Why Do Immigrants Re-Migrate from One Affluent Country to Another? Immigrants’ Opportunity Structure in Comparative Perspective

Ayumi Takenaka, Bryn Mawr College

This research examines the causes of, and motives for, an emerging type of international migration: secondary migration, or re-migration, from one affluent country to another. Focusing on the secondary migration of West Indians and South Asians from the U.K. to the U.S. in comparison to Latin American and East Asian migratory flows from Japan to the U.S., I attempt to identify the trend of secondary migration in general, and re-migratory flows from the U.K. and Japan to the U.S. in particular. Why do immigrants re-migrate from Japan or U.K. to the U.S. despite the countries’ relatively comparable economic status? Who re-migrates? In this paper I analyze how secondary migration relates to the opportunity structure for immigrants in each country. I hypothesize that the opportunity structure is related to immigrants’ racial/ethnic integration and that second migrants are more likely than primary migrants to be highly skilled and educated.