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Title: Occupational Status of Immigrants and African Americans at the Beginning and End of the Great Migration

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2003

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Abstract: This analysis utilizes data from the 1920 and 1970 Public Use Microdata Samples to examine the occupational status of immigrants and native-born blacks and whites in northern urban areas at the beginning and end of the Great Migration. In general, for both time periods we find that native-born black men, southern migrants and native northerners alike, fared worse than immigrants in terms of average SEI and level of white-collar employment. Further, we find that in 1920 southern-born and northern-born black women were more likely to be in the labor force and, when in the labor force, more likely to be employed in service occupations than were immigrant women. By 1970 the racial and ethnic differences in female employment patterns had grown considerably weaker. These findings suggest that immigrants from a range of countries made faster occupational progress than blacks throughout the Great Migration, despite important social and economic gains for blacks during the period. The evidence points toward a racially and ethnically defined occupational queue that left blacks at the bottom throughout these fifty years and helped to ensure their generally disadvantaged position in American society.

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Authors: Adelman, Robert M.; Tolnay, Stewart E.

Periodical (Full): Sociological Perspectives

Issue: 2

Volume: 46

Pages: 179-206

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration, Race and Ethnicity

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