase on small islands.