The California rebound effect: An analysis of California's redistributive role in interstate migration

Abstract

California has historically been the primary geographic focus of westward migration in the United States. Trends of the 1960 and 1970s indicate that California's role in interstate migration is changing to that of a redistributor of population. In net terms, California is attracting in-migrants from the traditional core region of the Northeast and Midwest, and distributing population throughout the peripheral West. The emergence and development of these trends from 1935 to 1980 are analyzed through the demographic effectiveness of migration, a singly-constrained gravity model, and reverse gravity model mapping of relative interstate distances from California. International and historical interstate migration to California are also reviewed, as well as recent data on interstate migration during the 1980s. The phenomenon of California's redistributive role in interstate migration is discussed in relation to spatial shifts in economic and social functions, the role of search space, and a changing geographic ideal.