Back to the City: Internal Return Migration to Metropolitan Regions in Sweden

Abstract

Longitudinal microdata on the Swedish population, 1990–2006, are used to examine the numbers and characteristics of internal return migrants, emphasizing Sweden's three largest cities. Our study indicates that metropolitan regions are gaining population from net return migration, which thus carries people in the same direction as does most internal migration. Evidence also indicates that returnees to metropolitan regions are more likely to stay permanently than are migrants returning elsewhere. Furthermore, return migrants to metropolitan regions are distinguished from other return migrants in ways that emphasize the advantages of these regions, higher incomes and levels of education being among the pronounced attributes. However, metro-bound returnees do not have as many children as do other return migrants.