Title

Intergenerational Mobility of Immigrants over Two Centuries

Author(s)

Ran Abramitzky Ran Abramitzky (Stanford University)

Leah Platt Boustan Leah Boustan (Princeton University)

Elisa Jácome Elisa Jácome (Princeton University)

Santiago Pérez Santiago Pérez (University of California at Davis)

Abstract

Using millions of father-son pairs spanning more than 100 years of US history, we find that children of immigrants from nearly every sending country have higher rates of upward mobility than children of the US-born. Immigrants' advantage is similar historically and today despite dramatic shifts in sending countries and US immigration policy. In the past, this advantage can be explained by immigrants moving to areas with better prospects for their children and by "underplacement" of the first generation in the income distribution. These findings are consistent with the "American Dream" view that even poorer immigrants can improve their children's prospects.

Creation Date

2019-10

Section URL ID

Paper Number

2019-6

URL

https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/lboustan/files/w26408.pdf

File Function

Jel

J15, J61, J62, N30

Keyword(s)

Immigration, Social Mobility

Suppress

false

Series

13