Home Sweet Home: Returns to Returning in the Age of Mass Migration

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ejermo, Olof; Enflo, Kerstin; Eriksson, Bjorn; Prawitz, Erik
• 署名单位: Lund University; Linnaeus University; Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20230253
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: intergenerational occupational-mobility; self-selection; UNITED-STATES; economic outcomes; POOR; emigration; MIGRANTS; immigration

摘要

Despite significant circular migration flows historically and today, their economic impacts remain understudied. Using data on predominantly rural Swedish migrants who returned from the United States during the Age of Mass Migration, we estimate returns to temporary migration in terms of wealth, income, demographic, and social outcomes. We find substantial wealth effects but limited evidence of increased labor income or occupational upgrading. Male returnees held nearly double the wealth of stayers, likely due to overseas savings, while female returnees gained wealth mainly through marriage. These findings highlight the need to consider wealth when evaluating the economic returns of temporary migration.