gE MIGRATION AND BUSINESS CYCLES
Comparison of Selected Groups or Races.
In the reports of the U. S. Immigration Commission in 1910, the
interpretation was advanced that the response to industrial con-
ditions, particularly in the way of exodus, is most obvious among
the immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, inasmuch as a
larger proportion of these are “simply transients whose interest in
the country is measured by the opportunity afforded for labor.”
We have found some support for this conclusionin preceding para-
graphs dealing with immigration from separate countries and with
the groups contributing the so-called “old” and “new” immigration.
Additional significant contrasts are evident when attention is turned
to the statistics of immigration and emigration by race or people,
which are available beginning in the year ending June 30, 1899.
Immigration.
In Table 47 are shown the changes, compared with the pre-
vious year, in the years ending June 30, 1904, 1908, 1911, and
1922, in each of which there occurred a decline in industrial ac-
TABLE 47.— DECLINE IN DEPRESSION YEARS OF IMMIGRATION OF SELECTED
PEOPLES INTO THE UNITED STATES»
PER CENT DECREASE (—) OR INCREASE (4) FROM PRE-
YEAR ENDING JUNE 30 CEDING YEAR
= [i mel
1904 1908 WF T1011 19220
Op yr, comm gE 13.6 = 61.6
Bovok, Ji Lies 13.30 —61.5° W —33.900K, —52.9
South Ttalianic lh ln —18.8 —54.4 —17.1 | —82.0
Polish, (T0100 inl Ce 17.7 —50.7 —44.3 —69.9
Worth Tealian i — 2.0 —52.1 — 1.5 —77.8
Wevmoml.. «x. ha lai ~21.4% Jal — 6.9 429.2
A + 4ls — 5.9 + 4.9 —56.0
Flebrew., 7. nbn, +39.4 —30.7 +83 I —55.0
English. ..... . CSS 145.8 S40 L740 S413
aComputed from statistics in Annual Report of the Commissioner General of Immigration, 1924, p. 114,
U. S. Bureau of Immigration.
bAffected by quota law restrictions.
tivity accompanied by a decline in total immigration. Of the
several leading races tabulated, the Polish, South Italian, and
Slovak show the most consistent tendency to drop sharply in the
given depression years. Of course, it is difficult to determine how
2[nited States Immigration Commission, Abstract of Reports, Vol. 1, p. 179.
166
