Migration and Return Migration: A New Look at the Eastern Kentucky Migration Stream

Abstract
Most studies of the economics of migration have implicitly assumed that migratory streams are homogeneous. However, migratory streams from one region to another consist of two distinct streams: a stream of first-time migrants and a stream of return migrants moving back to their area of origin. In fact, a substantial proportion of all U.S. migration is return migration, 14 percent from 1955 to 1960. Moreover, in states with histories of substantial out-migration, an even greater proportion of in-migrants are returnees, 35.4 percent between 1955 and 1960. Yet, economists have largely ignored return migration in their attempts to explain changes in the labor force.

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