Study objectives were to: compare in-migrants with non-migrants in order to ascertain the migrants' demographic and socioeconomic contributions to rural areas; analyze the patterns of this in-migration to determine the presence and extent of return migration; contrast returned migrants with in-migrants who had no prior residence in the rural area; and examine those portions of return migration characterized as either goal-oriented moves or failure-to-adapt moves. A minor civil division designated rural and experiencing both a declining population and in-migration (northern New York) was examined via survey (99 households) in terms of age, occupational structure, income, education, and size and structure of family residence. Results indicated: migrants and non-migrants differ, the migrants being younger, more often employed, and less often retired; the migration stream was predominantly return migrants; returned migration was the source of the demographic and economic differences between the migrant and non-migrant populations, the returned migrants being less like the native population than the new migrants. Implications were: returned migration constitutes the major type of movement to a declining area; family relations are paramount in counterstream theory; speculation that urban to rural migration is stimulated by a search for alternative life styles is not supported; differences within the return migration stream necessitate a refinement of migration theory incorporating goal-oriented moves and moves resulting from failure to adapt. (JC)