Highly skilled jobs, once concentrated in urban areas and innovation cluster regions, are now emerging in rural regions of the Nordic countries due to the green transition and associated industrial developments. Northern Norway, northern Finland, and northern Sweden are pivotal in this transition, where new innovative green clusters are taking form. This transition requires a skilled and expanded workforce. However, a lack of skills is a significant challenge in Nordic rural areas, requiring them to attract migrants for both green skills and public sector roles, encompassing in various sectors like healthcare, education, and retail. The availability of skilled labour is a common bottleneck across these regions (Lapland Chamber of Commerce, 2023).
The green transition towards a fossil-free economy hinges on battery production for decarbonisation efforts. Northern Scandinavia's abundant raw materials have drawn significant battery industry investments, forming the Nordic Battery Cluster or the Nordic Battery Belt. The regions hosting the industry investments are prime examples of sparsely populated municipalities experiencing intense workforce-related issues, as the emerging battery industry demands a significant number of personnel from multidisciplinary fields. The Nordic Battery Belt covers Central Ostrobothnia and Ostrobothnia in Finland, Västerbotten County in Sweden, and Nordland County in Norway (Okonkwo, 2022; Lundmark et al., 2022).
The attraction of young individuals from urban areas and university towns to non-metropolitan regions is an important source of economic growth for many regions. The rural areas in the Nordics are at the forefront of the green industrial transition. This means career opportunities for young people and people with skills. How to attract these people to remote or rural areas is a critical question for the future development of the transition and for societies (Lapland Chamber of Commerce, 2023).