ABSTRACT
Most of the theoretical and empirical literature on migration has paid little attention to the fact that many migrants return to their home countries after having spent a number of years in the host country. This is surprising, since many migrations today are in fact temporary. For instance, labour migrations from Southern to central Europe in the 1950s-1970s were predominantly temporary. Böhning (1984:147) estimates that “more than two thirds of the foreign workers admitted to the Federal Republic [of Germany], and more than four fifth in the case of Switzerland, have returned.” Glytsos (1988) reports that of the 1 million Greeks migrating to West Germany between 1960 and 1984, 85 percent gradually returned home. Dustmann (1996) provides evidence for a substantial outmigration over that period for other European countries. Return migration is also considerable for the United States. Jasso and Rosenzweig (1982) report that between 1908 and 1957 about 15.7 million persons immigrated to the United States and about 4.8 million aliens emigrated. They found that between 20 and 50 percent of legal immigrants (depending on the nationality) reemigrated from the United States in the 1970s. Warren and Peck (1980) estimate that about one-third of legal immigrants to the United States re-emigrated in the 1960s.
