Moving Out but Not Up: Economic Outcomes in the Great Migration

Abstract

The migration of millions of southerners out of the South between 1910 and 1970 is largely attributed to economic and social push factors in the South, combined with pull factors in other regions of the country. Researchers generally find that participants in this migration were positively selected from their region of origin, in terms of educational attainment and urban status, and that they fared relatively well in their destinations. To fully measure the migrants’ success, however, a comparison with those who remained in the South is necessary. This article uses data from the U.S. Census to compare migrants who left the South with their southern contemporaries who stayed behind, both those who moved within the South and the sedentary population. The findings indicate that migrants who left the South did not benefit appreciably in terms of employment status, income, or occupational status. In fact, inter-regional migrants often fared worse than did southerners who moved within the South or those who remained sedentary. These results contradict conventional wisdom regarding the benefits of exiting the South and suggest the need for a revisionist interpretation of the experiences of those who left.

The “Dream of Black Metropolis” in the Early Twentieth-Century United States: Racial Segregation, Regional Location, and Black Population Size

“…Yet, the results do accord with research (Boustan 2009;Eichenlaub, Tolnay, and Alexander 2010) questing the notion that, during the study period, the conditions of the urban North were dramatically better than those of the urban South with respect to blacks' socioeconomic progress. Thus, it remains for future studies to explore possible explanations, such as those discussed earlier, for why northern Black Metropolises were not as beneficial as the perspective of the Black Metropolis has indicated.…”

The Impact of the Great Migration on Mortality of African Americans: Evidence from the Deep South

“…However, while the Great Migration was surely a means for improving of economic opportunities among African Americans—resulting in higher wages and better job prospects among migrants, as documented by Smith and Welch (1989), Margo (1995), and Maloney (1995), among others—the economic and historical literature also emphasizes that African Americans often faced daunting circumstances in the North, including high costs in discriminatory housing markets and uneven employment prospects. Real economic gains to moving North may have been modest or non-existent for many African Americans (Eichenlaub, Tolnay, and Alexander, 2010), 31 thus attenuating improved health prospects associated with increasing prosperity. In any event, any beneficial health benefits due to economic and social improvement were apparently swamped by other forces, such as changes in behavioral patterns that were detrimental to long-term health, including higher propensities to smoke and consume alcohol.…”

Northward Migration and the Rise of Racial Disparity in American Incarceration, 1880–1950

“…I limit the sample to respondents born and residing in Great Migration states in 1935 and 1940 and construct six categories of individuals: stationary southerners and northerners, southerners and northerners who moved to a different state within their respective regions, southerners who moved North, and northerners who moved South. This categorization scheme is similar to that used in Eichenlaub, Tolnay, and Alexander (2010). Out of a group quarters variable reporting whether respondents resided in a federal, state, or local correctional facility, I construct the dependent variable, Y, scoring 1 if the respondent was incarcerated in 1940 and 0 otherwise.…”