CHAPTER X 
SUMMARY 
The problem under discussion in the foregoing chapters is the 
relation of seasonal and cyclical fluctuations in employment to 
seasonal and cyclical fluctuations in migration, with particular 
reference to immigration into, and emigration from, the United 
States. The major issues may conveniently be recapitulated in 
two questions—namely: 
(1) To what extent are fluctuations in migration attributable to 
fluctuations in employment? 
(2) To what extent, in turn, are fluctuations in migration an 
ameliorating influence, and to what extent an aggravating 
factor, in employment and unemployment fluctuations? 
Similarities in Fluctuations of Employment and Migration. 
With reference to the first of the above questions, the facts pre- 
sented in the preceding chapters show clearly that there are both 
strong cyclical and seasonal movements in immigration and emi- 
gration and abundant evidence that when immigration is not res- 
tricted the character of the cyclical variations, at least, is closely 
similar to the cyclical variations in employment opportunity in the 
United States. A fairly close similarity is also found in the seasonal 
movements. The seasonal peak in immigration is in the spring, 
well-timed for the summer increase in those outdoor activities in 
which many new immigrants ordinarily find employment; and the 
maximum emigration is reached in the late fall and early winter 
when jobs are becoming relatively scarce. Similarly, a period of 
depression in the United States is ordinarily accompanied or closely 
followed by a decline in immigration and an increase in emigration; 
and a period of prosperity, by an increase in immigration and a 
decline in emigration. This statement is not, of course, to be in- 
terpreted as signifying an invariable rule. For this and the other 
tendencies noted below, there have been various exceptions and 
qualifications mentioned in the more detailed analysis in the sep- 
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