Concern is expressed about the demise of rural communities resulting from processes of out-migration of young people and in-migration of newcomers. Youth out-migration is the result of a combination of structural and motivational factors. Here the relationship between agency and structure in explaining migration behaviour is explored through the study of one factor: the development of socio-spatial identities in youth. This is of interest not only as a facet of identity construction in childhood and youth, the product of an internal–external dialectic, but also because it appears to represent, alongside structural factors such as local disadvantage, an important but under-recognised factor influencing migration or staying-on decisions among young people brought up in rural communities. Here, the construction of socio-spatial identities, the respective roles of the community and the individual in processes of inclusion and exclusion, inter-generational processes of social reproduction and, finally, the relationship between identity and migration behaviour are explored through the accounts of young people from the Scottish Borders.