As a graduation project at the University of Groningen, Kylian Halmingh investigates whether people have a good time in three villages in Dantumadiel. The municipality hopes to benefit from the results of her study.
Are you enjoying De Westereen, Feanwâlden and Damwâld or would you like to leave as soon as possible? Kylian Halmingh seeks answers to this question. Kylian (25) studies sociology at the University of Groningen (RUG) and for his graduation project he approaches 3,750 residents aged sixteen or over to answer anonymously the question of whether or not they want to continue living in their town, in the municipality of Dantumadiel and in the province. from Fryslân.
Kylian himself comes from Veendam in Groningen. In his environment, he often observes that young people leave the town where they come from. “I also see that acquaintances who study at university or higher vocational training leave more often than those who follow a medium-level vocational training course. Therefore, I thought it would be interesting to investigate whether it is true that people more highly educated young people really want to leave more often and, if so; why do they do this more often? This led to the idea of conducting extensive research on whether people from different villages, with different educational levels and. different ages, they want to leave their village before others and why is that so?
Smaller places of residence
Kylian chose Dantumadiel precisely because it is a municipality with smaller residences. This allows you to compare three different places to better discover what things make residents want to leave or not. “I chose Damwâld, Westereen and Feanwâlden because these villages are quite comparable in size: they all have between 3,500 and 6,000 inhabitants. It is also interesting that the places differ socially and in terms of quality of life. By comparing them, I can investigate whether the differences between “Towns also make residents more or less willing to leave the town,” he explains.
In addition to being a researcher, Kylian is also an intern at Dantumadiel. His supervisor is deputy director Govert van Oudenaarden of the municipality. “The study gives us a lot of information about, for example, the level of equipment in towns, public transport, housing construction, the perception of security and how people judge it. In addition, we know what the needs of the communities are. people and how they perceive the general quality of life in our municipality,” explains Van Oudenaarden when asked.
Kylian agrees. “In the internship report, the municipality receives more information about the extent to which its citizens want to remain in the village, in the municipality and in Friesland. The municipality also learns whether the social capital of people, for example of their friends, is found mainly inside or outside the town.
“In the thesis report, which I will publish later, I will do in-depth analysis to find out why certain groups want to leave before others. For example, I try to find out if young people want to leave more often than older people and why. The municipality can use the knowledge to better understand why certain groups leave more frequently and thus learn more about the changes they can implement to allow these groups to remain in the village.”
Great value
Van Oudenaarden believes that contact with the researcher is of great value. Since the final decision was made to officially separate Dantumadiel from the neighboring municipality of Noardeast-Fryslân, the municipal organization must maintain and maintain its own employee base. “That goes far beyond expectations. With our recruitment campaign we have filled between 92 and 95 percent of the vacancies. But there is always rotation and contacts with young people from the university like Kylian, but of course we are also always interested in MBO and HBO students.”
Kylian hopes to complete the internship report no later than August 2024; The thesis requires more research and will not be ready until 2025. In addition to his studies, he currently works as a researcher and project leader at a research agency. “This position is in line with the master’s degree in sociology that I am pursuing. Therefore, the graduation research at Dantumadiel is very interesting for me.”