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Title: Income, Cohort Effects, and Occupational Mobility: A New Look at Immigration to the United States at the Turn of the 20th Century

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2000

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Abstract: How did turn-of-the-20th-century immigrants perform in the American economy relative to native-born Americans? This article reassesses this question using data from the 1900 and 1910 American census files. I find in both cross sections that American immigrants perform well in blue-collar and white-collar occupations, with either faster growth in earnings or an outright earnings advantage over native-born Americans in the same occupational sector. Estimates of within-cohort growth reveal that the cross-sectional results do not overstate immigrant progress due to cohort effects. Immigrants also exhibit a high degree of mobility into the well-paid white-collar sector of the American economy, and the progress of the immigrant population as a whole was not slowed by the emergence of the "new" immigration. (C) 2000 Academic Press.

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Authors: Minns, Chris

Periodical (Full): Explorations in Economic History

Issue: 4

Volume: 37

Pages: 326-350

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration

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