The (South) American Dream: Mobility and Economic Outcomes of First- and Second-Generation Immigrants in Nineteenth-Century Argentina

Abstract

I study the mobility and economic outcomes of European immigrants and their children in nineteenth-century Argentina, the second largest destination country during the Age of Mass Migration. I use new data linking males across censuses and passenger lists of arrivals to Buenos Aires. First-generation immigrants experienced faster occupational upgrading than natives. Occupational mobility was substantial relative to Europe; immigrants holding unskilled occupations upon arrival experienced high rates of occupational upgrading. Second-generation immigrants outperformed the sons of natives in terms of literacy, occupational status and access to property, and experienced higher rates of intergenerational mobility out of unskilled occupations.

Multiple Measures of Historical Intergenerational Mobility: Iowa 1915 to 1940

“…Drawing on data on each son's grandparent's place of birth in the 1915 census, I partition the sample into sons with four native‐born grandparents and with four foreign‐born grandparents . This corresponds to the high rate of upward mobility Perez () finds in Argentina in the nineteenth century.…”

Intergenerational Occupational Mobility across Three Continents

“…As the indigenous population was mostly confined to these territories, the 1869 census largely excluded this population. Santiago Pérez (2017) provides further details on this sample.…”

Riche comme un argentin: desigualdad educativa en la Argentina de la belle époque

“…Poblada esta zona de europeos según esta distribución aleatoria, Droller calcula el efecto que los europeos tienen en el desarrollo, y encuentra un efecto positivo y estadísticamente significativo de la presencia europea. Pérez (2017), por su parte, analiza la movilidad profesional de los inmigrantes y de algún modo traza algunos rasgos del papel de la alfabetización en relación al mercado laboral. El autor muestra que los inmigrantes de primera generación experimentaron una mejora ocupacional más rápida que los nativos y que la movilidad profesional fue sustancial en relación con Europa.…”