Having relatives in Canada is probably the No.1 reason older people want to return, he said, but health care is the second. And the third is fear about the future of Social Security and their retirement income if they stay in the United States into old age.

Mario Perez, 57, who lived in Pittsburgh for 20 years but moved back to Costa Rica in 2013, said it was more economical to live in Costa Rica, which also has a nationalized health care system.

But Mr. Perez, like almost every immigrant, says he feels the push-pull between his adopted and native countries. He liked living in the United States, where he and his American wife, a professor, raised three children, whom he deeply misses. But a divorce and the needs of his elderly mother in Costa Rica led him to return several years ago. He was also driven by something more intangible related to belonging and status.

“I had a good position in Costa Rica with the telephone company,” he said. “In the United States, I couldn’t get into telecommunications. I was a laborer, a handyman. I feel more a part of something in Costa Rica — more respected.”

Many returning immigrants do not realize how difficult it can be to return to a place they consider home, but where they have not lived for many years.

As the website Expat Exchange noted when writing about repatriating: “Coming home can seem deceptively simple — after all, the culture is familiar. Yet many repatriating families experience a sense of alienation in their own country.”

The ideal, for many immigrants, would be the ability to live six months in the United States and six months in their native country. As Mr. Kurucz said of returning Canadians: “They feel a real love for the U.S. The No.1 question I get, is, ‘Can I keep my Florida retirement condo?’” The answer is yes.