Ascending from the bottom rung
The labor market assimilation of rural-urban migrants in Sweden, 1880–1910
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9813832 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jonatan Andersson (0009-0000-9314-7009, Uppsala University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 97 |
| Pages | 101690 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Explorations in Economic History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0014-4983 • E-ISSN: 1090-2457 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.eeh.2025.101690 |
| OpenAlex | W4410383032 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 33 |
This article examines the assimilation of rural-born people into the urban economy in the industrialization context, focusing on Sweden from 1880 to 1910—a time characterized by a notable shift in economic activity towards urban areas. I utilize individual-level data on three cohorts of rural-urban migrants linked across census records, allowing for an examination of their labor market assimilation across all Swedish towns. The main findings suggest that the labor market assimilation of male migrants followed a Chiswick-like process, regardless of the size of the destination area. Initially, migrants displayed a sizeable negative gap in labor market outcomes compared to urban natives, which narrowed with the time spent in the urban area. Nevertheless, they never managed to close the gap over time. By contrast, female migrants displayed few signs of converging with female natives. Migrants’ inability to close the gap was likely due to the non-transferability of skills between the rural and urban sectors. The convergence that did occur can be explained by the potential for upward mobility from the relatively low initial positions migrants entered and, to some extent, negative selection into return migration
Assimilation (phonology · Demographic economics · Economic geography · Economics · Geography · Labour economics · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Rural development and sustainability
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| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |