for example, in 1910, only 8.7 per cent were foreign born, whereas 48.0 per cent of those in mining and 31.9 per cent of those in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits have a foreign nativity. Of those classified as laborers in 1910, however, the foreign born represent 50.1 per cent of those in mining, 38.5 per cent in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, and 27.4 per cent of all classified as laborers.

It is obvious that for reasons of incapacity or difficulty in adjustment to American conditions, the immigrant is doing more than his per capita proportion of the common labor of industry. If the statistics gave us separate data for the newly arrived immigrant it seems unquestionable that an even greater proportion would be found in the ranks of the unskilled.

The percentage of laborers is particularly high among the immigrants of certain races. To illustrate, for the immigration years 1899 to 1910, three-fourths or more of the Greeks, the Slovaks, the South Italians, and the Poles were either general laborers or farm laborers. On the other hand, forty per cent or more of the Scotch, English, Welsh, and Hebrews are listed as skilled.

Occupational Changes.

The preponderance of unskilled among the immigrants and the tendency, particularly among the farmers and agricultural laborers, to abandon their old-country occupations upon arrival and thus to lose any opportunity fully to utilize their previous industrial experience, is clearly evidenced by the statistics of occupations of immigrants and emigrants in Table 8.

In the immigration years 1908 to 1923, 26 per cent of immigrants were classified as "laborers," while 70 per cent of emigrants are placed in this class. On the other hand, 25 per cent of immigrants and less than 2 per cent of emigrants are listed as farm laborers; and the skilled who compose 22 per cent of the immigrants were only 12 per cent of the emigrants. Even after allowing for a considerable degree of probable inaccuracy in the data, and also for the fact that probably a smaller proportion of foreign-born farmers and and farm laborers than of industrial workers emigrate, the conclusion seems unavoidable that many from the "farm laborer" and "skilled" occupations are in this country engaged in unskilled occupations in factories, mines, and construction operations. Mr. Louis Block1,

"Quarterly Publication of the American Statistical Association, June, 1921, pp. 750764, "Occupations of Immigrants Before and After Coming to the United States."

reached similar conclusions by comparing the occupational statistics of immigration in the decade 1900 to 1910 with the Census record of increases in the numbers in the several occupations.

Obviously, the unskilled elements in immigration and the cyclical variations in the employment of the unskilled worker in American industry are particularly worthy of attention in studying the relation of migration to the business cycle.

TABLE 8.-OCCUPATIONS OF IMMIGRANTS AND EMIGRANTS:
JULY 1, 1907, TO JUNE 30, 1923

"Compiled from the annual reports of the United States Commissioner General of Immigration for the years 1908 to 1923, inclusive.

bNet immigrants less emigrants.

The apparent excess of emigrant over immigrant laborers is probably caused by a large number of immigrants declaring their occupation as “agricultural laborer" on arrival and as "laborer" at departure.

Though the foreign born are found in other industries in considerable numbers, the industries which are particularly worthy of our attention are factory employment, coal mining, railroad maintenance, and construction work. Employment in these industries is clearly subject to cyclical variations and the immigrant is an important element in each, both in absolute numbers and in proportion to the native born.

The Volume of Immigration Relative to Population.

The significance of a given volume of immigration becomes more obvious when it is compared with population. In Table 9 we have a comparison between the population of the United States at the

decennial census periods and the volume of immigration during the ten years centering at July 1st of the census year. It will be noted that immigration was relatively greatest in the decade from July 1, 1846, to June 30, 1855, in which period the average annual immigration was about equal to one and one-quarter per cent of the total population. In no subsequent decade has the average annual ratio of immigration to population fallen below one-half of one per cent or much exceeded one per cent.

TABLE 9.-AVERAGE ANNUAL IMMIGRATION COMPARED WITH POPULATION,
BY DECADES

The population data are from the 1920 Census, Vol. II, p. 29; the average annual immigration is computed from data in the 1924 Annual Report of the Commissioner General of Immigration, p. 122, and from mimeographed bulletins of the U. S. Bureau of Immigration for the last six months of 1924, and, except in the last case, is the average over ten years centered at July 1st of the census year.

bAverage for ten years centered at January 1, 1920.

If we turn to a year-by-year comparison, we find, as would be expected, a greater variation in the ratio of immigration to population. In Table 10 is given a comparison between the total number of alien arrivals in fiscal years ending June 30th, and the estimated population on January 1st of the corresponding years, 12 and also a comparison between population and the net alien movement-that is, arrivals less departures.

It should be noted that the data in Table 9 include only those aliens officially recorded as immigrants, but that in Table 10 and Table 11 nonimmigrants and nonemigrants are also included; hence in the immediately following paragraphs the term "immigration" refers to all arriving aliens.

12This estimate of population was prepared by Dr. W. I. King, of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and is based upon interpolations between the decennial censuses with the aid of immigration data and the available statistics of births and deaths.

In the quarter century from 1900 to 1924, there have been substantial fluctuations in the relative volume of migration, even if the war period is excluded. The maximum was reached in 1907, just before the depression of 1907-1908, with an annual immigration equivalent to 1.7 per cent of the population.

The barriers created by war conditions checked immigration to such an extent that it dropped to a small fraction of its former volume, reaching low ebb in the year ending June 1918, with two

TABLE 10.-RATIO OF GROSS AND NET ALIEN ARRIVALS TO POPULATION

"Gross = Alien immigrants and nonimmigrants; net = gross arrivals less alien emigrants and nonemigrants.

As emigration statistics were not compiled prior to July 1, 1907, the number of departing aliens in the earlier years is estimated from the statistics of departing steerage passengers, by assuming that the ratio between departing aliens and departing steerage passengers which obtained for the period from July 1, 1907, to June 30, 1914, is applicable to the period from July 1, 1899, to June 30, 1907.

These population estimates are for January 1st, and were prepared by Dr. W. I. King, of the staff of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

alien arrivals to each one thousand population. By 1920, the incoming flow was gaining momentum and in the fiscal year of 1921 reached almost a pre-war level at 0.9 per cent. The depression of 1921 brought a marked reduction in the ratio during the fiscal year 1922, but in the two subsequent years, despite the restrictions of the three per centum quota law, the annual volume increased to over one-half of one per cent of the population.

Net arrivals exceeded one per cent of the population only in 1907, was relatively low in the depression years (fiscal) of 1904, 1908, 1911-1912, and particularly 1922, and, in some of the war years almost reached the vanishing point. In the year ending June 30, 1924, they had rallied, despite restrictive legislation, to over one-half of one per cent of the estimated population on January 1, 1924.

It may well be questioned whether a comparison between total immigration and total population is the most significant for our purposes. As we are concerned with the contribution of immigration to the supply of labor, a more significant ratio is obtained by comparing the number of alien arrivals (excluding those recorded as having "no occupation") with the estimated total number of gainfully employed in the United States. It might be even more pertinent to compare arrivals with the number of gainfully employed in those sections of the country in which the aliens settle in large numbers, but for the present at least we shall rest content with the comparison based upon data for the entire country.

Arriving aliens are classified according to the occupations followed in their home countries. Those, including women and children, who have no gainful occupations are placed in a "no occupation” group, the remainder, exclusive of the "no occupation" group, may, with substantial accuracy, be designated as "working immigrants.' Though many immigrants ultimately become independent farmers or set up in business for themselves, the great bulk of them, particularly in the period immediately after their arrival, become wage earners in factories, mines, building construction, or on farms. Consequently, an appropriate standard with which to compare the number of “working immigrants" is the number of wage earners in industry. In Table 11 such a comparison has been made between the gross and net arrivals of alien workers and the estimated number of wage earners attached to the leading industries. The workers considered "attached" to a given industry are those who look to that industry as their chief occupation, although they may be