Mobilité sociale dans une ville industrielle nord-américaine : Montréal, 1880-1900

Using census data for 1881 and 1901, tax rolls that show household rents, and Catholic marriage records, the authors study the factors that allow some Montreal families to achieve upward mobility and some to lapse into poverty. Labour competition during the period under review was affected by surges of migration from Europe and from rural catchment. A large share of immigrants found themselves on the lowest rung of the city's economic ladder, in a "social space" of handicap from which people born and raised in Montreal could escape. While the authors found differences in strategy between Montreal's Irish and French populations, both communities showed net upward mobility as measured in terms of occupational status, spaces they rented, and rent levels of their immediate neighbours.

Annales de démographie historique

Vol. 115

no. 1

89-114

2008

fr