° MIGRATION AND BUSINESS CYCLES 
four months in which employment decreases, there is an excess of 
arriving over departing male aliens, resulting, presumably, in an 
aggravation of seasonal unemployment; that in three more months 
the increase in employment is not adequate to absorb the net arri- 
vals; and lastly, that in the remaining five months of the year the 
excess of arrivals, which is numerically less than the increase in 
employment, may or may not be a helpful factor, according to 
whether or not the number of unemployed but employable resident 
workers is adequate to meet the increasing demand for labor. Obvi- 
ously, any conclusions concerning the net effect of unrestricted 
migration upon the amount of seasonal unemployment must neces- 
sarily be stated with reservations because of the incomplete 
nature of the data available for the estimates and the involved 
nature of the computations to which these data must be subjected. 
On the other hand, it is more apparent that the seasonal distribu- 
tion of immigration under the quota act of 1921 was not well timed 
with respect to the normal seasonal fluctuations in employment, 
and that the same criticism, though possibly to a lesser extent, is 
applicable to the quota provisions as revised in 1924. 
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