Dorpen, Heede, Neulehe, and Wippingen. Few people have ever heard of them.
But the small German villages near the Dutch border in the Emsland district have policy experts scratching their heads.
Unlike almost every other village in the EU, young people actually want to live there.
The average age in these villages hovers around 40, another anomaly when compared to other places where old people far outnumber the young.
Werlte, a larger town nearby of some 9,900, has an...
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Nikolaj joined EUobserver in 2012 and covers home affairs. He is originally from Denmark, but spent much of his life in France and in Belgium. He was awarded the King Baudouin Foundation grant for investigative journalism in 2010.