Prior to 1914, it will be noted, the ratio of nonemigrants to the total fluctuated within the narrow range of 42.9 to 49.6 per cent; and after 1914, shows no striking changes except a general increase during the war period, and a sharp decline in 1920, followed in 1923 and 1924 by a marked increase. Probably the 1920 decline may be attributed to the fact that the preceding years had not been favorable to the arrival of large numbers of temporary immigrants and, consequently, most of those who made up the rising tide of emigration in 1920 were aliens who had established a relatively permanent residence in the United States and were consequently classified as emigrants rather than nonemigrants if they were leaving for a permanent sojourn abroad. In 1923 and 1924 there is a rise in the proportion of nonemigrants, due, in part at least, to the fact that certain classes of temporary emigrants are not subject to the quota limit law and hence pass in and out of the country in much the same volume as before the law was passed.

Graphic Comparison of Departing Aliens, by Sex and Permanency of Migration.

As in the case of all alien departures, there is much general similarity observed in the cyclical fluctuations when outgoing emigrants and nonemigrants are classified by sex. The fluctuations in the annual data for total, male, and female emigrants, respectively, and for total, male, and female nonemigrants, respectively, are shown in Chart 28, which, like most of the charts in this chapter, is a "rate-of-change" chart, appropriate for comparison of relative rates of change but not capable of being used for comparison of the actual numbers involved. The reader who is interested in the actual number of emigrants of the given type should turn to Table 38, which contains the data from which this chart is plotted.

While the six curves in Chart 28 show a pronounced general resemblance, there are noteworthy differences in detail.

Emigrants and Nonemigrants.

In the comparison between emigrants and nonemigrants in Chart 28 we again find that, although the fluctuations in the nonemigrant element are somewhat less violent, there are no persistent marked differences between the permanent and temporary elements. The male nonemigrant curve is quite similar to the emigrant curve, except that it reaches a peak in 1914 as compared with 1912 for emigrants, shows a spurt in 1918, reaches a peak in 1921 as compared

with 1920 for male emigrants, and does not decline so much after restriction becomes effective. The 1918 spurt is largely due to the inclusion in the number of nonemigrants of thousands of Chinese in transit across the United States for work behind the battle lines in France.

CHART 28

RELATIVE FLUCTUATIONS IN NUMBER OF EMIGRANTS AND NONEMIGRANTS, CLASSIFIED BY SEX: 1908-1924.

For a more complete discussion of the method of constructing the above chart, see footnote (b) to Chart 27.

The fluctuations in the number of emigrant and nonemigrant females, respectively, are also not markedly dissimilar, except that when immigration restriction became effective the accompanying decline in departures was more pronounced in the emigrant curve.

TABLE 38.-NUMBER OF EMIGRANTS AND NON EMIGRANTS, BY SEX,
1908-1924a

From the annual reports of the U. S. Commissioner General of Immigration and the Statistical Abstract of the United States.

Estimated on the assumption that the sex distribution of about 30,000 emigrants via the Canadian border, for whom sex is not known, is the same as that among the 196,000 emigrants for whom sex is known.

RELATIVE CYCLICAL FLUCTUATIONS IN MALE AND

Immigration by Sex.

FEMALE MIGRATION

In periods of industrial boom the proportion of males among the immigrants is high; in periods of depression it is low. This is as would be expected, for in a smaller proportion of cases is employment the immediate objective of female immigration and hence the time of this immigration is less dependent upon the current condition of industry than is the immigration of males. This greater susceptibility of male immigration to the state of employment is indicated in Chart 3, which appears in Chapter II, page 38. Upon examination of this chart, it will be noted that in 1885, 1894-1895, 1904, 1908, and 1922 (fiscal years), all of which were in depression periods, the proportion of males to females was appreciably smaller than in the preceding and following years.

This tendency may also be illustrated by the accompanying

table, showing the percentage decline in the depression years ending June 30, 1904, 1908, 1911, and 1922, respectively, as compared with the number of arrivals in the relatively high years immediately preceding.

In 1904 and 1911, the immigration of females even increased slightly, and in each of the other two depression years the decrease was less than that in male immigration of the corresponding period.

The greater stability of the movement of incoming alien females is further illustrated in Chart 27, on an earlier page in this chapter. The fluctuations in neither "female immigrants" nor "female nonimmigrants” are as decided as the corresponding fluctuations in the number of arriving male aliens. This fact is particularly noticeable prior to the war.

Emigration by Sex.

The number of outgoing females is somewhat less variable than that of males. For example, in 1909, when industrial conditions in the United States were improving, the decline in the number of departing females is relatively smaller; likewise in 1917, and again in 1921 and 1922.

The less pronounced movement of female emigration is illustrated by the curves in Chart 28, on page 143. All the curves-male and female emigrant and male and female nonemigrant-fell sharply during the war, but in both the pre-war and post-war periods, the fluctuations in female departures are somewhat less violent than those of male departures. There are exceptions to this tendency, such as the decline in "emigrant" females in 1924.

Inasmuch as ordinarily there are no marked differences in direction in the fluctuations of the emigration of the sexes, and as males are numerically the larger element in the total, for both emigrants and nonemigrants the curves for the combined numbers of males and females closely resemble the curves for males alone, although their fluctuations are toned down slightly by the lesser fluctuations of the female element.

OCCUPATIONAL COMPARISONS

That the wage-earning element in migration is most susceptible to depressions in this country may be illustrated by the fact that in severe depression years the ratio of laborers (farm laborers plus general laborers) to total immigration decreases, while the "no occupation" group becomes a larger fraction of the total. The fiscal years 1904, 1908, 1911, 1914, and 1922 correspond with industrial depressions, and in each one of these years, as shown in Table 40, the "laborers" group, in terms of percentages of the total, decreases relatively and the "no occupation" group increases.

TABLE 40.-THE EFFECT OF DEPRESSIONS UPON THE OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF IMMIGRANTS

Computed from statistics compiled by the United States Bureau of Immigration.

bDepression years.

•The war period is omitted.

Comparison between the cyclical fluctuations in the immigration of various occupational groups may also be made by means of the relative decline in depression years, as in the accompanying summary in Table 41.