Department of Sociology and Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-3340, USA
Soc Sci Res. 2009 Dec;38(4):897-920. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2009.04.001.
In this study, we measure the contribution of immigrants and their descendents to the growth and industrial transformation of the American workforce in the age of mass immigration from 1880 to 1920. The size and selectivity of the immigrant community, as well as their disproportionate residence in large cities, meant they were the mainstay of the American industrial workforce. Immigrants and their children comprised over half of manufacturing workers in 1920, and if the third generation (the grandchildren of immigrants) are included, then more than two-thirds of workers in the manufacturing sector were of recent immigrant stock. Although higher wages and better working conditions might have encouraged more long-resident native-born workers to the industrial economy, the scale and pace of the American industrial revolution might well have slowed. The closing of the door to mass immigration in the 1920s did lead to increased recruitment of native born workers, particularly from the South, to northern industrial cities in the middle decades of the 20th century.
在这项研究中，我们衡量了移民及其后代对 1880 年至 1920 年大规模移民时期美国劳动力增长和产业转型的贡献。移民群体的规模和选择性，以及他们在大城市的不成比例的居住，意味着他们是美国工业劳动力的主要支柱。移民及其子女在 1920 年占制造业工人的一半以上，如果加上第三代（移民的孙辈），那么制造业部门超过三分之二的工人是最近移民的后裔。尽管更高的工资和更好的工作条件可能会鼓励更多长期居住的本地出生的工人进入工业经济，但美国工业革命的规模和速度可能会放缓。20 世纪 20 年代大规模移民大门的关闭确实导致了更多本地出生的工人，特别是来自南方的工人，被招募到 20 世纪中叶北方的工业城市。
