Second-generation Outcomes of the Great Migration

• In Event: 433 - Regular Session. Internal Migration

Abstract

The mass migration of African Americans out of the South during the first two-thirds of the twentieth-century represents one of the most significant internal migration flows in U.S. history. Those undertaking the Great Migration left the South in search of a better life, and their move transformed the cultural, social, and political dynamics of African American life and U.S. society more generally. While many studies report that migrants viewed northern workplaces favorably when compared with options in the South, recent research suggests that the migrants’ income and employment statuses in the North were no better than for those who remained in the South. The social, cultural, and political gains of the Great Migration do not appear to have translated into economic advantages. Due in part to the lack of a large body of longitudinal data, almost all studies of the Great Migration have focused on the migrants themselves, usually over short periods of their working lives. Using longitudinally-linked Census data, we take a broader view, investigating the long-term economic and social impacts of the Great Migration on the migrants’ children, who were retirement-age by 2000. Preliminary results reveal substantial and statistically significant advantages in education, income, and poverty status for the children of the Great Migration relative to the children of southerners who remained in the South.

Authors

• J Trent Alexander, US Census Bureau

• Christine Leibbrand, University of Washington

• Catherine Massey, U.S. Census Bureau

• Stewart E. Tolnay, Univ of Washington