Return immigration: the chronic migration of Canadian immigrants, 1991, 1996 and 2001

Abstract Recognizing that immigration is not a one‐time event, the international migration literature has acknowledged return emigration as one option. Typically, international return migrations are evaluated as returns to a country of birth, although they may also involve returns to the host country following a brief sojourn or period outside. However, this form of ‘return’ immigration has received limited attention. Using data drawn from the 1991, 1996 and 2001 Canadian censuses, we examine return immigration, defined here as the immigration act of foreign‐born residents of Canada who have temporarily emigrated from Canada and who subsequently return to Canada. Firstly, we describe the volume and characteristics of Canadian immigrants who undertake return immigration. Secondly, we examine the likelihood of immigrants to undertake a return immigration given their socio‐economic and demographic characteristics. Understanding such return immigrations is one way to an understanding of Canada's attractiveness and ability to retain immigrants. In general, we found the characteristics of return immigrants conformed to general migration theories and the domestic return migration literature. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.