MIGRATION EXPERIENCE AND FAMILY PATTERNS IN THE PROMISED LAND

The relationship between migration experience and family patterns amon g residents of the North and West is examined for three time periods-1 940, 1970, and 1990. In general, an inverse association is observed be tween duration of residence in the North or West and family stability among African Americans. Although selective return migration to the So uth contributes to this association, it can account for only a minor p art of the variation in family patterns by migration history. It is co ncluded that there is no evidence to support previous assumptions that southern migrants carried a dysfunctional family culture with them to the North and West and thereby destabilized the nonsouthern African A merican family. Rather changes indigenous to the North and West were r esponsible, for example, structural changes in the economy or the emer gence of an inner-city ''oppositional culture'' that does nor emphasiz e traditional family patterns or transitions.