Migration and Occupational Mobility: A Research Note

This paper investigates whether migration promotes occupational mobility and whether different types of migrants benefit equally from the migration experience. Results from a lagged regression model of 1970 occupational attainment clearly indicate that recent migrants are substantially more likely to be upwardly occupationally mobile than nonmigrants and, among whites, receive greater returns on educational attainment. Previous migration experiences did not uniformly result in greater mobility among whites, but did among blacks. It is suggested that this racial difference is due to blacks experiencing a substantial increase in opportunities for advancement during the 1965–1970 period.