Is Social Mobility Spatial? Immigrant Destionation Choice and Second Generation Outcomes, 1940-70 and 1970-2000

PWP-CCPR-2012-015

Abstract

Following Vigdor‘s (2001) demonstration of the transmission of locational advantage to the children of the Great Migration, I undertake a similar analysis to ascertain the significance of immigrants‘ location choice on second generation educational and wage outcomes in adulthood. I create pseudo immigrant parent-second generation child generation cohorts for 1940-70 and 1970-2000 from the IPUMS, and construct selection models of parental internal migration on the following generation‘s relative outcomes. Preliminary results show that historical patterns of selective internal migration by immigrants explain wage and educational outcomes into the second generation. The ways in which historical settlement patterns have been selective of wage inequality is stronger in the latter period from 1970-2000. Although parental location matters more for second generation educational gains in 1940-70, the second generation workers of 2000‘s wage parity with others is heavily determined by their parents‘ previous location choices, especially among those who are non-white.