How the Great Migration Changed Black Children's Educational Attainment. Policy Brief

Autor/inn/en	Baran, Cavit; Chyn, Eric; Stuart, Bryan A.
Institution	W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
Titel	How the Great Migration Changed Black Children's Educational Attainment. Policy Brief
Quelle	(2022), (5 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
Schlagwörter	African American Children; Educational Attainment; Economic Opportunities; Migrants; Migration; Outcomes of Education; Academic Achievement + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? African Americans; Child; Children; Afroamerikaner; Kind; Kinder; Bildungsabschluss; Bildungsgut; Migrantin; Lernleistung; Schulerfolg; Schulleistung
Abstract	The twentieth-century migration of Southern-born African Americans--the Great Migration--was a landmark event in American history. More than seven million African Americans left the South between 1915 and 1970 in search of better economic and social opportunities for themselves and their children. Prior research has found evidence that the Great Migration had mixed impacts on adults. While Black migrants earned substantially more than their counterparts who had stayed in the South, they also died earlier and faced higher incarceration rates. Less is known about how the Great Migration affected the outcomes of migrants' children. In this paper, the authors provide new evidence on how moving north affected the children of African Americans who migrated during the early years of the Great Migration. Several features of the setting suggest that Black children may have benefited from moving during this period. For example, school quality was generally lower in the South, and fewer economic and social opportunities existed there. Based on an analysis of 1940 census records, the authors find that moving to the North during the Great Migration substantially improved the educational outcomes of children. Using an approach that accounts for selective migration, the authors find that moving from the South to the North increased completed schooling by an average of 0.8 years as of 1940. The analysis also reveals that, although the average impact was positive, the benefits of migrating varied widely across places. Some places in the South--such as Birmingham, Alabama--were comparable to the best places in the North, while others--such as New Orleans, Louisiana--offered poor prospects for children. Overall, the findings suggest that the Great Migration played an important role in narrowing U.S. educational disparities by race. Between the 1900 and 1970 birth cohorts, the education gap between White and Black individuals shrank from 4.0 to 0.9 years--a 78 percent reduction. Previous research has found that improvements in Southern schools played a key role in the relative rise in Black educational attainment. This research demonstrates how the Great Migration promoted schooling achievement, thereby extending the understanding of the relative increase in African Americans' education levels during the twentieth century. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. 300 South Westnedge Avenue, Kalamazoo, MI 49007-4686. Tel: 888-227-8569; Tel: 269-343-4330; Fax: 269-343-7310; Web site: http://research.upjohn.org/upjohn_publications/
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01