Interprovincial return migration in China: individual and contextual determinants in Sichuan province in the 1990s

China's massive volume of and dramatic increase in migration have stimulated increasing research in this area. However, researchers have not paid sufficient attention to return migration until recently when the issue of migrant labor shortage in Southern China has been linked to return migration back to the rural areas. Taking advantage of information contained in the 1995 China 1% Population Sample Survey and the 2000 China Census, this paper provides a systematic analysis of interprovincial return migration to Sichuan province, one of the most important migrant-sending provinces in China. We focus on return migrant selectivity, the impact of local labor-market conditions and migration networks on return migration, and nonfarm work participation among return migrants. Return migration in the late 1990s shows positive selection on education and return migrants are more likely to engage in nonfarm work. The pattern for the early 1990s is just the opposite of what is observed in the late 1990s. Our multilevel models show that labor-market conditions as well as migration networks in destination areas play important roles in the return migration process. Policy implications of this trend of return migration are discussed.