Abstract
Despite its social and geographical importance, return migration has not been properly considered in demographic research, probably due to the difficulty involved in defining and measuring it. However, it has been analysed since the 1950s with respect to returnees' features and their consequences and impacts. In Spain, the tradition of studying return has appeared intermittently in recent decades, in spite of the strong emigratory flows in the 1960s and 1970s. Now the phenomenon can be addressed from a coherent perspective by using the Residential Variation Statistics to define several types of return, depending on the place to which the emigrants return. This paper uses this information to conduct an in‐depth analysis of return migration in Andalusia in recent years in order to discover the importance of return in general and at the municipal level, the significance of return from outside and inside Andalusia, and the characteristics of the migrant population in comparison with the native population. The analysis is completed with an assessment of the conditions that prompted Andalusians to emigrate and how Andalusian municipalities are being affected by return at present. Finally, the paper seeks to gain further insight into return by using qualitative methods to appraise the importance of emigrants' reasons when they decide to return to Andalusia. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.