Today’s conversation about immigration and the role of immigrants in America is not so different from the conversations that took place more than 100 years ago, when European immigrants settled in cities and on farms in the United States.

His latest research explores return migrants, those who eventually chose to come back to Europe, and how they fared when they got home. The study focuses on migrants from Norway – made possible by the availability of comprehensive new data on their activities. The research compares return migrants to both Norwegian immigrants who chose to stay in the U.S. and to the Norwegian population that never moved abroad.

The researchers found that Norwegian immigrants who returned home in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were more likely to have held lower-skilled occupations, compared with both Norwegians who never moved and those who stayed in the United States.  But upon returning to Norway, the return migrants held higher-paying occupations than Norwegians who never moved.

The findings are contrary to the popular belief that return migration mostly resulted from bad shocks, such as an illness or unemployment, said Abramitzky, an associate professor of economics at Stanford and co-author of the recently published article in the Industrial and Labor Relations Review. Instead, it appears that return migrants already hailed from poorer backgrounds before their move.

“Moving permanently to the New World was one strategy that poor European immigrants used to achieve economic success,” Abramitzky said of his joint work with Leah Boustan of Princeton University and Katherine Eriksson of the University of California, Davis. “This research suggests that temporary movement to the United States in order to accumulate savings and invest in the home country was another option available to the poor.”

Reasons for return migration

The study on return migrants is the latest piece in Abramitzky’s larger research project, which he began with his co-authors about 10 years ago, on immigration in the U.S. between 1850 and 1913.

About 30 million Europeans immigrated during the period, which scholars call the Age of Mass Migration, as America maintained open, largely unrestricted borders for European migrants until about 1914. By 1910, 22 percent of the country’s labor force was foreign-born, compared to 17 percent of today’s working population.

The same period also saw a high rate of return migration. One in three immigrants returned to their home country.

To learn which immigrants moved back and how they fared economically, Abramitzky and his colleagues needed comprehensive data on immigrants from a single country.

“It is challenging to study these types of questions because systematic data on return migrants are not typically collected,” Abramitzky said.

But Norway, which experienced a high rate of out-migration during this period, was a unique case. The country’s 1910 census asked respondents whether they spent some time in the United States, and, if so, the dates of their arrival and departure, last state of residence and last occupation held.

Because Norway recently released digital versions of those census datasets, Abramitzky and his research team chose to focus on the Scandinavian country, conducting an unprecedented analysis of individual data on return migrants to Europe during that period.

Abramitzky, Boustan and Eriksson linked the American and Norwegian census data sets to compare Norwegian migrants still living in the U.S. in 1910 with Norwegian immigrants who returned after a couple of years – as well as to Norwegians who stayed in Norway throughout this period.

The data showed that immigrants who held low-paid occupations or who came from rural parts of Norway were more likely to come back after moving to America. Once back home, the return migrants held higher-paid occupations than the Norwegians who never moved, despite hailing from poorer backgrounds.

That return migrants climbed to a higher rung on the occupational ladder may have been the result of savings accrued in the U.S., according to the researchers. Many return migrants worked as farmers, often in their town of birth. When these men – who had started out as poor farm laborers – returned to Norway, they were more likely than the non-movers to purchase and work on their own farms, a more lucrative profession made possible by the increased land they were able to buy with their savings.

These temporary moves might have been necessary, the researchers wrote, because it was difficult to borrow money in Norway, which was not as advanced financially as the U.S.

Immigration then and now

During the Age of Mass Migration, politicians and the public raised questions about immigrants that are similar to those discussed today. Can immigrants successfully integrate into America’s society and economy? Or do they remain isolated long after they settle?

Abramitzky’s past work on immigrants from 16 sending European countries provides some clues. A 2014 study showed that European immigrants arrived in the U.S. with occupations comparable to native-born Americans, and his 2016 research on cultural assimilation documented that immigrants who arrived in the early 20th century chose less foreign names for their sons and daughters as they spent more time in the United States.

Abramitzky and his collaborators are now working on a book on their years of research on immigration during that period, which may offer lessons for today’s migration policy debate.

“If we want to know how today’s newcomers will fare, we can find important clues by examining what happened to those who arrived on our shores during the greatest surge of immigration in U.S. history,” Abramitzky said. “Comparing our findings with contemporary studies can illuminate the effect of modern immigration policy on migrant selection and migrant assimilation.”

Media Contacts

Ran Abramitzky, Department of Economics: (650) 723-9276, ranabr@stanford.edu

Alex Shashkevich, Stanford News Service: (650) 497-4419, ashashkevich@stanford.edu

 

This article was originally published in the Stanford Report on September 12, 2017.

 

On April 30, May 1, and May 2, 2014, Adam Tooze, Barton M. Briggs Professor of History at Yale University, delivered in three parts The Europe Center Lectureship on Europe and the World, the first of an annual series. 

 

With the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War as his backdrop, Tooze spoke about the history of the transformation of the global power structure that followed from Germany’s decision to provoke America’s declaration of war in 1917. He advanced a powerful explanation for why the First World War rearranged political and economic structures across Eurasia and the British Empire, sowed the seeds of revolution in Russia and China, and laid the foundations of a new global order that began to revolve around the United States. 

 

The three lectures focused successively on diplomatic, economic, and social aspects of the troubled interwar history of Europe and its relationship with the wider world. Over the course of the lectures, he presented an argument for why the fate of effectively the whole of civilization changed in 1917, and why the First World War’s legacy continues to shape our world even today.

 

Tooze also participated in a lunchtime question-and-answer roundtable with graduate students from the History department.

 

Tooze is the author of The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy(2006) and Statistics and the German State 1900-1945: The Making of Modern Economic Knowledge (2001), among numerous other scholarly articles on modern European history. His latest book, The Deluge: The Great War and the Remaking of Global Order 1916-1931, will be released in Summer 2014 in the United Kingdom and in Fall 2014 in the United States.

 

We welcome you to visit our website for additional details about this event.

 

 

 

José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, delivered a lecture entitled, “Global Europe: From the Atlantic to the Pacific,” before an audience at Stanford on May 1, 2014. 

 

Barroso discussed at length the political and economic consequences of the global financial crisis of 2008 for European affairs. He acknowledged that the crisis revealed “serious flaws” in the economic management of some national economies, but stressed that the 28-member union adapted and reformed to handle the fallout from the crisis. For example, he explained how banking supervision is now controlled at the “European level through the European Central Bank,” and that “there are common rules for banks so that we avoid having to use taxpayers' money to rescue them." 

 

Barroso also discussed various political and security aspects related to the ongoing upheaval in Ukraine, and affirmed that Europe “stands ready” to support the country as it comes “closer to the European Union.” He added that Russia’s decision “to interfere, to destabilize, and to occupy part of the territory of a neighboring country” was a “gesture that we hoped was long buried in history books.”

Barroso was named President of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) of Portugal in 1999, following which he was re-elected three times. He was appointed Prime Minister of Portugal in 2002. He remained in office until July 2004 when he was elected by the European Parliament to the post of President of the European Commission. He was re-elected to a second term as President of the European Commission by an absolute majority in the European Parliament in September 2009.

 

We welcome you to visit our website for additional details about this event.

 

 

 

On May 9, 2014 and May 10, 2014, The Europe Center will host the Fourth Annual Workshop on Comparative Approaches to the Study of Immigration, Ethnicity, and Religion.

 

Speakers draw from a range of national and international universities and include Jens Hainmueller, Dominik Hangartner, Efrén Pérez, Lauren Prather, Jorge Bravo,  Giovanni Facchini, Cecilia Testa, Harris Mylonas, Rahsaan Maxwell, Ali Valenzuela, Mark Helbling, Rob Ford, Matthew Wright, Karen Jusko, Maggie Peters, Justin Gest, Rafaela M. Dancygier, and Yotam Margalit.

 

The all-day workshop will begin at 8:30 am on Friday and at 9:15 am on Saturday, and will be held in the CISAC Conference Room in Encina Hall. Visitors are cordially invited to attend. 

 

We welcome you to visit our website for additional details about this event.

 

 

 

Please join us in congratulating the winners of The Europe Center Spring 2014 Graduate Student Grant Competition:

 

Lisa Barge, German Studies, “Beyond Objectivity: Questioning Shifting Scientific Paradigms in Erwin Schrödinger's Thought”

 

Michela Giorcelli, Economics, “Transfer of Production and Management Model Across National Borders:  Evidence from the Technical Assistance and Productivity Program”

 

Benjamin Hein, Modern European History, “Capitalism Dispersed: Frankfurt and the European Stock Exchanges, 1880-1960”

 

Michelle Kahn, Modern European History, “Everyday Integration: Turks, Germans, and the Boundaries of Europe”

 

Friederike Knüpling, German Studies, “Kleist vom Ende lesen”

 

Orysia Kulick, History, “Politics, Power, and Informal Networks in Soviet Ukraine”

 

Claire Rydell, U.S. History, “Inventing an American Liberal Tradition: How England's John Locke Became ‘America's Philosopher’, 1700-2000”

 

Lena Tahmassian, Iberian and Latin American Cultures, “Post-Utopian Visions: Modes of Countercultural Discourse of the Spanish Transition to Democracy”

 

Donni Wang, Classics, “Illich Seminar”

 

Lori Weekes, Anthropology & Law, “Nation Building in the Post-Soviet Baltics as a Legal, Institutional, and Ethno-Cultural Project”

 

The Spring Grant Competition winners will join 16 graduate students who were awarded competitive research grants by the Center in Fall 2013. The Center regularly supports graduate and professional students at Stanford University whose research or work focuses on Europe. Funds are available for Ph.D. candidates across a wide range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences to prepare for dissertation research and to conduct research on approved dissertation projects. The Center also supports early graduate students who wish to determine the feasibility of a dissertation topic or acquire training relevant for that topic. Additionally, funds are available for professional students whose interests focus on some aspect of European politics, economics, history, or culture; the latter may be used to support an internship or a research project. 

 

We welcome you to visit our website for additional details about this event.

 

 

 

In each newsletter, The Europe Center would like to introduce you to a visiting scholar or collaborator at the Center. We welcome you to visit the Center and get to know our guests.

Vibeke Kieding Banik is currently affiliated as a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, at the University of Oslo. Her main focus of research is on the history of minorities in Scandinavia, particularly Jews, with an emphasis on migration and integration. Her research interests also include gender history, and her current project investigates whether there was a gendered integration strategy among Scandinavian Jews in the period 1900-1940. Dr. Banik has authored several articles on Jewish life in Norway, Jewish historiography, and on the Norwegian women’s suffragette movement. She has taught extensively on Jewish history and is currently writing a book on the history of the Norwegian Jews, scheduled to be published in 2015.

 

 

 

 

The Europe Center invites you to attend the talks of speakers in the following workshop series: 

 

 

May 15, 2014

Christina Davis, Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University

“Membership Conditionality and Institutional Reform: The Case of the OECD”  

RSVP by May 12, 2014

 

 

May 22, 2014

Wolfgang Ischinger, Former German Ambassador to the U.S.; Chairman, Munich Security Conference

“The Future of European Security & Defence” 

RSVP by May 19, 2014

 

May 29, 2014

Simon Hug, Professor of Political Science, University of Geneva

“The European Parliament after Lisbon (and before)” 

RSVP by May 26, 2014

 

 

 

We invite you to attend the following events sponsored or co-sponsored by The Europe Center:

 

May 16 and May 17, 2014

“Let There Be Enlightenment: The Religious and Mystical Sources of Rationality”

A Stanford University Conference

Margaret Jacks Hall: Terrace Room

 

May 29, 2014

Josef Joffe, FSI Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution Research Fellow, and Publisher/Editor of Die Zeit

“The Myth of America's Decline: Politics, Economics, and a Half Century of False Prophecies”

Oksenberg Conference Room

 

Jun 3, 2014

Tommaso Piffer, Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University and University of Cambridge

“The Allies, the European Resistance and the Origins of the Cold War in Europe”

History Corner, Room 307

 

 

 

The Europe Center also invites you to attend the following event of interest:

 

May 12, 2014

Latvian Cultural Evening: Sustaining a Memory of the Future

Cubberley Auditorium

 

 

The Europe Center invites you to a special lecture by Pascal Lamy, the former Director-General of the World Trade Organization.

 

Date: February 10, 2014 

Time: 4:00 - 5:30 p.m.

Venue: Bechtel Conference Center, Encina Hall

RSVP by February 5, 2014                       

  

Mr. Lamy will speak on the necessary mix of economic, social, and political policies that will determine the efficacy of free trade as an engine of global economic growth. In particular, he will outline a statement of his own thinking about the future of global governance and international trade, and describe what remains to be done in addressing the challenges of globalization. Additionally, Mr. Lamy will reflect on the features of modern politics that create governance gridlock and thwart global oversight, and will identify how progress can be made in overcoming impediments to policy action at the international level. 

 

My Lamy served as the Director-General of the World Trade Organization from 2005-2013. He is currently the Honorary President of the Paris-based think tank, Notre Europe.

 

 

 

In each newsletter, The Europe Center would like to introduce you to a visiting scholar or collaborator at the Center. We welcome you to visit the Center and get to know our guests.

Bjør n Høyland (PhD, London School of Economics, 2005) is Professor of Political Science at the University of Oslo, Norway. He is currently visiting Professor and Anna Lindh Fellow at The Europe Center, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Stanford Global. The focus of his research is European Union politics and comparative legislative politics. Professor Høyland’s list of journal publications includes the American Political Science Review, Annual Review of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, and European Union Politics. His textbook (with Simon Hix) The Political System of the European Union (3rd ed) is the standard text for advanced courses on the European Union.

 

The Europe Center invites you to attend the talks of speakers in the following workshop series: 

 

January 23, 2014

David Dreyer Lassen, Professor of Economics, University of Copenhagen

RSVP by Jan 20, 2014 

 

February 20, 2014

Alan Deardorff, John W. Sweetland Professor of International Economics & Prof. of Economics and Public Policy, University of Michigan

RSVP by Feb 17, 2014

 

Mar 6, 2014

Sophie Meunier, Research Scholar, Woodrow Wilson School and Co-Director, EU Program at Princeton, Princeton University

RSVP by Mar 3, 2014

 

Mar 13, 2014

Randy Stone, Professor of Political Science, University of Rochester

RSVP by Mar 10, 2014

 

Apr 3, 2014

Kåre Vernby, Associate Professor, Department of Government, Uppsala University

RSVP by Mar 31, 2014

 

Apr 17, 2014

Mark Hallerberg, Professor of Public Management and Political Economy, Hertie School of Governance 

RSVP by Apr 4, 2014

 

May 15, 2014

Christina Davis, Prof. of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University

“Membership Conditionality and Institutional Reform: The Case of the OECD”  

RSVP by May 12, 2014

 

February 6, 2014

Matthew Gabel, Professor of Political Science, Washington University at St. Louis

RSVP by Feb 3, 2014

 

May 22, 2014

Wolfgang Ischinger, Former German Ambassador to the U.S.; Chairman, Munich Security Conference

RSVP by May 19, 2014

 

May 29, 2014

Simon Hug, Professor of Political Science, University of Geneva

RSVP by May 26, 2014

 

The Europe Center also invites you to attend the following events of interest:

 

January 27, 2014

Vassil Terziev, Co-founder & CEO, Telerik (BG); and Japec Jakopin, Co-founder & CEO, Seaway (SI)

“Worldclass Enterprise Software and Design Firms in SouthEast and Balkans Europe” 

Sponsor: European Entrepreneurship & Innovation Thought Leaders Seminar

 

January 30, 2014

Ken Schultz, Professor of Political Science, Stanford University

“Making and Breaking Territorial Agreements: Explaining European Exceptionalism”

Sponsor: CISAC Social Science Seminar; co-sponsored by The Europe Center