Rust Belt Boomerang: The Pull of Place in Moving Back to a Legacy City

Abstract

Research and journalistic accounts on the Rust Belt consistently focus on population decline and its consequences. As a result, we know little about the growing trend of return migration of young professionals and knowledge workers to the region. Why have these individuals chosen to return to a place that they once left? I answer this question using in–depth interviews with young professionals who have moved back to Youngstown, Ohio. Results indicate that return migrants chose to return despite reporting alternative and perhaps more economically rational work opportunities elsewhere. While some reasons can be anticipated from the literature, such as family need, I emphasize how place–specific considerations worked in combination with economic and social factors to pull them back. Findings hold implications for the literatures on place and return migration and for city planners who believe that return migration presents an opportunity for economic growth of legacy cities.