ABSTRACT
Migration research has concentrated on the causes and the process of the initial move to urban areas, migrant adjustment at places of destination, and the analysis of overall migration streams without any breakdown of different types of movement. The number and proportion of return migrants may continue to increase in the future since the population 'at risk' of returning will be further enlarged through the process of continuous cumulation of rural to urban migrants. This is particularly true in countries like Korea where more than half of the population growth in the urban areas has been attributed to migration. Data from the 1970 Korean Census allow to examine types of migration for urban and rural populations and selected aspects of urban to rural return migration. Of prime interest in study of determinants of return migration is the differential socioeconomic status and other characteristics of return migrants and non-return migrants at the time migrants leave the city to return home.
