Working Their Way Up? US Immigrants' Changing Labor Market Assimilation in the Age of Mass Migration
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 15,
no. 3, July 2023
(pp. 238-69)
Abstract
Whether immigrants advance in labor markets during their life- times 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.Citation
Collins, William J., and Ariell Zimran. 2023. "Working Their Way Up? US Immigrants' Changing Labor Market Assimilation in the Age of Mass Migration." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 15 (3): 238-69. DOI: 10.1257/app.20210008Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
- J61 Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
- J82 Labor Standards: Labor Force Composition
- N31 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
- N32 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: U.S.; Canada: 1913-
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