Working Their Way Up? US Immigrants’ Changing Labor Market Assimilation in the Age of Mass Migration
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics · 2023 · William Collins、Ariell Zimran
中文摘要
相对于本地出生者，移民能否在其一生中实现劳动力市场地位的提升，是移民经济学中的一个基本问题。我们考察了跨期链接的人口普查记录，涵盖1850—1940年美国移民规模处于顶峰时期的五个移民队列。我们发现，同化呈U形模式：在早期和后期队列中，移民正在“追赶”本地出生者，但在中间队列中并非如此。这一变化并非源于移民来源国的变动，而是根植于男性职业生涯早期所从事的职业；我们认为，这些职业与结构性变迁、互补性的增强以及19世纪40年代和20世纪初的大规模移民浪潮有关。（JEL J15, J24, J61, J82, N31, N32）
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. (JEL J15, J24, J61, J82, N31, N32)