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.