@techreport{NBERw18011, title = "A Nation of Immigrants:
Assimilation and Economic Outcomes in the Age of Mass
Migration", author = "Ran Abramitzky and Leah Platt Boustan and
Katherine Eriksson", institution = "National Bureau of Economic
Research", type = "Working Paper", series = "Working Paper
Series", number = "18011", year = "2012", month = "April", URL =
"http://www.nber.org/papers/w18011", abstract = {During the Age
of Mass Migration (1850-1913), the US maintained an open border,
absorbing 30 million European immigrants. Prior cross-sectional
work on this era finds that immigrants initially held lower-paid
occupations than natives but experienced rapid convergence over
time. In newly-assembled panel data, we show that, in fact, the
average immigrant did not face a substantial occupation-based
earnings penalty upon first arrival and experienced occupational
advancement at the same rate as natives. Cross-sectional
patterns are driven by biases from declining arrival cohort
quality and departures of negat