ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the manner in which the Jamaican history of emigration can influence the behaviour of migrants upon return to their home society. It focuses upon the idea that return migrants can, given favourable conditions, significantly affect the course of regional or national development. The data upon which the analysis of return migration is based were collected during a survey of manufacturing, retail and financial premises in the Kingston Metropolitan Area (KMA) between June 1983 and January 1984. Firstly, from this survey it would seem that emigrants who return for urban employment in Kingston enter industrial sectors at the forefront of Jamaica's modern economic development strategy. Secondly, it would seem that the traditional prestige attached to foreign experience, and in particular to a foreign education, may give skilled returnees such as those detected by this survey an edge over their domestic counterparts in the field of job competition.
