Full Citation

Title: Working Their Way Up? US Immigrants' Changing Labor Market Assimilation in the Age of Mass Migration

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2023

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI: DOI: 10.1257/app.20210008

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Abstract: Whether immigrants advance in labor markets during their lifetimes relative to natives is a fundamental question in the economics of immigration. We examine linked census records for five cohorts spanning 1850-1940, when immigration to the United States was at its peak. We find a U-shaped pattern of assimilation: immigrants were "catching up" to natives in the early and later cohorts, but not in between. This change was not due to shifts in immigrants' source countries. Instead, it was rooted in men's early-career occupations, which we associate with structural change, strengthening complementarities, and large immigration waves in the 1840s and 1900s.

Url: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20210008

User Submitted?: Yes

Authors: Zimran, Ariell

Periodical (Full): American Economic Journal: Applied Economics

Issue: 3

Volume: 15

Pages: 238-269

Data Collections: IPUMS USA, IPUMS USA - Ancestry Full Count Data

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration

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