Height self-selection of internal migrants in Italy in the second half of the twentieth century

Abstract

This paper examines internal migrant selection in Italy using individual height data from the 1951 and 1980 birth cohorts of military conscripts. Information on both place of birth and residence of conscripts allows us to compare migrants’ heights to the height distributions of their non-migrant peers at the national level and to their populations of origin. Results suggest that migrants from southern Italy were negatively selected at the national level, while a positive selection in height emerged if compared to conscripts who remained in their macro-area of origin. Additionally, we found that migrants from shorter and economically disadvantaged southern regions exhibited a more positive self-selection in terms of education, occupation and health status. These findings remained consistent when using body mass index as an alternative anthropometric outcome or accounting for the North-South return migration in the more recent birth cohort of conscripts.