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The Land of Opportunity? Social Class, Returns to Migration, and Occupational Mobility of Swedish Immigrants, 1880–1910

Marcos Castillo

European Review of Economic History2025https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/heaf006article
AJG 3ABDC A
Weight
0.41

Abstract

I study the economic returns to migration among Swedish immigrants in the United States in 1900 and 1910, by social class. Using linked data from full-count Swedish and US censuses via the Swedish Emigrant Register, I first estimate the rates of return to migration using two identification strategies, with the returns exceeding 60 percent, notably higher for migrants from lower social classes. Furthermore, most migrants did not experience substantial occupational upgrade compared to their brothers in Sweden, which suggests that while migration yielded sizeable economic returns, they were primarily due to higher US wages rather than occupational mobility.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/heaf006

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@article{marcos2025,
  title        = {{The Land of Opportunity? Social Class, Returns to Migration, and Occupational Mobility of Swedish Immigrants, 1880–1910}},
  author       = {Marcos Castillo},
  journal      = {European Review of Economic History},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/heaf006},
}

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Evidence weight

0.41

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.25 × 0.4 = 0.10
M · momentum0.55 × 0.15 = 0.08
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.