麻豆影院

The Statue of Liberty bears these words about immigrants: 鈥楪ive me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.鈥� In the 1920s, immigrants from Mexico tended to be wealthier, healthier and taller than Mexicans who did not come here, researchers find, adding that their probe could shed light on how immigration would change with different immigration policies

U.S.-Mexico border manifests from the 1920s indicate that Mexicans migrating to the United States then tended to be healthier, wealthier and more productive than those who did not migrate, according to researchers at the 麻豆影院.

, a Ph.D. candidate in CU-麻豆影院鈥檚 Department of Economics, and听, a CU alumnus who now lectures at The Australian National University, recently published research suggesting that U.S. migration policy in the early 1900s led to 鈥減ositively selected鈥� Mexican migrants. The work was published late last year in the听Journal of Economic History.

In other words, the policies created an environment that drew 鈥渆conomically strong鈥� Mexicans to migrate to the United States.

Mexican immigration was not always the hot-button issue it is today. In 1920, American laws targeted and limited European, but not Mexican, immigration.

鈥淭he only limits on Mexican immigrants were literacy requirements and a head tax,鈥� Kosack says.

What would migrant selection in a world with few barriers look like? We couldn鈥檛 answer this question today, because this world doesn鈥檛 exist鈥�

Given the legal differences between 1920 and today, Kosack and Ward believe the border manifests offer insights into the effects of an open-door immigration policy that no longer exists.

Despite the few legal restrictions, the cost of migration was fairly high at that time, so migrants had to be relatively prosperous.

Kosack and Ward鈥檚 paper explores what kind of immigrants came from Mexico during this era. Their premise was that Mexicans who migrated were of 鈥渉igher quality鈥濃�攊.e. had better education, productivity and health than other Mexicans who did not migrate.

But, 鈥渢he problem with economic history is that the data isn鈥檛 good,鈥� Ward says. Because they didn鈥檛 have data on wages, they had to find a different way to measure overall 鈥渆conomic quality鈥� of Mexican migrants.

So they looked at height, 鈥渨hich is positively correlated with better health and nutrition,鈥� Kosack explains.

Taller people also tend to earn more than their shorter counterparts within a country. The taller people are, the more likely they are to be educated, healthy, productive and relatively wealthy compared to their counterparts, Kosack says.

Looking at border crossing manifests from 1920, Ward and Kosack wanted to know whether those crossing the border were taller than the Mexicans who stayed in Mexico. They found that those who migrated to the United States tended to be significantly taller than Mexicans who did not migrate, confirming that Mexico鈥檚 鈥渃ream of the crop鈥� undertook migration.

Although immigration is a contentious issue, Kosack thinks the general public understands that 鈥渢he qualities needed to undertake migration are ambition and adventurousness.鈥�

On the other hand, Ward says Americans often assume that Mexicans migrate only because they were economically unsuccessful in Mexico.

鈥淭hey assume the migrant population must be negatively selected,鈥� Ward says. Even though there is a disparity between the two countries鈥� economies, 鈥渋t鈥檚 a mistake for Americans to compare themselves to Mexican immigrants in terms of economic quality,鈥� he concludes.

Ward and Kosack also used the border manifests to see which migrants from 1920 were more likely to return to Mexico later that decade.

鈥淧eople think it鈥檚 a one-way street, but a really sizeable immigrant population goes home, especially Mexican immigrants,鈥� Ward says.

Contradictory findings from other economists indicate that from 1900 to 1920 competition in the United States caused return migrants to be 鈥渘egatively selected鈥濃�攎eaning that those who couldn鈥檛 make it economically in Mexico, those 鈥渓ower quality鈥� migrants, were also unsuccessful in the United States, whereas 鈥渉igh quality鈥� migrants tended stay in the United States and enjoy success.

If this were true, Ward says, 鈥渨e would expect to find shorter people went back home, but we found return migrants and permanent residents were the same height.鈥�

Kosack and Ward鈥檚 findings suggest that Mexicans did not return simply because they couldn鈥檛 make it. Instead, they think the return migration of those documented in the manifests could be explained by pressure on Mexicans to go home on their own, especially at the end of the 1920s and the start of the Great Depression.

After World War I, American political opinion about immigration changed, Ward explains. While The Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 and The Immigration Act of 1924 did not explicitly target Mexican migrants, they are two examples of legislation that reflected 鈥渘ativist sentiment leading to a huge backlash against immigrants,鈥� Kosack says.

Because of this, he and Ward are interested in the policy implications of their data.

鈥淲hat would migrant selection in a world with few barriers look like? We couldn鈥檛 answer this question today, because this world doesn鈥檛 exist,鈥� Kosack says.

But the border manifests of the 1920s paint a picture of how migration looked when there was more of an open-door policy鈥攁nd how it might look if there ever were another one.

鈥淲e can look back and have a little bit of an insight into what would happen,鈥� Ward says.

Additionally, Kosack and Ward are interested in how 1920s migration is still impacting modern-day migration. Migration networks and family connections between the United States and Mexico have strengthened since the 20th听century.

Because migrants today have more connections than the migrants of the 1920s, Kosack and Ward suggest some of the traits once necessary for migration may not be as crucial for successful migration today.

鈥淚t鈥檚 possible that these networks compensate for and aid in the successful migration of people with less money and education,鈥� Ward says.

Lara Herrington Watson is a CU alumna (鈥�07) and freelance writer who splits her time between Denver and Phoenix.