Swedes in America: Migrant Selection, Integration and Returns in the Age of Mass Migration

Between 1850 and 1930 more than 30 million people left Europe for North America, with a majority ending up in the United States. Sweden was one of the most important sending countries. In total, out of a population of about 5 million, 1.1 million Swedes left for the U.S. Even if much research has been devoted to the mass migration, there is a lack of studies looking at migration as a long-term process, where migration can affect people over several generations. Using new and unique linked data from censuses in Sweden and the US, this project aims at analysing who moved and how the migrants and their descendants fared in the US labor market.