[joshe]

Nice that social media is providing a clear pathway out of towns like this. Sad for the people left behind but the answer is for them to leave, not for everyone to be trapped there. And note the Eastern Europe is doing great at the country level.

In general people should engage in more geographic mobility.

[paxys]

Get misled by a TikTok "influencer" and go join a street gang or be forced into prostitution in other parts of Europe? I wouldn't call that "escaping" anything.

[abenga]

Are those really the only two options?

[secondcoming]

Right, but did you miss the part where these young men are being forced to work for criminal gangs and the girls are most likely in the sex trade?

They're also abusing the asylum process to get to stay in the UK. It's a massive problem.

[epolanski]

Did you even read the article?

It points at how miserable virtually all Albanians that get baited into traveling to UK have it

[joshe]

I did read it, this was a counterpoint. The article is lying. A small minority had a bad time, they did nothing like a comprehensive counting of everyone who left.

Remember that a greater number of people who stayed would have died as miserable alcoholics. Women are still beaten by their husbands in small towns. Boredom leads to drugs.

Even in the US suicides are 50% higher per capita in rural vs urban areas.

If someone is happy in a rural area they should stay. But if they aren't and they get up the gumption to leave who are you to sit in judgement of how stupid they are?

It is better to move out of towns like this. Better != perfect.

[koheripbal]

There are always some people who stay, and always some of the children of the people who left will return to revitalize the area.

It takes one or two generations for that secondary effect of revitalization but it happens as children and grandchildren of those who emigrated want to return to their culture and find land prices very low.

I've seen it in rural China, India, and Italy before that. Even Russia had a large number of emigrant's (or their children) return during the economic book in the 2000's. Potion ruined that, and many have since left again, but it demonstrates the effect.

Eastern Europe will be the same.