ERIC Number: EJ684098
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2004-Dec
Pages: 19
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0036-0112
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Available Date: N/A
Return Migrations of African-Americans to the South: Reclaiming a Land of Promise, Going Home, or Both?
Falk, William F.; Hunt, Larry L.; Hunt, Matthew O.
Rural Sociology, v69 n4 p490-509 Dec 2004
Using samples of census data from the university of Minnesota Population Center's "Integrated Public Use Microdata Series" (IPUMS), we describe trends in African-American migration to the South across recent decades, and explore the applicability of the concept of "return migration" to various demographic patterns. Our findings suggest that the return movement contains multiple migration streams involving African-Americans of higher socio-economic status (compared with both origin and destination populations) moving to both urban and rural destinations. These patterns represent clear differences from the earlier 20th century's "Great Migration" of African Americans from South to North. The recent return migration streams suggest that the South may be replacing the North as a "land of promise" for some upwardly mobile African Americans, and may also reflect what Carol Stack (1996) has termed a "call to home" as a motivating factor shaping recent African American migration to the rural South.
Descriptors: African Americans, Migration Patterns, Migration, Socioeconomic Status, Census Figures, Rural Areas, Geographic Location
Rural Sociological Society, 104 Gentry Hall, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211-7040. Tel: 573-882-9065; Fax: 573-882-1473; e-mail: ruralsoc@missouri.edu.
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Adult Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A