Life after crossing the border: Assimilation during the first Mexican mass migration

Abstract

The first mass migration of Mexicans to the United States occurred in the early twentieth century: from smaller pre-Revolutionary flows in the 1900s, to hundreds of thousands during the violent 1910s, to the boom of the 1920s, and then the bust and deportations/repatriations of the 1930s. We show that despite these large shifts, the rate of economic assimilation was remarkably similar across arrival cohorts. We find that the average Mexican immigrant held a lower-paying job than US-born whites near arrival and further fell behind in the following decade. However, Mexican assimilation was not uniquely slow since we also find that the average Italian immigrant fell behind at a similar rate. Yet, conditional on geography, human capital, and initial earning score, Mexicans had a slower growth rate than both US-born whites and Italians. We argue that Mexican-specific structural barriers help to explain why Mexican progress was slower than other groups and why different Mexican arrival cohorts had limited variation in outcomes despite the large shocks to migration.

Contextual Boundaries: Skin Tone Stratification and Skill Transferability Among Mexicans in the Age of Mass Migration

“…Similarly, Texas unions, in particular the AFL, enforced a "color bar" for higher paying positions within cities (Montejano 1987) and Texas had no public relief system that greatly affected the Mexican population (Fox 2012). Texas also had a strong history of racialized violence by the native-born and Texas Rangers through lynchings and other systematic campaigns carried out against Mexican communities that has been linked to worse economic outcomes in previous research (Escamilla-Guerrero, Kosack and Ward 2021).…”

“…For instance, 67 percent of Italians were in unskilled positions before arrival (Catron 2020) compared to 58% of Mexicans. 1 Despite these similarities, the economic trajectory of Mexican immigrants diverged substantially from the trajectories of other immigrant groups during this era (Escamilla-Guerrero, Kosack and Ward 2021). While Europeans experienced upward absolute and relative intergenerational occupational mobility (Catron 2020;Lowrey et al 2021), Mexicans experienced little occupational mobility relative to other groups (Kosack and Ward 2020).…”

“…While Europeans experienced upward absolute and relative intergenerational occupational mobility (Catron 2020;Lowrey et al 2021), Mexicans experienced little occupational mobility relative to other groups (Kosack and Ward 2020). Indeed, segments of the Mexican population experienced downward assimilation during this period-a pattern that other groups such as Italians did not follow (Escamilla-Guerrero, Kosack and Ward 2021;Kosack and Ward 2020). Researchers have therefore begun to analyze how other factors-in particular, immigrant racialization-may influence outcomes over time beyond traditional human capital measures (Fox and Guglielmo 2012;Villarreal and Tamborini 2018).…”

“…To explain within-group differences in economic progress, researchers often highlight the role of human capital obtained before arrival (Borjas 1994). Yet evidence also suggests that within-group differences in attainment among Mexican immigrants also stem from variation in how Mexicans are racialized, given their ambiguous position vis-à-vis the dominant black-white racial structure (Alba 2005;Catron 2021; Escamilla-Guerrero, Kosack and Ward 2021;Perlmann 2005). However, the majority of this research relies solely on U.S. census data, which provides limited information on how individuals are racialized and providelittle information to account for the varying levels of capital with which individuals had upon arrival..…”

Migrant Self-Selection and Random Shocks: Evidence from the Panic of 1907

“…Growing migrant networks and the recruiting of intending migrants by American employers reduced migration costs, making migration to the United States even more profitable (Brass 1990;Durand 2016;Henderson 2011). Unlike previous periods, however, a number of shocks including armed conflicts, severe economic downturns, and sharp changes in immigration policy may have also influenced who crossed the border during the early twentieth century (Escamilla-Guerrero, Kosack, and Ward 2021). This paper examines how the Mexico-U.S. migration flow changed in response to the Panic of 1907-the most severe financial crisis before the Great Depression.…”