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I've got a coastal town in the book I'm writing that was founded by settlers in the 1800's. Later on in the 30's, 40's and 50's it started to become more of a holiday town and a place for retirees to come and live. The sentence I have is:

Well built white houses mingled with the rustic log cabins, constructions of the ${word} of ${town} rather than the settlers of ${town}.

So basically I'm looking for a word that describes an influx of people, who aren't migrants or "new money", that come to live at a place later after it's original purpose has changed.

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    I think the second/third "wave" of settlers is a common terminology
    – Hot Licks
    Jan 23, 2016 at 3:29

2 Answers 2

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A word I've heard used is newcomers, but note that the parameters for that term can only be defined by those who have been there longer.

I have an example of this word from a story my wife tells. When she was a teenager, she asked her grandmother about a particular family at their church. (My wife and her mother, and her mother's father, through the centuries, had been members of this church from its founding in the late 1700's.) She asked her grandmother, "Are the Smiths [not the real family name] long-time members of Century [not the real name of the church]?" To which her grandmother replied, "Oh, no, they didn't settle here 'til the Civil War. They're newcomers."

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  • I like this one, I think the simple, hardworking settlers would refer to the people just coming to relax and live in the town as newcomers. Jan 25, 2016 at 0:41
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You could call it a later or recent influx.

influx - the arrival of a large number of people

It's a relatively good antonym for exodus, even if it's mixing Greek and Latin.

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