Reciprocal migration : a Mediterranean example

Abstract

The theoretical background to the study of migration can in most cases be placed at the door of Ravenstein and his laws of migration. One of his laws said that: 'Each main current of migration produces a compensating counter-current'. It is an aspect of this law that I am going to explore in this paper. His terms have changed with time and now the key words are stream and counterstream. That streams of migrations happen is a common observation, and can be demonstrated by the local examples of Maltese emigration to Australia, Canada, the United States and Britain. The counter-stream can take various forms. Thus there is mainly the return of migrants who for some reason decide that opportunities are now better at home. The term 'returned migrants' is commonly used to describe this and these can include the children of returning mi- grants and migrants proper. By migrant in this paper I mean one who intended to settle permanently and has in most cases official permission to do so.