ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the social and economic consequences of return migration in rural Newfoundland. In assessing the return migrants' impact three areas are examined: the introduction of new work skills; the investments migrants make with their repatriated earnings; and the role migrants play in introducing new ideas into their home communities. Two distinct socio-economic sectors can be identified in Newfoundland: one traditional, the other modern. Both out-migration and return migration in Newfoundland are linked to this socio-economic dichotomy between the province's rural and urban sectors. In Newfoundland, as in other underdeveloped societies, a large proportion of emigrants are unskilled and poorly educated when they leave home. Some proponents of emigration argue, however, that during their stay abroad many emigrants acquire industrial work skills and training, that, for migrants who eventually return home, contribute to economic development and modernisation of their underdeveloped homelands. The chapter provides a sample survey of 420 return migrants, interviewed in the summer of 1979.
