Race, Place, and Veteran Status: The Changing Relationship between Military Staffing Policy and Migration History

Amy K. Bailey, University of Washington

Service in the armed forces necessarily requires migration at the time of induction, is likely at the time of separation, and may affect the likelihood of subsequent migration trajectories. The effects of military service, then, may include both socioeconomic status attainment and spatial mobility. As staffing policy changes select different groups into military service, state action may differentially facilitate geographic mobility. During the 20th century, the state acted on three occasions: the Post-War desegregation of the armed forces; the implementation of the peacetime draft following the Korean conflict, and the 1973 move to the All-Volunteer Force. This paper uses census data to explore the changing relationship between veteran status and migration between 1940 and 2000, and how that relationship may differ for blacks and whites. Logistic regression models identify whether group-level differences exist in probabilities of lifetime interstate migration or changing residences in the last 5- or 1-year interval.