A relatively large group of immigrants to rural parts of inner Scandinavia are of German and Dutch descent. Many are families with young children having moved to unpopular areas, characterised by declining populations and services. Seven households of Dutch and German descent were interviewed with a narrative approach to explore their decision to migrate. It is revealed that they do not fit the common explanations of lifestyle migration. A “tale” of escape emerges as they describe what they wanted to leave behind, primarily risks associated with a neoliberal urban environment such as stress, aggression, and competition. The rural is described as a restful and safe space, like Hobbiton, where urban environmental refugees can exhale and live life a bit more lugnt. Drawing on Focaults “care for the self,” their experiences of the negative effects, of the individualisation of risks, neoliberal competition, and an accelerating society render evasion to a new environment into a means of risk avoidance. © 2019 The Authors Population, Space and Place Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Resistance counterurbanisation risk avoidance lifestyle migration Neoliberalism Escape

lifestyle refugee migrants experience Urbanization Scandinavia neoliberalism risk assessment immigrant population