Japanese American ethnic return migration across the generations

Researchers have yet to systematically analyze internal differences among specific ethnic return migrant groups, especially in terms of generational distance from the ancestral homeland. This paper will examine differences in the ethnic return migration experiences of Japanese Americans from the second to the fourth generation. I argue that the amount of ethnic return and level of homeland immersion do not naturally decline across the generations in a unilinear manner because of increasing cultural assimilation and social incorporation into mainstream American society. Instead of following such predictable patterns, the level of homeland engagement of different generations of Japanese Americans is much more complicated and contingent and also depends on their specific historical and contemporary ethnic experiences.