The Human Capital of Migrants and the Selectivities Underlying the Migration Process 1800 - 1950

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Jörg Baten
• Subject Area: Economic and Social History
• Term: from 2009 to 2013
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 139040624

The human capital of migrants is a core topic in today's policy debates. Which countries are able to attract highly skilled migrants? Which components of the Standard of living in the target country attract which type of migrant, and which selection of persons actually migrates? Economic history offers a wealth of information about the human capital and selectivity of migrants, even at the disaggregated level of occupational groups. But this rich data set has not yet been studied in a broad and internationally comparative perspective. New avenues of research have been opened recently by using proxy indicator measurement techniques, which allow to study the relative educational position of migrant groups, comparing those with the general population in their sending and receiving countries. Moreover, a comparison of by now well-established anthropometric indices allows to study a broad welfare concept to understand the process of international migration. We will study three of the main immigration countries 1800-1950: the U.S., Argentina, and Brazil, which attracted immigrants in large numbers from a variety of sending countries.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants