RETIREMENT MIGRATION AND THE USE OF SERVICES IN NONMETROPOLITAN COUNTIES

A conceptual framework of need, enabling, and predisposing determinant s of services utilization is employed in an analysis of the use of pub lic services among recent inmigrants (N = 306) and longer-term residen ts (N = 323) age 60 and older in retirement-destination counties of th e Middle-Atlantic region of the United States. Logistic regression is used to examine whether migration status affects use of an array of pu blic services or whether migration transmits the effects of other sele ctivity factors such as age, gender, income, and health status as indi cators of need, enabling, and predisposing characteristics. Being an i nmigrant predisposes use of recreation-oriented public services regard less of selectivity, but other characteristics of older individuals ra ther than migration per se predict use of other public services.