ABSTRACT
Palaeohora is a plains coastal village in southwest Crete with a population of 1,200 composed of 160 families. Commercial fishing is important, but the port also serves as an entrepot for smaller coastal villages to the east and west of Palaeohora, for Gaudos Island to the southeast, and for the semimountainous to mountainous hinterland of Palaeohora. Examination of village migration patterns by use of a family migration history questionnaire conducted in situ provided an opportunity to evaluate the mobility of an area and the factors of motivation that might explain various migration patterns. Various factors influenced the choice of Palaeohora as the research site. These factors are reflective of situations that are occurring throughout parts of Greece: regional variation in the rural-urban dichotomy of migration patterns, as reflected in the rural migration behavior of Crete; the indication of a trend of altitudinal migration behavior; and the tourism boom that has hit Greece.
