Using in-person questionnaires, 553 newcomers and 106 long-term residents were interviewed in late 1979 and early 1980 in 5 small northern California communities to explore the role of newcomers in developing the rural economy, and especially to analyze the resources emigrants bring with them: their skills, education, background, and business and financial resources. The five rural growth communities represented retirement, university/professional, government and public service, tourist, and counterculture communities. The basic theme that emerged was that rural migrants in California represented something substantially new to the state and the nation's traditional economic thinking. Migrants, rather than being attracted by new economic and employment opportunites, were a primary source for creation of jobs and a new type of economic growth. It would seem that rural areas are no longer economically depressed and lacking in the physical and human resources necessary to participation in a growing economy, at least in California. However, most governmental policies continue to be directed toward rural areas as though they suffer serious resource deficiencies. The emerging challenge for policy makers is to fashion policies that take advantage of the growth stimulus that newcomers and growth areas provide, while ensuring that the less advantaged benefit as well. (BRR)