Working Their Way Up? US Immigrants' Changing Labor Market Assimilation in the Age of Mass Migration

William J. Collins and Ariell Zimran

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2023, vol. 15, issue 3, 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.

JEL-codes: J15 J24 J61 J82 N31 N32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1257/app.20210008

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