Gender Differences in the Sociodemographic and Contextual Determinants of U.S. Migration from Sweden, 1891-1910

Jonas Helgertz, Lund University
Martin Dribe, Lund University
Björn Eriksson, Lund University

During the period of European Mass Migration to the United States, Sweden was among the most important sending countries in relative terms, with about one fifth of the population at one point residing on the other side of the Atlantic. As a result of methodological advances in the record linkage of digitized historical data, a literature has emerged during the past decade that has analyzed the causes and consequences of individuals’ decision to migrate, primarily emanating from a theoretical framework that views migration as chiefly driven by economic incentives. Theory designed to explain migration decisions on a historical context in particular has, however, been very male-focused. Indeed, as far as the woman’s behavior is concerned, most research either fails to acknowledge the role of the woman altogether or views their behavior as largely determined by the family unit in which they reside, thus by their parents (father) or their spouse. To date, the empirical research concerning how women’s decisions to migrate differed from men’s during this historical era is sparse. This is unfortunate, as women represented around 40 percent of all migrants and many who migrated as young adults did so alone. In this paper, we examine full cohorts of men and women, aged 16-25 when observed in the Swedish full count censuses of 1890 and 1900. Through linking census records to the emigration records, we analyze the decision to emigrate to the United States during the subsequent ten-year period. We examine the importance of a range of individual and contextual determinants and how they influence the migration decision differently by gender, contributing both to our empirical knowledge about a key migrant group during this important period of human migration, and to much needed theory building.

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 Presented in Session 173. Escaping the Bad? Demographic Consequences and Migration Outcomes