Effects of the Great Migration on Immigrant Assimilation

From 1915 to 1970, about six million African Americans migrated from southern states to the industrializing urban centers of the North and West, a movement known as the “Great Migration.” The same parts of the country had also been major destinations for more than 30 million European immigrants from the mid-nineteenth century to the early 1920s. Political scientist Vasiliki Fouka will use the newly digitized full count of the U.S. Census for 1900-1940 to investigate in which direction and via what channels black inflows affected the assimilation and American identity formation of immigrants and their descendants. She will explore whether the Great Migration catalyzed the assimilation of immigrants and contributed to their Americanization.