Transatlantic wage gaps and the migration decision: Europe–Canada in the 1920s

Abstract

As has been seen in other contexts, workers in similar occupations earned much higher wages in Canada than Europe during the 1920s. This observation and related aspects of immigration are addressed with a life-cycle model of the migration decision. The characteristics of immigrants from five European countries: Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden, are explored in a way that sheds light not just on those population flows but on the process of immigration generally. We draw on passenger manifests from immigrant ships for information on the individual migrants. Simulations, based partly on the these manifests, reveal that the costs of migration, borrowing constraints, concern for status, and country-specific taste preferences account for key immigrant characteristics, and help explain the large wage differentials that persisted despite Canada's relatively open immigration policy.

International Migration in the Atlantic Economy 1850–1940

“…In the Hesse Cassel region of Germany from 1832 to 1857 Wegge (1998) found that networked emigrants carried less cash with them. By the 1920s these effects were weaker but Armstrong and Lewis (2017) provide evidence that the need to save served to delay emigration to Canada.…”

Contributions to Canadian economic history: The last 30 years

“…The 1920s is also the focus of Alex Armstrong and Frank Lewis's () work on migration. They use ship passenger manifests to help explain the large wage differences between Canada and the countries of origin of the immigrants.…”