scholarly journals The Great Migration in Black and White: New Evidence on the Selection and Sorting of Southern Migrants

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Collins ◽  
Marianne Wanamaker
Keyword(s):  
Great Migration ◽  
Black And White ◽  
The Great Migration ◽  
Southern Migrants ◽  
New Evidence

scholarly journals The Great Migration in Black and White: New Evidence on the Selection and Sorting of Southern Migrants

2015 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 947-992 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Collins ◽  
Marianne H. Wanamaker
Keyword(s):  
Racial Differences ◽  
Labor Demand ◽  
Great Migration ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Initial Location ◽  
Destination Choices ◽  
Internal Migrants ◽  
The Great Migration ◽  
Southern Migrants ◽  
New Evidence

We construct datasets of linked census records to study internal migrants' selection and destination choices during the first decades of the “Great Migration” (1910–1930). We study both whites and blacks and intra- and inter-regional migration. While there is some evidence of positive selection, the degree of selection was small and participation in migration was widespread. Differences in background, including initial location, cannot account for racial differences in destination choices. Blacks and whites were similarly responsive to pre-existing migrant stocks from their home state, but black men were more deterred by distance, attracted to manufacturing, and responsive to labor demand.

Women in the Great Migration

2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 413-455
Author(s):  
Katherine J. Curtis White
Keyword(s):  
Labor Force ◽  
Racial Differences ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Great Migration ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Black Migrants ◽  
The Great Migration ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Southern Migrants

Using data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), this analysis examines the economic activity of black and white southern-born female migrants participating in the Great Migration. Labor force participation and occupational SEI scores are investigated with specific focus on racial differences within and between migrant groups. Black migrants had a higher probability of participating in the labor force, yet their employment was concentrated among the lower SEI occupations throughout the period. Racial differences also were observed among the influence of personal, household, and location characteristics on economic activity such that the positive associations were less pronounced, while the negative impacts were differentially felt among black migrant women; education was less beneficial, and the deterring effects of marital status were less pronounced for black migrants. Racial differences narrowed at the end of the Great Migration for the southern migrants, reflecting a pattern most similar to nonmigrant northerners and more advantageous than that observed for nonmigrant southern women.

Occupational Status of Immigrants and African Americans at the Beginning and End of the Great Migration

2003 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. Adelman ◽  
Stewart E. Tolnay
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Occupational Status ◽  
Female Employment ◽  
Great Migration ◽  
Racial And Ethnic Differences ◽  
The Great Migration ◽  
American Society ◽  
Southern Migrants

This analysis utilizes data from the 1920 and 1970 Public Use Microdata Samples to examine the occupational status of immigrants and native-born blacks and whites in northern urban areas at the beginning and end of the Great Migration. In general, for both time periods we find that native-born black men, southern migrants and native northerners alike, fared worse than immigrants in terms of average SEI and level of white-collar employment. Further, we find that in 1920 southern-born and northern-born black women were more likely to be in the labor force and, when in the labor force, more likely to be employed in service occupations than were immigrant women. By 1970 the racial and ethnic differences in female employment patterns had grown considerably weaker. These findings suggest that immigrants from a range of countries made faster occupational progress than blacks throughout the Great Migration, despite important social and economic gains for blacks during the period. The evidence points toward a racially and ethnically defined occupational queue that left blacks at the bottom throughout these fifty years and helped to ensure their generally disadvantaged position in American society.

scholarly journals Creating the Black Ghetto

2015 ◽  
Vol 660 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Logan ◽  
Weiwei Zhang ◽  
Richard Turner ◽  
Allison Shertzer
Keyword(s):  
Great Migration ◽  
Residential Patterns ◽  
Census Tracts ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Black Ghetto ◽  
Period 1880 ◽  
Northern Cities ◽  
The Great Migration ◽  
Black Populations

Were black ghettos a product of white reaction to the Great Migration in the 1920s and 1930s, or did the ghettoization process have earlier roots? This article takes advantage of recently available data on black and white residential patterns in several major northern cities in the period 1880–1940. Using geographic areas smaller than contemporary census tracts, we trace the growth of black populations in each city and trends in the level of isolation and segregation. In addition we analyze the determinants of location: which blacks lived in neighborhoods with higher black concentrations, and what does this tell us about the ghettoization process? We find that the development of ghettos in an embryonic form was well underway in 1880, that segregation became intense prior to the Great Migration, and that in this whole period blacks were segregated based on race rather than class or southern origin.

scholarly journals Selection and Economic Gains in the Great Migration of African Americans: New Evidence from Linked Census Data

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 220-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Collins ◽  
Marianne H. Wanamaker
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
World War I ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Great Migration ◽  
World War ◽  
Us South ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Great Migration ◽  
New Evidence

The onset of World War I spurred the “Great Migration” of African Americans from the US South, arguably the most important internal migration in US history. We create a new panel dataset of more than 5,000 men matched from the 1910 to 1930 census manuscripts to address three interconnected questions: To what extent was there selection into migration? How large were the migrants’ gains? Did migration narrow the racial gap in economic status? We find evidence of positive selection, but the migrants’ gains were large. A substantial amount of black-white convergence in this period is attributable to migration. (JEL J15, J61, N32, N92, R23)

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