Revisiting Mexican migration in the Age of Mass Migration: New evidence from individual border crossings

Abstract

This paper introduces and analyses the Mexican Border Crossing Records (MBCRs), an unexplored data source that records aliens crossing the Mexico-United States land border at diverse entrance ports from 1903 to 1955. The MBCRs identify immigrants and report rich demographic, geographic and socioeconomic information at the individual level. These micro data have the potential to support cliometric research, which is scarce for the Mexico-United States migration, especially for the beginnings of the flow . My analysis of the MBCRs suggests that previous literature might have inaccurately described the initial patterns of the flow. The results diverge from historical scholarship because the micro data capture better the geographic composition of the flow, allowing me to characterize the initial migration patterns with more precision. Overall, the micro data reported in the MBCRs offer the opportunity to address topics that concern the economics of migration in the past and present.

El Sueño Americano? The Generational Progress of Mexican Americans Prior to World War II

“…The Mexican-born population we consider in this study, from the middle of the nineteenth century through around 1910, was increasing at a fast rate (Borjas and Katz 2007; Clark 1908; Escamilla-Guerrero 2018; Gratton and Merchant 2016) 4 . With the end of the Mexican–American War and the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, large portions of Mexican territory were ceded to the United States, which created a new group of residents who did not cross a border themselves but had the border cross them 5 .…”

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

“…Most official entrance ports were also railway terminals and the principal crossing points for migrants from regions other than border municipalities. In addition, Escamilla-Guerrero (2020) provides evidence suggesting that the sample is representative of Mexican immigration during the 1900s and may capture an important share of the total border crossings. The sample covers the period from July 1906 to December 1908 and consists of 9,083 Mexican immigrants 15 .…”

“… 15 Escamilla-Guerrero (2020) provides a full description of the publication N° A3365 and sampling plan followed to transcribe the micro data. …”

The Effects of Immigration on the Economy: Lessons from the 1920s Border Closure

“…Jaeger, Ruist and Stuhler (2018) encourage caution in applying shift-share methods to the study of immigration, documenting high rates of serial correlation across decades in the areas that receive large immigration flows. However, the sharp change in immigration policy interrogation" (Ngai, 2003, p. 85;Markel and Stern, 2002;Escamilla-Guerrero, 2019). ) Many Mexican entrants bypassed official entry ports as a result.…”