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Those Who Stayed: Selection and Cultural Change during the Age of Mass Migration

Beck Knudsen, Anne Sofie LU orcid (2019)
Abstract
This paper studies the cultural causes and consequences of mass emigration from Scandinavia in the 19th century. I test the hypothesis that people with individualistic traits were more likely to emigrate, because they faced lower costs of leaving established social networks behind. Data from population censuses and passenger lists confirm this hypothesis. Children who grew up in households with nonconformist naming practices, nuclear family structures, and weak ties to parents’ birthplaces were on average more likely to emigrate later in life. Selection was weaker under circumstances that reduced the social costs of emigration. This was the case with larger migration networks abroad, and in situations where people emigrated collectively.... (More)
This paper studies the cultural causes and consequences of mass emigration from Scandinavia in the 19th century. I test the hypothesis that people with individualistic traits were more likely to emigrate, because they faced lower costs of leaving established social networks behind. Data from population censuses and passenger lists confirm this hypothesis. Children who grew up in households with nonconformist naming practices, nuclear family structures, and weak ties to parents’ birthplaces were on average more likely to emigrate later in life. Selection was weaker under circumstances that reduced the social costs of emigration. This was the case with larger migration networks abroad, and in situations where people emigrated collectively. Based on these findings, I expect emigration to generate cultural change
towards reduced individualism in migrant-sending locations, through a combination
of initial compositional effects and intergenerational cultural transmission. This is
confirmed in a cross-district setting with measures of actual cultural change over
the medium and long run (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Migration, selection, culture, individualism, age of mass migration, Z10, F22, O15, R23, N33
pages
52 pages
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
55864b78-dc18-40d0-9a59-395546ad0d5a
alternative location
http://pseweb.eu/ydepot/seance/513972_thosewhostayed%20MIGGRATION%201609.pdf
date added to LUP
2020-11-25 08:44:57
date last changed
2020-11-26 02:15:41
@misc{55864b78-dc18-40d0-9a59-395546ad0d5a,
  abstract     = {{This paper studies the cultural causes and consequences of mass emigration from Scandinavia in the 19th century. I test the hypothesis that people with individualistic traits were more likely to emigrate, because they faced lower costs of leaving established social networks behind. Data from population censuses and passenger lists confirm this hypothesis. Children who grew up in households with nonconformist naming practices, nuclear family structures, and weak ties to parents’ birthplaces were on average more likely to emigrate later in life. Selection was weaker under circumstances that reduced the social costs of emigration. This was the case with larger migration networks abroad, and in situations where people emigrated collectively. Based on these findings, I expect emigration to generate cultural change<br/>towards reduced individualism in migrant-sending locations, through a combination<br/>of initial compositional effects and intergenerational cultural transmission. This is<br/>confirmed in a cross-district setting with measures of actual cultural change over<br/>the medium and long run}},
  author       = {{Beck Knudsen, Anne Sofie}},
  keywords     = {{Migration; selection; culture; individualism; age of mass migration; Z10; F22; O15; R23; N33}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{01}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  title        = {{Those Who Stayed: Selection and Cultural Change during the Age of Mass Migration}},
  url          = {{http://pseweb.eu/ydepot/seance/513972_thosewhostayed%20MIGGRATION%201609.pdf}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}