Abstract

During the Age of Mass Migration, the US maintained open borders and absorbed 30 million European immigrants. Using cross-sectional data, prior work on this era finds that immigrants held lower-paid occupations than natives upon first arrival but experienced rapid convergence. In newly-assembled panel data following immigrants over time, the initial immigrant earnings penalty disappears almost entirely, and immigrants experience occupational upgrading at the same rate as natives. Cross-sectional patterns are driven by declines over time in arrival cohort quality and the departure of negatively-selected return migrants. We show that these findings vary substantially across sending countries and explore potential mechanisms

Reference

Leah Boustan (University of California), “A Nation of Immigrants: Assimilation and Economic Outcomes in the Age of Mass Migration”, IAST General Seminar, Toulouse: IAST, December 13, 2012, 15:30–16:30, room MF323.