SIGNIFICANT FEATURES OF MIGRATION 
CHAPTER SUMMARY 
Upon the facts presented in this chapter, we have based the 
following major conclusions concerning the immigration elements 
to be selected for study and the method to be used in their analysis. 
1. Primary, though not exclusive, attention should be given to 
those alien arrivals and departures ordinarily designated, res- 
pectively, as alien immigrants and alien emigrants. 
2. For our purpose, the volume of male immigration is more 
significant than the volume of total immigration. 
3. Owing to the violence of the major fluctuations in immigration, 
the estimation of trends in the subsequent chapters 1s, in most cases, 
by the flexible method of moving averages, with adjustments in 
some instances to iron out minor irregularities. 
4. Immigration movements are characterized by strong seasonal 
fluctuations for which adjustment must be made to facilitate the 
study of cyclical fluctuations. 
5. The increasing fraction of total immigration contributed 
by the peoples of southern and eastern Europe in the years before 
the Great War suggests the desirability of special attention to the 
cyclical fluctuations in the leading elements of this group. 
6. Immigrants of the various races or peoples exhibit marked 
differences in the extent to which they establish a permanent 
residence in this country, indicating the desirability of comparing 
eyclical fluctuations in emigration by race or people. 
7. A large proportion of immigrants engage in relatively un- 
skilled occupations in factories, mines, and construction operations; 
hence special attention should be given to fluctuations in employ- 
ment in these industries and particularly to variations in the market 
for common labor. 
8. Lastly, the relative volume of migration compared with 
population is indicated by the fact that while, in this century, the 
annual number of net alien arrivals has exceeded one per cent of 
the total population only in 1907, in some of the years just before 
the Great War, the number of net arrivals of alien workers was 
equivalent to more than two per cent of the total number of wage 
earners attached to the leading industries in the United States. 
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