Some New Evidence on Educatonal Selectivity in Migration to and From the South

Analysis of the 1960 United States Census data on lifetime and recent migration confirms the general hypothesis that migration to and from the South is correlated with education. However, the correlation between migration and education varies by age, sex, and color. Gross migration, both to and from the South, is positively correlated with education and there is little difference between the educational level of inand out-migrants. Adverse educational selectivity of net migration from the South is greatest among young people, among Negroes, and among males. Gross migration rates among the white population, both to and from the South, are greater than those among the nonwhite population at all educational levels; but net migration from the South is relatively greater in the nonwhite than in the white population because the gross movement of Negroes back to the South is relatively much less than that of white people. Regional differences in migration, in relation to education, reflect differences in industrialization and urbanizationi. Areas with large expanding metropolitan populations are attracting well-educated migrants, and rural areas of the South are continuing to lose more well-educated people than they gain. T nhe unrestiricted movement of persons within the United States is not only essential to national economic development, but, more important, is a significant expression of individual freedom as a fundamental value of our society. Internal migration has long beeni recognized as a vital force in American life. It has affected all institutions and is a major component of social change. The association between education and migration is important for its own sake and because it is so closely related to various other factors which are believed to influence migration, including socioeconomic status, in-ome, occupation, and ability, some of which are more difficult than educational attainment to define and measure. This paper summarizes an analysis of data on education and internal migration available in the 1960 census for the United States, the South, and its three divisions. Educational attainment is measured by years of school completed. While this is a pertinent measure, it cannot, of course, take into account quality of education or differential achievement within the same educational level. Past studies have shown that there is a relationship between educational achievement and migration, but the nature of this relationship has not always been clear. Certainly it is influenced by such factors as age and distance of movement. Shlryock and Nam,1 using 1940 and 1950 census data, concluded that educational selectivity in interregional migration hlas resulted in a small gain of better educated persons for the South. Bogue's2 study of 1935-1940 data indicated that proportionally more of the better educated are migrant. Using census survival rates for 1940-1950, Hamilton3 found that migration of adults to * Paper read at the 1964 Annual Meeting of the Southern Sociological Society at Asheville, North Carolina. Published with the approval of the Director of Research of the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station as Paper Number 1852 of the Journal Series. 1 Henry S. Shryock, Jr., and Charles B. Nam, "Educational Selectivity of Interregional Migration," Population Inde.x, 28 (July 1962), pp. 232233. 2 Donald J. Bogue, Henry S. Shryock, Jr., and Siegfried A. Hoernmann, "Subregional Migration in the United States, 1935-40," Streamis of Migr ationt. Betweent Subregions (Oxford, Ohio: Scripps Foundation, 1957), Vol. 1. 3 C. Horace Hamiltoin, "Educational Selectivity of Rural-Urban Migration: Preliminary Results of a North Carolina Study," Selected Stuidies of Migration Since Woorld War II. Proceedings of This content downloaded from 207.46.13.37 on Wed, 03 Aug 2016 04:35:20 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms EDUCATIONAL SELECTIVITYY IN MIIGRATION 537 TABLE 1. EDUCATIONAL ATTAINNIENT OF THE UNITED STATES POPULATION 25 YEARS OF AGE AND OVER BY COLOR, SEX, AND MIGRATION STATUS 1955-1960. PERCENT DISTRIBUTION> School Years Completed (Percent Distribution) Coll. Coll. Migration Status Total Number (100%) 0 1-4 5-8 9-11 12 1-3 4-+