Regional differences in the characteristics of elderly return migrants.

We examined return migrants age 60+ and argue from a regional analysis of their population characteristics that they fall into two primary types of movers: provincial return migrants and counterstream return migrants. When profiled as a whole, using 1980 census microdata, return migrants are older and more residentially dependent than nonreturn migrants. However, when regional variations are considered, this generalization breaks down. Perhaps return to one's state of birth is overemphasized in discussions of counterstream migration. Provincial return migration seems strongest in the South, with an interesting racial twist, and counterstream return migration seems strongest in the Northeast. Conceivably it is not a return to one's state of birth that is at issue among counterstream migrants, but rather a return from a Sunbelt retirement move to an earlier place of residence, regardless of whether one was born there.