Repeat Migration Between Europe And The United States, 1870–1914

Abstract

AND INTRODUCTORY REMARKS:Repeat crossings of the North Atlantic by European migrants during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were more frequent, faster-growing, and had more intricate and significant impacts on the overall long-distance relocation process, than previous scholarship has appreciated. This result is revealed by the first comprehensive accounting of all crossings between Europe and North America during the period, and by a consistent, broad, and process-based definition of migration which encompasses all transoceanic journeys except those made by tourists and business travellers. The rise of repeat migration between Europe and the United States was a rational response of migrant networks to the growth of "floating" job opportunities in America, and to the need for diversifying the risks of remote and uncertain employment across multiple individuals making multiple moves. This is a revision of the earlier 2006 working paper of the same title. The author is grateful for comments and suggestions by

Life Course and Structural Migrations: Refining Migration Classifications

“…History shows that repeat migrations are not new. Keeling (2011) studies return migration from the United States to Europe over the period from 1870 to 1914. On balance, about a third of immigrants to the United States during this period eventually returned to their origin countries though with significant variability by national origin.…”

To the New World and Back Again: Return Migrants in the Age of Mass Migration

“…The price of passage fell to around $25 in 1900, which was 6 percent of mean annual earnings in the US at the time (Wyman, 1993, p. 24;Lebergott, 1964, p. 523-24). Keeling (2010) estimates that, following this transportation revolution, eastward journeys (from the US to Europe) rose from 18 percent of total transatlantic travel in the 1870s to 30 percent by the 1900s.…”