
Individualism, Self-Selection, Cultural Change During the Age of Mass Migration [pdf] - monort
https://annesofiebeckknudsen.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/thosewhostayed.pdf
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joshe
Great paper. Some good discussion from the author (and other interesting
research links) here:

[https://twitter.com/ASBeckKnudsen](https://twitter.com/ASBeckKnudsen)

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hoaw
I didn't read the entire paper. But since is it does seem to be based on
naming, did it also address the changing naming conventions of the time?
Because early 20th century is also when people stopped taking their fathers
name as a family name.

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Bucephalus355
Regarding migrations, one clarification.

American society so far has demonstrated a tendency to alternate between mass
migrations coming in from abroad, and mass _internal_ migrations.

The last great internal migration was the 1940’s to 1970’s as cars and
highways became widespread.

The period of mass migration from abroad coming in happens in the mid 70’s
with significant events being Vietnamese refugees in 1975 and Iranian refugees
in 1979. The end of the Cold War meant the stopping of US support to many
anti-communist dictators which also increased these numbers. I believe though
it was a change in the immigration law in 1965 that made this possible, which
reversed the quotas put in place in the mid 1920’s and established family
unification as a priority.

With that all being said though, it seems that mass migration from abroad has
become more controlversial in the US, and perhaps we are entering the next
great age of internal migrations.

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joe_the_user
Actually, American geographical mobility has declined significantly in the
last twenty years with little end in sight. Obviously there are multiple
factors but the significant difficulty of renting and finding a job in most
place has to be one significant part.

This article talks about the consequences but that there has been a decline is
a given.

[https://equitablegrowth.org/the-consequences-and-causes-
of-d...](https://equitablegrowth.org/the-consequences-and-causes-of-declining-
geographic-mobility-in-the-united-states/)

~~~
Bucephalus355
I think we’re in agreement on our points?

Periods of mass external migration into the US also depress wages and make
jobs tougher to compete for, which also hinders moving.

The next phase of internal migration has begun / will begin soon but won’t be
significant or peak for another 30 years.

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pulisse
> Periods of mass external migration into the US also depress wages

Empirically, this is not the case, at least in the long term[1]:

> Empirical research in recent decades suggests that [...] when measured over
> a period of more than 10 years, the impact of immigration on the wages of
> natives overall is very small.

(This is from a 2017 overview. The next few pages starting after the linked
passage summarize the currently known evidence, if you're interested.)

[1]
[https://www.nap.edu/read/23550/chapter/9#267](https://www.nap.edu/read/23550/chapter/9#267)

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patrickg_zill
George Borjas has pointed out that:

Wage trends over the past half-century suggest that a 10 percent increase in
the number of workers with a particular set of skills probably lowers the wage
of that group by at least 3 percent.

Even after the economy has fully adjusted, those skill groups that received
the most immigrants will still offer lower pay relative to those that received
fewer immigrants.

[https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/trump-
clinto...](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/trump-clinton-
immigration-economy-unemployment-jobs-214216)

~~~
barrkel
Don't forget that some industries can't exist if there aren't enough workers.
Density of human capital is sometimes a prerequisite to a sustainable
business.

For example, silicon valley would be much smaller and the net value of
companies much lower if not for the global inflow of talent. Even if the
average wage was reduced (and I doubt it, I think it's only likely for
commodity labour, scale enables specialization which pays more) the total wage
is much higher. You also need to look at the displacement effect - what
happened to jobs with other sets of skills that now have fewer workers.

~~~
drpgq
Would that necessarily be true? There would be a Google equivalent and a
Facebook equivalent.

