Dominion or Republic? Migrants to North America from the United Kingdom, 1870–1910

Late nineteenth-century Canada attracted a large number of immigrants from the UK, despite far lower average income per head there than in the US. While urban labour markets in the northern US were much larger than those in Canada, differences in outcomes between UK immigrants in Canadian and in northern US cities were small. Average annual real earnings by occupation group were only 10 to 15 per cent lower in Canadian cities. Individual-level census data indicate that the occupational distribution of UK immigrants in Canada was quite similar to that of their peers in the US.