Full Citation
Title: Second-Generation Outcomes of the Great Migration
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2017
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Abstract: The mass migration of African Americans out of the South during the first two-thirds of the twentieth century represents one of the most significant internal migration flows in U.S. history. Those undertaking the Great Migration left the South in search of a better life, and their move transformed the cultural, social, and political dynamics of African American life specifically and U.S. society more generally. Recent research offers conflicting evidence regarding the migrants’ success in translating their geographic mobility into economic mobility. Due in part to the lack of a large body of longitudinal data, almost all studies of the Great Migration have focused on the migrants themselves, usually over short periods of their working lives. Using longitudinally linked census data, we take a broader view, investigating the long-term economic and social effects of the Great Migration on the migrants’ children. Our results reveal modest but statistically significant advantages in education, income, and poverty status for the African American children of the Great Migration relative to the children of southerners who remained in the South. In contrast, second-generation white migrants experienced few benefits from migrating relative to southern or northern stayers.
Url: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13524-017-0625-8
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Authors: Alexander, J. Trent; Leibbrand, Christine; Massey, Catherine; Tolnay, Stewart
Periodical (Full): Demography
Issue: 6
Volume: 54
Pages: 2249-2271
Data Collections: IPUMS USA - Ancestry Full Count Data
Topics: Family and Marriage, Migration and Immigration, Poverty and Welfare, Race and Ethnicity
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