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

Greenwood, Michael J.; Ward, Zachary

doi:10.1016/j.eeh.2014.05.001

Cited by 45 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…This idea is very e¤ectively summarized in a 1921 statement by Irving Fisher, who argued that "If we could leave out of account the question of race and eugenics...I should, as an economist, be inclined to the view that unrestricted immigration...is economically advantageous...the core of the problem of immigration is...one of race and eugenics" (Leonard, 2005). On a similar vein, in 1896, the …rst president of the American Economic Association, Francis A. Walker, claimed that the American standard of living and the quality of American citizenship had to be protected "from degradation through the tumultuous access of vast throngs of ignorant and brutalized peasantry from the countries of Eastern and Southern Europe" (Greenwood and Ward, 2015). 11 Anti-immigration sentiments were most often directed towards two groups.…”

Section: Immigration and Natives'backlashmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gifts of the Immigrants, Woes of the Natives: Lessons from the Age of Mass Migration

Tabellini¹

2019

The Review of Economic Studies

261

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In this article, I jointly investigate the political and the economic effects of immigration, and study the causes of anti-immigrant sentiments. I exploit exogenous variation in European immigration to U.S. cities between 1910 and 1930 induced by World War I and the Immigration Acts of the 1920s, and instrument immigrants’ location decision relying on pre-existing settlement patterns. I find that immigration triggered hostile political reactions, such as the election of more conservative legislators, higher support for anti-immigration legislation, and lower redistribution. Exploring the causes of natives’ backlash, I document that immigration increased natives’ employment, spurred industrial production, and did not generate losses even among natives working in highly exposed sectors. These findings suggest that opposition to immigration was unlikely to have economic roots. Instead, I provide evidence that natives’ political discontent was increasing in the cultural differences between immigrants and natives. Results in this article indicate that, even when diversity is economically beneficial, it may nonetheless be socially hard to manage.

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Section: Immigration and Natives'backlashmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bartik instruments: What, when, why, and how. Working paper, National Bureau of Economic Research Greenwood, M. J. and Z. Ward (2015)…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gifts of the Immigrants, Woes of the Natives: Lessons from the Age of Mass Migration

Tabellini¹

2019

The Review of Economic Studies

261

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“…Specific immigrant groups, including Jewish refugees during World War II and Eastern Europeans allowed entry by the Refugee Relief Act of 1953 contributed to this shift in migrant selection (Blum and Rei, 2015). The imposition of quotas also reduced the phenomenon of temporary migration, especially among unskilled and agricultural workers (Greenwood and Ward, 2014). An exception is the temporary migration of over four million Mexican farm laborers authorized by the Bracero program (1942-1964) (Massey and Liang, 1989).…”

Section: Immigration Regimes In Us Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Immigration in American Economic History

Abramitzky

Boustan

2017

Journal of Economic Literature

247

150

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The United States has long been perceived as a land of opportunity for immigrants. Yet, both in the past and today, US natives have expressed concern that immigrants fail to integrate into US society and lower wages for existing workers. This paper reviews the literatures on historical and contemporary migrant flows, yielding new insights on migrant selection, assimilation of immigrants into US economy and society, and the effect of immigration on the labor market.

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Section: Immigration and Natives'backlashmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gifts of the Immigrants, Woes of the Natives: Lessons from the Age of Mass Migration

Tabellini¹

2018

SSRN Journal

145

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In this paper, I show that political opposition to immigration can arise even when immigrants bring signi…cant economic prosperity to receiving areas. I exploit exogenous variation in European immigration to US cities between 1910 and 1930 induced by World War I and the Immigration Acts of the 1920s, and instrument immigrants' location decision relying on pre-existing settlement patterns. Immigration increased natives' employment and occupational standing, and fostered industrial production and capital utilization. However, despite these economic bene…ts, it triggered hostile political reactions, such as the election of more conservative legislators, higher support for anti-immigration legislation, and lower public goods provision. Stitching the economic and the political results together, I provide evidence that natives'backlash was, at least in part, due to cultural di¤erences between immigrants and natives, suggesting that diversity might be economically bene…cial but politically hard to manage.

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

Cited by 45 publications

References 28 publications

Gifts of the Immigrants, Woes of the Natives: Lessons from the Age of Mass Migration

Gifts of the Immigrants, Woes of the Natives: Lessons from the Age of Mass Migration

Immigration in American Economic History

Gifts of the Immigrants, Woes of the Natives: Lessons from the Age of Mass Migration

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