Determinants of Return Migration: Canadian Professionals in the U. S.

Abstract

Economists now know something about why people migrate. Adequate models have been developed to analyze migration as an investment in human capital and as a result of maximizing behaviour [11]. We still have little to say about a significant portion of geographic mobility, namely return migration.1 And yet, if migration is explainable for example in terms of income differentials, it is clear that people also climb down the income differential ladder and return to their region of origin. Our lack of knowledge in this area becomes more pressing the greater the quantitative and qualitative importance of return migration. Both conditions hold for homeward migration of Canadians in the U.S. Reverse migration of Canadians who migrated to the U.S. has been estimated at anywhere between one in eight to seven in eight, certainly a wide knowledge gap [10, 57]. There also appears to be a tendency for the more highly trained to remain in the U.S.; in other words, the return flow has a lower skill composition [10, 57]. In what follows, we analyze some data on Canadian scientists, engineers and economists in the U.S. to see if any light can be shed on determinants of return migration.