Propensities for return migration for race/ethnic groups across nonmetropolitan and metropolitan counties

Leaving a community is generally a difficult undertaking for a family or individual. Yet five percent or 15 million Americans leave one county to live in another yearly (http://www.census.gov.) Prior research has shown that repeat migration makes up a large share of these migrations. Although a rich body of research emerged on repeat migration (Goldstein 1952; DaVanzo and Morrison 1981) little recent research has built on this important area of migration investigation. DaVanzo and Morrison (1981) distinguished between two forms of repeat migration, return and onward respectively. Onward migration entails movement to a community in which the migrant had not previously lived whereas return migration involves going back to a prior place of residence. This research focuses on return migration. We are above all interested in comparing propensities of return migration for Hispanics, Blacks and non-Hispanic White. Comparisons of the repeat migration of these groups are lacking, particularly with panel data.