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This article looks at the transformation of the geography of immigration in sparsely populated areas (rural, peri-urban, small towns) in France since the late 1990s, using a multi-dimensional approach. The spatial dynamics of immigration are most of the time studied in a segmented way and according to a single dimension - the geographical origin of individuals in general. To better understand the complexity of the socio-spatial changes of immigration in low-density areas of mainland France, this paper takes into account the variety of individuals' geographic origins as well as their social and demographic characteristics. The results presented are based on the exploitation of 1999 and 2015 detailed census data and an exploratory multivariate analysis method at two levels. First, at the individual level, the analyses show that the profiles of immigrants in sparsely populated areas have changed since the end of the 1990s, on the one hand, by the aging of part of the population from the former waves of labor immigration from Europe and North Africa and, on the other hand, by the emergence of new profiles with more varied geographic origins and social characteristics. Secondly, at the macro level, this research shows that these changes are also spatial in nature, by revealing six major dynamics of the geographical patterns of immigration. Thus, the article contributes to recent work on the diversification of immigration outside of large urban regions and offers new avenues of research for local analyses.

Less studied and documented than in the cities, the presence of foreigners in the French countryside remains more discreet and often unknown today. However, new international migrations are crossing rural areas, thus adding to previous movements. In rural southwestern France, our statistical analysis, based on census data obtained from INSEE and available since 1968, reveal their spatial distribution and the process of social diversification at work. This process has led us to question contemporary rural dynamics through the prism of international migration. Whether the migrants encountered in the framework of the CAMIGRI program surveys act directly in the development of new economic and social initiatives, or contribute to their genesis and development, their presence and their point of settlement significantly interfere with the trajectory and the evolutions of certain characteristic of rural places. In the Vienne, the Dordogne and the Ariège, a cross-analysis of three recent initiatives provides food for thought on the emergence of innovative forms of rural entrepreneurship. These types of entrepreneurship have in common that they are situated in the field of arrival of foreigners in rural areas: either through a specific activity (agriculture), or through the creation of services that allow for integration, accompaniment, emergency or permanent welcome. Thus, the anchoring of foreigners, which is part of the current rural dynamics, can be seen as a real perspective of endogenous development and innovation that enhances rural resources by relying on local territorial configurations.Keywords: international migration, territorial anchorage, entrepreneurship, resource, rural

Less studied and documented than in the cities, the presence of foreigners in the French countryside remains more discreet and often unknown today. However, new international migrations are crossing rural areas, thus adding to previous movements. In rural southwestern France, our statistical analysis, based on census data obtained from INSEE and available since 1968, reveal their spatial distribution and the process of social diversification at work. This process has led us to question contemporary rural dynamics through the prism of international migration. Whether the migrants encountered in the framework of the CAMIGRI program surveys act directly in the development of new economic and social initiatives, or contribute to their genesis and development, their presence and their point of settlement significantly interfere with the trajectory and the evolutions of certain characteristic of rural places. In the Vienne, the Dordogne and the Ariège, a cross-analysis of three recent initiatives provides food for thought on the emergence of innovative forms of rural entrepreneurship. These types of entrepreneurship have in common that they are situated in the field of arrival of foreigners in rural areas: either through a specific activity (agriculture), or through the creation of services that allow for integration, accompaniment, emergency or permanent welcome. Thus, the anchoring of foreigners, which is part of the current rural dynamics, can be seen as a real perspective of endogenous development and innovation that enhances rural resources by relying on local territorial configurations.

The Byzantine writer Johannes Zonaras is the author of a universal history, the title of which is Epitome. One of its main sources is Cassius Dio’s Roman History. This paper focuses on some hitherto neglected passages in the preface of the Epitome having possibly been excerpted by Zonaras from the lost preface of the Roman History.