TABLE 4.-PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION OF IMMIGRANTS ACCORDING TO "OLD" AND "NEW" SOURCES, BY YEARS: 1870-1924.

100 per cent the total number of immigrants for whom country of origin is known

For 1870-1910, from the United States Immigration Commission, Statistical Review of Immigration 1820-1910; for 1911-1924, computed from statistics published by the U. S. Bureau of Immigration. Prior to 1906, immigrants were recorded by the country from which they departed; thereafter by the country of last permanent residence.

The "old" sources include the countries of northern and western Europe, namely: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

The "new' sources include the countries of eastern and southern Europe now known as Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Jugoslavia, Bulgaria, Finland, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Russia, Spain, Turkey in Europe, and certain other small European countries designated as "other Europe;" also Turkey in Asia.

d"Other countries" includes all sources of immigration not included in "old" and "new" sources as above defined. In recent years most of this group came from Canada and Mexico. The fact noted in this chapter that immigrants from or through Canada were, in earlier periods, recorded incompletely or not at all, limits the comparability of the above percentage distributions.

forty groups for which statistics are given by the Bureau of Immigration under the caption "races or peoples." For a discussion of these "races or peoples," see the Reports of the United States Immigration Commission, Vol. 9, Dictionary of Races or Peoples.

to have statistics of the immigration of races like the Slovaks, Poles, and Hebrews10 which either constitute only a part of the immigration from some one country or, on the other hand, an important fraction of the immigration from two or more countries, the U. S. Bureau of Immigration began in 1899 to collect statistics of immigration by race or people. Beginning with the fiscal year ending June 30, 1908,

CHART 5

GROSS AND NET IMMIGRATION OF SELECTED RACES:
JULY 1, 1907, TO JUNE 30, 1923.

similar statistics are available for emigration. The numerical facts concerning the immigration and emigration of the nine races which contributed the largest numbers of immigrants in the sixteen years from July 1, 1907, to June 30, 1923, are given in Table 5 and Chart 5. Though it is not the tenth in number of immigrants, the Russian race is also included to facilitate comparison with the numbers of

10Objection is sometimes made to the use of the word Hebrew as indicating a race Here again we have followed the practice of the Bureau of Immigration in designating the Hebrews as a "race or people.'

certain non-Russian races, such as the Poles and Hebrews, many of whom come from Russia. It will be noted that the three leading races in number of immigrants were the South Italians, Hebrews, and Poles, in the order named.

TABLE 5.-IMMIGRATION AND EMIGRATION OF LEADING RACES:

Compiled from data given in the Annual Report of the Commissioner General of Immigration, 1923, p

117-118.

bIncluding the races not listed in this table.

Net immigration = immigration less emigration. Computed from the original statistics before they were reduced to thousands.

Racial Differences in the Ratio of Emigrants to Immigrants.

For all races, including those not listed separately in Table 5, the net immigration, or immigration less emigration, equals about sixty-five per cent of gross immigration. The tendency to emigrate is far from equal in the several races or peoples. In general, the percentage of permanent residents is high for the Hebrews and the races of northern and western Europe and low for the races of southern and eastern Europe except the Hebrews. Though the incoming South Italians far exceeded in number the immigrants of any other race, the net immigration for this race was only forty-four per cent of arriving immigrants in the fiscal years 1908 to 1923; while it was almost ninety-five per cent for the Hebrews, eightynine per cent for the Irish, and over eighty per cent for the Germans. In other words, the Germans, Irish, and Hebrews ordinarily come to stay; but large numbers of the South Italian immigrants, after a more or less short period of labor and saving, return to their native

land, as has been their custom for decades in this and other countries to which they have emigrated. This practice has given rise to the statement that the Italian comes and goes as he is wanted. The accuracy of this statement we shall consider more at length in later pages.

We shall find it interesting, in subsequent analysis, to note whether this relatively temporary nature of the immigration of certain races is accompanied by an appreciably greater susceptibility to cyclical influences. We have seen that for every ten South Italians arriving in the United States approximately six of that race depart as emigrants. Is their departure closely correlated with the business cycle?

Occupations of Immigrants.

The great bulk of immigrants have been engaged in their native countries in relatively unskilled occupations, as agricultural or common laborers, and in this country enter, on the whole, occupations of the unskilled or semi-skilled grade. In many instances entrance in this country into the ranks of common labor is not necessarily due to incapacity for more skilled occupations, but in part to the inability or failure of the immigrant to capitalize his past experience. Thousands of former farmers and agricultural workers find their way into factory, mine, or construction camp; and many skilled handicraftsmen, handicapped by differences in language and different methods of production, find an inadequate market for their specialized skill and drift into the ranks of the unskilled or at most semi-skilled.

The above conclusions rest upon a comparison of the information obtained by the U. S. Bureau of Immigration concerning the occupations of immigrants prior to their entry and the occupations of emigrants while in this country, and also upon collateral evidence in the decennial Census of Occupations, the reports of the Immigration Commission in 1910, and various fragmentary studies. This evidence, though not complete, is reasonably conclusive as to the major tendencies.

As shown by the 1910 and 1920 Census of Occupations, between forty and fifty per cent of the foreign born workers enter mechanical and manufacturing pursuits; while less than fifteen per cent are found in the agricultural pursuits (Table 6). The tendency for the foreign born to engage in the unskilled labor of certain industries is evidenced by the data in Table 7. Of all employed in agriculture,

TABLE 6.-OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF FOREIGN-BORN Whites:

Compiled from the U. S. Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census of the United States, Vol. IV, pp. 340-341. These occupation statistics include persons ten years of age or over.

TABLE 7.-THE PROPORTION OF FOREIGN-BORN WHITES IN THE TOTAL OF THE GAINFULLY EMPLOYED AND AMONG "LABORERS," BY OCCUPATIONAL

Compiled from the Thirteenth Census of the United States, Vol. IV, Occupation Statistics, and the Fourleenth Census of the United States, Vol. IV, Occupations.

bIncludes mining and quarrying and is consequently not exactly comparable with the 1920 total.

•Excludes mining and quarrying.

dThe 1920 Census does not classify laborers separately in this industry.

The 1910 Census listed some laborers in "occupations connected with professional service," but the 1920 Census gave no laborers under the designation "professional service."