Boomerangs: Welcome home

Published online on Sunday, May. 25, 2008

Boomerang Kids. They return home. They are a generation who left their families and places where they grew up and now come back like a boomerang.

But what does this mean for the Valley? For decades, people lamented the brain drain, the talented and most promising left for education, opportunity and career. Now more and more seem to be returning. For our communities, what impact will their return make?

Some have returned because it's cheap to live in the Valley. An apartment or house can be easily half the cost compared with the San Francisco Bay Area.

Others save more by moving back with family, prompting some financial planners to introduce programs to keep parents on track with their retirement goals. (An insurance company posted this recent article: "Adult Children Moving Back Home: Don't Let Boomerang Kids Derail Your Goals"). So some may be returning as a modern type of economic refugee. But do they want to be here?

However, while many are returning, they are not necessarily moving back home to live with family. I incorrectly had an image of a "loser guy" still living with his parents -- an adult son who becomes a slob, sitting at home, playing video games all day, unmotivated to look for a job. Recent statistics prove otherwise. Young males living with their parents peaked in the late 1990s and have been constant since 2002. (It's difficult to convince a parent trying to cope with a boomerang kid that this is temporary and not widespread).

As members of a new generation return to the Valley, I hope they want to make this region a better place. They are coming back not as failures, but rather because they've chosen to. It may not be solely about personal economics, but about something else.

In addition, literally another generation is also trickling back. These boomerangs include those who return to take care of parents or siblings. They're older, retired or semi-retired and bring with them the asset of time. What difference will they make?

Do boomerangs become change agents? Are they pioneers or early innovators, bringing fresh ideas and perspectives along with the energy and will to create something different? Will they become impatient with many in the Valley who do not support change? And how do they respond to such roadblocks? Will they welcome resistance?

Boomerangs are privileged. They had the resources to leave. Often educated and armed with job skills and experience, they bring valuable human capital to our Valley. They may see their return as part of a personal journey back to family. I hope they recognize the social meaning and context of their homecoming. With boomerangs, the Valley gains invaluable social capital: the new and creative webs of relationships that can empower a community.

They may bring the best of both worlds -- native competency, knowing how things have been done here in the past, coupled with new outside networks of relationships. In my own world of farming, some of the most innovative thinking came from the outside, such as rethinking the meaning of good food and how organics fits into the environment and the marketplace.

Social capital translates into increased productivity not only in terms of economics but also cultural and community life. Do new thinkers help us redefine downtown Fresno or how art fits into small towns? As the Latino population increases in California, can a new generation of boomerangs also become the new influencers and decision makers in our public-policy arena?