Cultural Assimilation during the Age of Mass Migration / Ran Abramitzky, Leah Platt Boustan, Katherine Eriksson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Abramitzky, Ran.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Boustan, Leah Platt.

Eriksson, Katherine.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w22381.

NBER working paper series no. w22381

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2016.

Summary:

Using two million census records, we document cultural assimilation during the Age of Mass Migration, a formative period in US history. Immigrants chose less foreign names for children as they spent more time in the US, eventually closing half of the gap with natives. Many immigrants also intermarried and learned English. Name-based assimilation was similar by literacy status, and faster for immigrants who were more culturally distant from natives. Cultural assimilation affected the next generation. Within households, brothers with more foreign names completed fewer years of schooling, faced higher unemployment, earned less and were more likely to marry foreign-born spouses.

Notes:

Print version record

July 2016.