Migration to Towns and Cities

This paper tests the hypothesis of chance selection in migration to cities from agriculture. The data used concern the economic and educational conditions among 477 city and farm families in Minnesota, and the migrations of 401 young adults. Farm families hold their children longer than urban families. All classes who keep children in agriculture give them less formal education than the children sent to the cities receive. Formal education may not be used as a measure of the quality of the population for purposes of testing selectivity. There is no evidence of a net selectivity unfavorable to agriculture, but some suggestions of assortative mating. The most important element in the urban upper classes was the children of the farmers; next was the children of the upper classes themselves; and, finally, the children of the lower urban classes. Occupations other than agriculture are composed out of the most heterogeneous groups. The first-born in agricultural families shows a preference for agriculture, which indicates that the organization of the family is a factor.