Full Citation

Title: Refugees From Dust and Shrinking Land: Tracking the Dust Bowl Migrants

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2013

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Abstract: We construct longitudinal data from the U.S. Census records to study migration patterns of those affects by the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. We document three principal results. First, inter-county migration rates were much higher in the Dust Bowl than elsewhere in the U.S. This "excessive migration" is due to the fact that individuals who were otherwise unlikely to move (e.g., those who were married, those with young children), were equally likely to move from the Dust Bowl. Second, relative to the other occupational groups, farmers were the least likely to move from the Dust Bowl; this relationship between mobility and occupation was unique to that region. Third, the westward push from the Dust Bowl to California was unexceptional; migrants from the Dust Bowl were no more likely to move to California than migrants from other parts of the U.S.

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Authors: Siu, Henry E.; Long, Jason

Publisher: Wheaton College

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Family and Marriage, Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration, Other

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