Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T23:07:12.277Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Age at Arrival and Assimilation During the Age of Mass Migration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2018

Rohan Alexander  and
Zachary Ward
Rohan Alexander
Affiliation:
Ph.D. student, Australian National University - Research School of Economics, HW Arndt Building 25A, College of Business and Economics, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia. E-mail: rohan.alexander@anu.edu.au
Zachary Ward
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Baylor University, One Bear Place 98003, Waco, TX 76798. E-mail: zach.a.ward@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We estimate the effect of age at arrival for immigrant outcomes with a new dataset of arrivals linked to the 1940 U.S. Census. Using within-family variation, we find that arriving at an older age, or having more childhood exposure to the European environment, led to a more negative wage gap relative to the native born. Infant arrivals had a positive wage gap relative to natives, in contrast to a negative gap for teenage arrivals. Therefore, a key determinant of immigrant outcomes during the Age of Mass Migration was the country of residence during critical periods of childhood development.

Type
Article
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 78 , Issue 3 , September 2018 , pp. 904 - 937
Copyright
© 2018 The Economic History Association. All rights reserved. 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

For comments on earlier stages of this project, we thank Tim Hatton, Priti Kalsi, Ed Kosack, Amber McKinney, and seminar participants at La Trobe University. We also thank Bill Collins and two anonymous referees, whose comments substantially improved the article. An earlier version of this article was circulated as “The Paramount Importance of Childhood Environment during the Age of Mass Migration.” We acknowledge financial support from the College of Business and Economics at the Australian National University. We thank Lee Alston for helping us to access the data used in this study.

References

Abramitzky, Ran, and Boustan, Leah. “Immigration in American Economic History.” Journal of Economic Literature 55, no. 4 (2017): 1311–1345.Google Scholar
Abramitzky, Ran, Boustan, Leah, and Eriksson, Katherine. “Europe’s Tired, Poor, Huddled Masses: Self-Selection and Economic Outcomes in the Age of Mass Migration.” American Economic Review 102, no. 5 (2012): 1832–1856.Google Scholar
Abramitzky, Ran, Boustan, Leah, and Eriksson, Katherine. “Have the Poor Always been Less Likely to Migrate? Evidence from Inheritance Practices during the Age of Mass Migration.” Journal of Development Economics 102 (2013): 2–14.Google Scholar
Abramitzky, Ran, Boustan, Leah, and Eriksson, Katherine. “A Nation of Immigrants: Assimilation and Economic Outcomes in the Age of Mass Migration.” Journal of Political Economy 122, no. 3 (2014): 467–506.Google Scholar
Abramitzky, Ran, Boustan, Leah, and Eriksson, Katherine. “Cultural Assimilation during the Age of Mass Migration.” NBER Working Paper No. 22381, Cambridge, MA, July 2016.Google Scholar
Alexander, Rohan, and Ward, Zachary. “Age at Arrival and Assimilation during the Age of Mass Migration.” Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 24 April 2018. http://doi.org/10.3886/E102080V1.Google Scholar
Almond, Douglas, Currie, Janet, and Duque, Valentina. “Childhood Circumstances and Adult Outcomes: Act II.” NBER Working Paper No. 23017, Cambridge, MA, January 2017.Google Scholar
Åslund, Olof, Böhlmark, Anders, and Skans, Oskar Nordström. “Childhood and Family Experiences and the Social Integration of Young Migrants.” Labour Economics 35 (2015): 135–144.Google Scholar
Bailey, Martha, Cole, Connor, Henderson, Morgan, et al. “How Well Do Automated Methods Perform in Historical Samples? Evidence from New Ground Truth.” NBER Working Paper No. 24019, Cambridge, MA, November 2017.Google Scholar
Baines, Dudley. Emigration from Europe 1815–1930. Vol. 11, New Studies in Economic and Social History. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Baker, Michael, and Benjamin, Dwayne. “The Performance of Immigrants in the Canadian Labor Market.” Journal of Labor Economics 12, no. 3 (1994): 369–405.Google Scholar
Bandiera, Oriana, Rasul, Imran, and Viarengo, Martina. “The Making of Modern America: Migratory Flows in the Age of Mass Migration.” Journal of Development Economics 102 (2013): 23–47.Google Scholar
Bandiera, Oriana, Mohnen, Myra, Rasul, Imran, et al. Nation-Building through Compulsory Schooling during the Age of Mass Migration. Economic Organisation and Public Policy Discussion Papers Series No. 057. Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE, 2016.Google Scholar
Biavaschi, Costanza, Giulietti, Corrado, and Siddique, Zahra. “The Economic Payoff of Name Americanization.” Journal of Labor Economics 35, no. 4 (2017): 1089–1116.Google Scholar
Bleakley, Hoyt, and Chin, Aimee. “Language Skills and Earnings: Evidence from Childhood Immigrants.” Review of Economics and Statistics 86, no. 2 (2004): 481–496.Google Scholar
Bleakley, Hoyt, and Chin, Aimee. “Age at Arrival, English Proficiency, and Social Assimilation among U.S. Immigrants.” American Economic Journal. Applied Economics 2, no. 1 (2010): 165–192.Google Scholar
Böhlmark, Anders. “Age at Immigration and School Performance: A Siblings Analysis Using Swedish Register Data.” Labour Economics 15, no. 6 (2008): 1366–1387.Google Scholar
Borjas, George J. “Assimilation, Changes in Cohort Quality, and the Earnings of Immigrants.” Journal of Labor Economics 3, no. 4 (1985): 463–489.Google Scholar
Borjas, George J. “Self-Selection and the Earnings of Immigrants.” American Economic Review (1987): 531–553.Google Scholar
Borjas, George J. “Long-Run Convergence of Ethnic Skill Differentials: The Children and Grandchildren of the Great Migration.” ILR Review 47, no. 4 (1994): 553–573.Google Scholar
Card, David, DiNardo, John, and Estes, Eugena. “The More Things Change: Immigrants and the Children of Immigrants in the 1940s, the 1970s, and the 1990s.” In Issues in the Economics of Immigration, pp. 227–270. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Carneiro, Pedro Manuel, Lee, Sokbae, and Reis, Hugo. “Please Call Me John: Name Choice and the Assimilation of Immigrants in the United States, 1900–1930.” Mimeo, 2015.Google Scholar
Chetty, Raj, Hendren, Nathaniel, and Katz, Lawrence F.. “The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children: New Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment.” American Economic Review 106, no. 4 (2016): 855–902.Google Scholar
Chetty, Raj, and Hendren, Nathaniel. “The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility I: Childhood Exposure Effects.” NBER Working Paper No. 23001, Cambridge, MA, May 2017a.Google Scholar
Chetty, Raj, and Hendren, Nathaniel. “The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility II: County-Level Estimates.” NBER Working Paper No. 23002, Cambridge, MA, December 2017b.Google Scholar
Chiswick, Barry R. “The Effect of Americanization on the Earnings of Foreign-Born Men.” Journal of Political Economy 86, no. 5 (1978): 897–921.Google Scholar
Clarke, Andrew. “Age at Immigration and the Educational Attainment of Foreign ‐Born Children in the United States: The Confounding Effects of Parental Education.” International Migration Review. Forthcoming, 2016.Google Scholar
Clay, Karen, Lingwall, Jeff, and Stephens, Melvin Jr. “Laws, Educational Outcomes, and Returns to Schooling: Evidence from the Full Count 1940 Census.” NBER Working Paper No 22855, Cambridge, MA, November 2016.Google Scholar
Cohn, Raymond L. Mass Migration under Sail: European Immigration to the Antebellum United States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Collins, William J., and Wanamaker, Marianne H.. “Selection and Economic Gains in the Great Migration of African Americans: New Evidence from Linked Census Data.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 6, no. 1 (2014): 220–252.Google Scholar
Collins, William J., and Wanamaker, Marianne H.. “Up from Slavery? African American Intergenerational Economic Mobility since 1880.” NBER Working Paper No. 23395, Cambridge, MA, May 2017.Google Scholar
Cunha, Flavio, Heckman, James J., Lochner, Lance, et al. “Interpreting the Evidence on Life Cycle Skill Formation.” Handbook of the Economics of Education 1 (2006): 697–812.Google Scholar
Cutler, David M., Glaeser, Edward L., and Vigdor, Jacob L.. “Is the Melting Pot Still Hot? Explaining the Resurgence of Immigrant Segregation.” Review of Economics and Statistics 90, no. 3 (2008): 478–497.Google Scholar
Eriksson, Katherine, and Niemesh, Gregory. “Death in the Promised Land: The Great Migration and Black Infant Mortality.” Unpublished Manuscript, 2016.Google Scholar
Feigenbaum, James J. “Automated Census Record Linking: A Machine Learning Approach.” Unpublished Manuscript, 2016.Google Scholar
Friedberg, Rachel M. “The Labor Market Assimilation of Immigrants in the United States: The Role of Age at Arrival.” Unpublished Manuscript, 1992.Google Scholar
Friedberg, Rachel M. “You Can’t Take It With You? Immigrant Assimilation and the Portability of Human Capital.” Journal of Labor Economics 18, no. 2 (2000): 221–251.Google Scholar
Greenwood, Michael J. “Modeling the Age and Age Composition of Late Nineteenth Century U.S. Immigrants from Europe.” Explorations in Economic History 44, no. 2 (2007): 255–269.Google Scholar
Gould, John D. “European International Emigration: The Role of Diffusion and Feedback.” Journal of European Economic History 9, no. 2 (1980): 267–315.Google Scholar
Hatton, Timothy J. “The Immigrant Assimilation Puzzle in Late Nineteenth-Century America.” Journal of Economic History 57, no. 1 (1997): 34–62.Google Scholar
Hatton, Timothy J., and Williamson, Jeffrey G.. The Age of Mass Migration: Causes and Economic Impact. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Higham, John. Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860–1925. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1955.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P. Who Are We?: The Challenges to America’s National Identity. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004.Google Scholar
Hutchinson, Edward P. “Notes on Immigration Statistics of the United States.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 53, no. 284 (1958): 963–1025.Google Scholar
Lindert, Peter H. Growing Public: Social Spending and Economic Growth Since the Eighteenth Century, Volume 1: The Story. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Logan, Trevon D., and Parman, John M.. “The National Rise in Residential Segregation.” Journal of Economic History 77, no. 1 (2017): 127–170.Google Scholar
Massey, Catherine G. “Playing with Matches: An Assessment of Accuracy in Linked Historical Data.” Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History 50, no. 3 (2017): 129–143.Google Scholar
Meng, Xin, and Gregory, Robert G.. “Intermarriage and the Economic Assimilation of Immigrants.” Journal of Labor Economics 23, no. 1 (2005): 135–174.Google Scholar
Minns, Chris. “Income, Cohort Effects, and Occupational Mobility: A New Look At Immigration to the United States at the Turn of the Twentieth Century.” Explorations in Economic History 37, no. 4 (2000): 326–350.Google Scholar
Preston, Samuel H., and Haines, Michael. Fatal Years: Child Mortality in Late Nineteenth-Century America. Cambridge: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1991.Google Scholar
Ruggles, Steven, Genadek, Katie, Goeken, Ronald, et al. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 7.0 [dataset]. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2017. http://doi.org/10.18128/D010.V7.0.Google Scholar
Schaafsma, Joseph, and Sweetman, Arthur. “Immigrant Earnings: Age at Immigration Matters.” Canadian Journal of Economics 34, no. 4 (2001): 1066–1099.Google Scholar
Schoellman, Todd. “Early Childhood Human Capital and Development.” American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 8, no. 3 (2016): 145–174.Google Scholar
Spitzer, Yannay, and Zimran, Ariell. “Migrant Self-Selection: Anthropometric Evidence from the Mass Migration of Italians to the United States, 1907–1925.” Mimeo, 2017.Google Scholar
U.S. Immigration Commission. “The Children of Immigrants in Schools, Vol. 1.” Reports of the Immigration Commission. 61st Cong., 3rd sess. Washington, DC: GPO, 1910.Google Scholar
Van den Berg, Gerard J., Lundborg, Petter, Nystedt, Paul, et al. “Critical Periods during Childhood and Adolescence.” Journal of the European Economic Association 12, no. 6 (2014): 1521–1557.Google Scholar
Walker, Francis A. “Restriction of Immigration.” Atlantic Monthly 77, no. 464 (1896): 822–829.Google Scholar
Ward, Zachary. “Birds of Passage: Return Migration, Self-Selection, and Immigration Quotas.” Explorations in Economic History 64 (2017): 37–52.Google Scholar
Ward, Zachary. “Have Language Skills Always Been So Valuable? The Low Return to English Fluency During the Age of Mass Migration.” Unpublished manuscript, 2018.Google Scholar
Williamson, Jeffrey G. “The Evolution of Global Labor Markets Since 1830: Background Evidence and Hypotheses.” Explorations in Economic History 32, no. 2 (1995): 141–196.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Alexander and Ward supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Alexander and Ward supplementary material(File)
File 217.6 KB