ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses attempts made in the post-World War II European labor migration system to use return migration and/or migrants' savings for the development of the countries of outmigration. It offers a few critical observations on the literature concerning the effects of outmigration on sending countries, followed by a few additional general comments on return migration. The best published studies of return migration are based on carefully drawn samples of returned migrants in specific regions of a country, either regions of high outmigration or a country's larger cities. The chapter also discusses some of the lessons learned from the earlier experiments as well as some of the current thinking about returns in Europe. It deals with some observation on the lessons that the earlier developments may have to offer and with a brief discussion of the content of some of the current measures.
