Angst over youth outmigration emerges in Alaska campaign rhetoric and debates

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Angst over youth outmigration emerges in Alaska campaign rhetoric and debates
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For nine straight years, more people have left Alaska than moved here. It's the state's longest stretch of net outmigration since World War II. Those demographic trends have been invoked in campaign rhetoric and some finger-pointing. (via AlaskaBeacon)

Steller Secondary School seniors gather in the sunshine outside their school on Oct. 27. From left are Pauline Mallari, Samantha Antonio and Zane Barber, all bound for college. They all enjoy the Alaska outdoors lifestyle, but they all expressed lack of confidence in Alaska as a place for young people to build careers. Demographic data shows that young adults are leaving Alaska, contributing to nine straight years of net outmigration.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Les Gara frequently points out that the state has seen about 20,000 more people than move here over Dunleavy’s term in office. “One-third of our young people are leaving. You have to ask yourselves why,” Gara said at an Anchorage Chamber of Commerce candidate forum on Oct. 17. “We’re losing students, we’re losing young people for the exact policies that this governor has tried to push. They don’t see a future in this state.

“We’re seeing our traditional Alaskans move out of the state, and we’re trying to prop up new industries that Alaskans don’t support,” Scott Clayton, a Republican state Senate candidate, said at an Oct. 18 forum held by the Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce.They show that Alaska’s population has slipped from 742,876 in 2016 to 734,823 in 2021, a result of combined factors that include lower birth rates as well as outmigration.

“There’s just better employment opportunities elsewhere. There’s more to do,” Barber said. In Alaska, “What are people going to do? Oil? Fishing?”

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