Migration and occupational mobility in the depression.

Abstract

This is a study of the relationship between migration and occupational mobility during the depression of 1930-35. Intra-Michigan migrants to Flint and Grand Rapids are compared as to post-migration occupational mobility with matched groups of nonmigrants at the points of departure and at the destination of the migration. In each comparison the occupational mobility of the migrants is found to be no less than 2.7 times greater than that of the nonmigrants. The greater post-migration occupational mobility of the migrants is not a result of either high unemployment rates or high rates of occupational mobility before migration.