From Sweden to America: migrant selection in the transatlantic migration, 1890–1910.

This article investigates the social-class and gender-based selection of Swedish emigrants to the United States during the age of mass migration (1850–1930) using linked full-count Swedish census data, emigration registers, and death records. The study finds that both men and women migrants were predominantly drawn from medium-skilled origins—specifically farmers, skilled, and lower-skilled workers—while individuals from higher white-collar (professional and managerial) backgrounds were least likely to emigrate. Selection patterns were consistent across rural and urban areas but were most pronounced in poorer, less industrialized regions with higher previous emigration rates. These findings suggest that migrant selection was influenced not only by returns to skills but also by class-specific migration costs, with unskilled workers facing higher barriers despite potentially greater economic incentives to migrate.