Rethinking ‘brain drain’: What can planning do to help retain Adelaide’s young adults? PART 2
This article forms Part 2 of a two-part series, based upon an Honours research thesis completed by the author.
The dominant perspective on Adelaide’s consistent loss of educated young adults is that it is a matter of jobs and economics. If young adults only move for their jobs, then the solution is easy! Create more jobs, retain more people. Retain more people, grow a better economy. Grow a better economy, create more jobs; and so on. But has anyone actually asked young adults what their motivations for migration are? What if an expanded range of motivations, as encountered in Part 1 of this series, is not a threat to Adelaide’s current perspective, but an opportunity for disciplines such as planning to get involved in creating unique policy solutions?
What do Young People Really Think?
It turns out that, when asked, young adults do have strong opinions about Adelaide and their motivations for moving interstate. Interviews conducted with 5 final year university students seeking to move interstate at the end of their studies found that while careers were strong motivations, they were not the only factors. The data showed that there were in fact 5 other themes at play in their decision making, ranging from their personal desires to explore and a sense of attachment to home, to Adelaide specific culture and lifestyle factors, including a perceived imbalance between the CBD and suburbs and the perception of Adelaide as a city for families rather than young people.
When speaking about their desires to explore, all participants stressed that there wasn’t anything in Adelaide driving them away, just that they had a sense that there was more for them to see and experience. The lack of an issue with Adelaide challenges the traditional notion of ‘brain drain’ and begs the question: if young adults in Adelaide feel this way, wouldn’t young adults in other places be looking to make the same move?
This sense was also urgent, with many spurred on by their current freedom and flexibility before they voluntarily or involuntarily ‘settle down’. It was at this settling down point that Adelaide began to take a role in their envisioned futures. Adelaide, it was said, is safe. It’s comfortable. It’s ‘a great place to raise a family’. At the same time, the interviewees lamented the oversized presence of familial life in Adelaide’s lifestyle and cultural offerings, as well as it’s sprawling suburban development pattern. Therefore, the participants viewed Adelaide as not a place for now, but a place for their futures.
The lifestyle and cultural offerings of Adelaide were largely seen as positive, but mainly catering to families over young people. The concentration of these offerings to the CBD was also a major point of contention amongst the interviewees, who all had to travel in from the suburbs to get their fix of the amenity and vibrancy of the city. Importantly, all these insights and perspectives correspond with those found in academic literature, adding needed and justifiable weight to the opinions of these young adults.
How do Adelaide’s Planning Policies Compare?
Adelaide’s planning policies do go some way to alleviating the issues raised by the interviewees and in the literature. The densification of key transit corridors largely aligns with the literature, while aiming to provide the suburban amenity and vibrancy desired by the young adults. However, it remains to be seen whether density breeds amenity in the way that the policies have hoped. The increased focus in Adelaide on providing housing choice is also largely in step with the views of the literature and young adults. By providing housing choices that feel appropriate, and affordable, for the stage of life that young people are in, the chances of retaining them grows.
The policy focus on vibrancy and amenity in the CBD was found to be popular with interviewees, with the development of Adelaide Oval, a small bar scene and general increased activity being singled out for praise. However, the policy focus on concentrating these initiatives to the CBD is a missed opportunity. There is little reason why the popular liquor licensing and events reforms could not be rolled out further into the suburbs. By enhancing the primacy of the CBD, the policies are exacerbating an existing issue.
These factors all contribute to the success of Adelaide as a city, and its attractiveness not only to current residents, but new ones. The potential to attract residents to Adelaide who are experiencing the same itch to see something different as our own young adults is criminally forgotten in all discussions. By enhancing the city as a whole, the opportunity to capitalise in this becomes greater.
Lessons and Opportunities
The core lesson from this research has been that Adelaide can do better in this space simply by rethinking ‘brain drain’. Rather than being able to attack this issue from one, largely unwinnable economic front, policymakers can and must mobilise from all sides, using the perspectives and opinions of young adults to their advantage. Planning should and can be at the forefront of this, creating places and suburbs more attuned to the needs and desires of young adults. Shaking off the stigma of Adelaide as a place for families will take time, but maintaining a densifying development pattern and increasing suburban amenity are key features already underway that are heading in the right direction. The increase in housing choice will also be an important factor in this evolution, as Adelaide begins to cater to the different lifestyle choices of this generation, once again altering the pattern of development. The good news is that these policies are the bread and butter of planning and can be easily applied. While zoning for density and use have gotten Adelaide to its current state, they are also the tools that can help to transform the form and image of the city. Who would’ve thought actually asking young people what they want could have such an affect?
Charlie Dubois is a recently graduated Urban and Regional Planner and has recently completed an Honours thesis on the role that planning can play in the ‘brain drain’ debate. He is passionate about the power of planning and Adelaide’s urban future.