The thesis aims to study the directions of return migration, characteristics of return migrants and the demographic, social and economic factors influencingreturn migration. The data were drawn from the National Migration Survey, 1992conducted by the Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University. The sample were migrants aged between 15 and 44. The total numbers ofrepresentative sample of 2,103 people includes 1,615 non-return migrants and 888 return migrants. Descriptive and multivariate statistics were employed to analyze factors influencing return migration to the birthplace. The finding reveals that the proportion of male to female return migrants issimilar. Most of the return migrants were aged between 15 and 24 years and hadprimary educational level. More than half of the sample worked in agriculture andhad less than one year’s of residence outside their birthplace. The main stream ofmigration was return migration from Bangkok to the Northeast. Factors influencing return migration are age, education, direction ofmigration, community ties and duration at destination. There is a tendency formigrants to return to their birthplace when they get older. More highly educatedmigrants are less likely to return to their birthplace than lower educated migrants.There is a low tendency of return migration for those who migrate from rural areasto other rural areas, while there is a high tendency of return migration for rural tourban migrants. Moreover, people who have a close relationship with theirbirthplace tend to return to their origin. Migrants who have a short duration livingin the destination tend to migrate back to their origin. The finding indicates that the important factors affecting migrants return totheir birthplace are sex and social roles. For example, female migrants who alwayshave close relationship with their birthplace tend to return to their origin more thanmale migrants. Therefore, there should be promotion of job distribution in ruralareas in order to decrease the emigration of young people to find jobs in both ruralareas and in the cities.