Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Rural Studies journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jrurstud Challenges in achieving sustainability in Iberian rural areas and small towns: Exploring immigrant stakeholders’ perceptions in Alentejo, Portugal, and Empordà, Spain Ricard Morén-Alegret a,* , Sandra Fatorić b , Dawid Wladyka c , Albert Mas-Palacios d , Maria Lucinda Fonseca e a Department of Geography, Autonomous University of Barcelona / Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain b North Carolina State University, USA c The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, USA d UEC Mataró, Barcelona, Spain e CEG, IGOT ULisboa, Institute of Geography & Spatial Planning, Universidade de Lisboa / University of Lisbon, Portugal ARTICLE INFO Keywords: International immigration Stakeholders' perceptions Sustainable development Iberian peripheral areas Portugal Spain Southwest Europe ABSTRACT There is growing evidence of international immigration becoming increasingly influential in peripheral areas in some Southern European countries. Particularly in small localities, where the maintenance of a significant number of active populations is crucial for social, economic and environmental sustainability, immigration can be of vital importance for local and regional policy-making. This paper presents the perceptions, experiences and concerns of various international immigrant stakeholders in Southwest Europe regarding the main challenges in achieving sustainability. Its focus is on rural areas and small towns in Alentejo Litoral (Southwest Portugal) and Alt Empordà (Catalonia, Northeast Spain), places where foreign immigration is above the national average. Using qualitative methods (semi-structured interviews, literature review and participant observation), the main findings show how immigrant stakeholders’ perceptions of local sustainability are rich, engaged and diverse, including interesting differences between some Northwest European immigrants and less advantaged im- migrants, e.g. Northwest European immigrants (i.e. British, Germans, French, Dutch, Belgians) stress environ- mental challenges for sustainability much more than the rest. Overcoming some native prejudices, immigrants in Alentejo Litoral and Alt Empordà also contribute to local knowledge of the ways to achieve dynamic local societies and economies, as well as conserve natural protected areas and agricultural environments. 1. Introduction In a world where cities, metropolitan areas and megalopolises are of growing importance (UN, 2014), there has usually been bias towards them in sustainability narratives, as some recent relevant publications illustrate (e.g. Portney, 2015; Rosenzweig et al., 2016). However, rural areas and small towns are equally relevant for human and planetary sustainability. As early as the 1980s, the Brundtland Commission report Our Common Future, a key document in sustainability studies, proposed the development of explicit settlement strategies that would take the pressure off the largest urban centres and build up smaller towns and cities, while closely integrating them with the rural hinterlands (The Brundtland Commission, 1987). 1 These small towns and rural areas can be a complementary type of human settlement: “one while globally linked and increasingly cosmopolitan, remains more small-scale, more balanced between natural and built environment, more personal, and more responsive to local values and governance” (Afshar, 1998: 376). Recently, the 2nd Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of the 2030 UN Development Agenda pays explicit attention to rural issues. In parti- cular, for instance, target 2.a specifically asks to increase investment in rural infrastructure, including the enhancement of international co- operation (UN, 2015). Additionally, within the European Union (EU) context, the importance of people-centred rural development and pro- motion of sustainable food production systems have been underlined (EUROSTAT, 2016, 2017), while the UN Food and Agriculture Orga- nization FAO (2018) has recently noted that ‘one of the key challenges https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2018.05.005 Received 21 November 2017; Received in revised form 18 April 2018; Accepted 15 May 2018 * Corresponding author. B9-1068 Office, Department of Geography, B Building, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain. E-mail addresses: Ricard.Moren@uab.cat (R. Morén-Alegret), dawid.wladyka@utrgv.edu (D. Wladyka), masalbert@rusc.net (A. Mas-Palacios), fonseca-maria@campus.ul.pt (M.L. Fonseca). 1 This report is one of the publications that paved the way to the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that should be achieved by year 2030. See: https:// sustainabledevelopment.un.org. Journal of Rural Studies xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx 0743-0167/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Morén-Alegret, R., Journal of Rural Studies (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2018.05.005