Immigration quotas, World War I, and emigrant flows from the United States in the early 20th century

Michael J. Greenwood and Zachary Ward

Explorations in Economic History, 2015, vol. 55, issue C, 76-96

Abstract: Little is known about international return migration because governments rarely track out-migrants. However, one exception occurred early in the 20th century when the United States kept records of emigrants. Using within-country changes in quota allocations in 1921, 1924, and 1929 in combination with 1908–1932 data on specific countries of intended destination of the emigrants, we estimate the effect of quotas on (1) out-migration rates, (2) emigration across skill groups, and (3) the duration of temporary migrants' stays in the U.S. Higher quota restrictions reduced emigration rates, mostly for unskilled laborers and farmers. Higher quota restrictions also increased duration of stay, as the share of migrants staying less than 5years fell and the share staying 5 to 10years rose. Return migration behavior was also associated with changes in previous immigrant cohort's networks and savings. Return migration rates were also low during World War I, and more significant population losses from the War in home countries discouraged return migration. Finally, out-migration of German migrants increased substantially during the 1920s.

Keywords: Emigration; Return migration; World War I; Immigration quotas (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J61 J68 N3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:exehis:v:55:y:2015:i:c:p:76-96

DOI: 10.1016/j.eeh.2014.05.001

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