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Consular Service of the State Department, assisted by technical advisers of the Immigration Service, is the accomplishment, however, that affords keenest satisfaction. These matters and many others of more than passing interest and importance are hereinafter discussed in more or less detail. The activities of the bureau and field forces of the Immigration Service are so numerous, diversified, and complex that to discuss them, as I would like to do, is impossible within the limits of a report of this character. Many of these are reflected in the tabulations which follow the text. For those who care to study them, they will be found eloquent of the magnitude of the work being carried on by the bureau and its field forces. These tabulations do not, however, tell the story of the thousands upon thousands of human problems met and solved, nor do they afford the slightest conception of the patient toil, integrity, pride, loyalty, and self-sacrificing devotion to duty of hundreds of employees by or through whose efforts the results recorded have been made possible, nor do they reflect the steady, consistent improvement both in the field and in the bureau that has generally characterized the law's administration during the period covered by this report.

IMMIGRATION

VOLUME CHIEF SOURCES-ADMISSIONS REJECTIONS-DISTRIBUTION

During the fiscal year covered by this report 538,001 aliens were admitted and 253,508 departed, resulting in an increase of 284,493 in the alien population. In the fiscal year next preceding the net increase was 268,351, during which period 496,106 aliens were admitted and 227,755 departed.

Of the 538,001 aliens admitted in the fiscal year just closed, 335,175 were immigrants, or newcomers for permanent residence, and 202,826 were nonimmigrants returning from a temporary sojourn abroad or coming here for a visit. Nearly three-fourths, or, to be exact, 180,142 of the aliens who departed in the fiscal year just closed were nonemigrants, i. e., those who had previously come for a short stay and those who, having come for permanent residence, upon departing announced an intention of returning. The remaining 73,366 aliens who departed during the year were emigrants leaving with the announced intention of residing permanently abroad.

Nearly one-half of the immigrants admitted during the past year came from countries in the Western Hemisphere, with Canada and Mexico far in the lead. These two countries, with 81,506 and 67,721, respectively, contributed nearly 45 per cent of the total number of immigrants for the year. Europe sent us 168,368 immigrant aliens in the same period, Germany with 48,513 leading the list, followed by the Irish Free State with 28,054, and Great Britain with 23,669. Italy sent us 17,297 immigrants this past year, and the Scandinavian countries 16,860. All the other countries of Europe combined sent 33,975. Compared with the figures for the previous year, Canadian immigration decreased 10.5 per cent, Mexican immigration increased 56.3 per cent, and European immigration increased 8.2 per cent. The principal contributions of the immigrant class considered racially were as follows: Mexican, 66,766; German, 56,587; Irish, 44,726; English, 40,165; Scotch, 25,544; French, 19,313; Scandinavian, 19,235; Italian, 18,529; and Hebrew, 11,483.

Less than one-sixth of the immigrants of the past year were children, 51,689 being under 16 years of age, while 254,574 ranged from 16 to 44 years, and 28,912 were 45 years of age or over.

The male immigrants numbered 194,163, the female 141,012. However, a number of countries furnished more females than males, conspicuously Greece, with 573 males and 1,516 females. Other countries the female immigrants from which exceeded the male were Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Rumania, Russia, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. The excess of females over males from these countries consisted mostly of the alien wives of United States citizens.

An interesting and, it may be said, wholly unexpected situation, and withal a thoroughly wholesome one, has developed from the present quota system as revealed by the figures showing distribution, by States, of quota immigrants. The newcomers are spreading more evenly throughout the country than before. No longer is there the same concentration of the flow to the congested centers of population of the East; on the contrary, there is a marked drift to the Central West and to the States beyond the Rockies. However, the State of New York still leads all others as the settling ground of the present-day immigration, although its overwhelming lead of prequota years has been lost. This situation is partially reflected in the following figures: During the last fiscal year there were 87,864 immigrant aliens admitted who gave the Empire State as their destination, while 32,363 from that State were recorded as emigrating, a net gain of but 55,501, a figure in sharp contrast with those representing New York's gains in the years before the World War. Massachusetts received 25,907 and lost 5,900, a net gain of 20,007. Michigan received 28,104 and lost 3,128, a net gain of 24,976. Texas, a distinctly agricultural State, received 43,139 and lost but 1,467, a net gain of 41,672. Of the Pacific Coast States, California received 26,029 and lost 4,954, a net gain of 21,075. Washington received 5,440 and lost 1,085, a net gain of 4,355. The Southern States, as usual, gained but little by immigration, Florida receiving the largest number, 2,512 going to that State and 1,360 leaving, a net gain of 1,152. South Carolina received the fewest of all, 56, and lost 9, a net gain of 47.

If the amount of money per capita exhibited by immigrants upon arrival may be regarded as any index to their relative economic value, racially considered, the Pacific Islander came first, followed in the order named by the Welsh, Spanish American, East Indian, English, Spanish, French, Scotch, and Dutch. Immigrants of these races admitted during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1927, were recorded as bringing an average of $97 each.

A total of 15,809 aliens "ineligible to citizenship" were admitted during the fiscal year 1927, mainly as returning residents, visitors, or transits. Of this number there were 8,305 Chinese, 218 East Indians, 7,177 Japanese, 90 Koreans, and 19 Pacific Islanders.

The total recorded number of aliens of all classes admitted at Canadian borderland ports during the fiscal year, including those coming initially for permanent residence and those returning for permanent residence after more than six months' absence, was 95,420. Seventy-seven per cent, or 73,222, of these were born in Canada and the bulk of them came in under the act of 1924 as natives

of that country. Of the remainder, 19,938 were born in Europe, being mostly quota immigrants; 1,186 were born in Newfoundland, 376 in Asia, 346 in Australia and New Zealand, and 352 in other countries. Aliens of the same statistical status admitted during the same period at Mexican borderland ports numbered 81,539; practically all of these (over 96 per cent) were natives of Mexico.

There is a continuous exodus of aliens to Europe, particularly to the southern and eastern sections. During the past year 33 emigrant aliens returned to Europe for every 100 immigrants admitted from that continent, but considered as a separate group the emigration to Finland Greece, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Yugoslavia was greater by 5,879 than the immigration therefrom.

During the year 19,755 aliens were barred from entering the United States, this being the lowest number for any year since the present quota law went into effect. Of this number only 3,111 were rejected at the seaports of entry while 16,644 were turned back at ports of entry along the land border. At New York, our principal seaport, and where the bulk of the immigration from overseas continues to land, 299,112 aliens sought admission during the year, of whom 1,319 were barred, or less than 5 out of every 1,000 applicants. The majority of these rejected were stowaways and seamen seeking lodgment in the United States without first having obtained visas from American consuls. At the same port during the flood tide of immigration before the World War, when no quota restrictions were in effect, nor any prefiltering by United States officers in Europe, the ratio of rejections was over 16 for every 1,000 applicants.

Alien stowaways discovered on board of vessels arriving at United States ports during the fiscal year just closed numbered 1,906, and alien seamen to the number of 23,447 deserted their ships. This is an increase of both classes as compared with the previous fiscal year, when 1,789 stowaways and 18,456 deserting seamen were reported. The restrictive force of the present immigration laws may best be realized by comparing the total number of immigrants received during the past fiscal year with one of six years prior to the World War when immigration passed the million mark. A considerably larger number of aliens then came from certain individual countries than now come from all Europe. In the year 1913, when immigration reached the total of 1,197,892, the former Russian Empire contributed 291,040 immigrants to this country, and during the same year 265,542 came from Italy, while 254,825 came from Austria-Hungary. In the fiscal year 1927 only 168,368 immigrant aliens were admitted from all European countries.

MEXICAN IMMIGRATION

The total Mexican immigration to the United States during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1927, was 80,639, comprising 66,766 immigrant aliens, or newcomers for permanent residence in this country, and 13,873 nonimmigrants, aliens of the temporary class, either coming for a visit of less than a year or returning after a short absence from the United States. During the same period, 10,954 Mexican aliens were recorded as leaving the United States, practically all going to Mexico, 2,774 being of the emigrant class and 8,180 of the nonemigrant class. The net addition of this race to the alien popu

lation of the United States for the year just ended was 69,685. This is 15,237 more than for the fiscal year 1926 and 24,667 more than for the year 1925, but 32,530, or 31.8 per cent, less than the excess for the fiscal year 1924, the peak year for admission of Mexicans, a total of 105,787 aliens of this race having been admitted that year and only 3,572 departed.

While the real immigration of Mexicans-immigrant aliensduring the fiscal year 1927 exceeded that of the preceding year by 24,128 and that of the year 1925 by 34,388, it was 20,882, or 23.8 per cent, below the high-water mark for arriving Mexicans reached in the year 1924. The number of Mexican immigrant aliens admitted during these four years was 66,766 in 1927, 42,638 in 1926, 32,378 in 1925, and 87,648 in 1924. The abrupt drop in the number of immigrants in 1925 was undoubtedly due, very largely, if not entirely, to the fact that it was the first year following the adoption of the visa requirement and visa fee of $10.

The immigration statistics also show that the bulk of the Mexican immigrants admitted are adults, 41,475, or 62.1 per cent of the total admitted, being over 21 years of age and three-fourths (31,159) of these were males. The ratio of all minors and adult females to adult males is approximately 5 to 4. As to the sex, age, and conjugal condition of these Mexican immigrants, 48,107 are males and 18,659 females; 10,304 are under 16 years of age, 14,987 are from 16 to 21 years old, 22,010 from 22 to 29 years, 9,723 from 30 to 37 years, 4,906 from 38 to 44 years, and 4,836 are 45 years of age or over. The male single numbered 27,558 and the female single 9,113; the male married, 19,783, and the female married, 7,622; the male widowed, 751, and female 1,903. There were 15 male and 21 female divorced.

Only one Mexican out of every three was going to join his immediate family or other relative already established in the United States, and in addition the male married were nearly three times the number of female married. These facts indicate, as did the figures for the previous year (1926), that many of the Mexican wage earners are coming alone, leaving their families in Mexico.

Of the 66,766 Mexican immigrants admitted in the fiscal year 1927, the unskilled workers predominate, 33,832 giving their occupation as that of common laborer, 1,615 as farm laborer, and 1,376 as servant. The professional class numbered only 988, the teachers leading the list with 320, followed by the clergy with 189 and musicians with 159. There were 4,722 recorded as skilled workers of various kinds and 1,491 as of the miscellaneous classes, while 22,742 were listed as having no occupation-mainly women and children.

With few exceptions, all the aliens coming from south of the Rio Grande are of the Mexican race and all the Mexicans admitted are natives of Mexico. During the fiscal year 1927 a total of 81,722 aliens, born in Mexico, were admitted to the United States, and of this number 77,155 entered the country under section 4 (c) of the immigration act of 1924. Of the 80,639 Mexican aliens admitted during the past year, 80,499 were natives of Mexico and 76,657 entered the United States under section 4 (c) of the act. If the quota limitations applied to Mexico her annual allotment, based on 2 per cent of the 77,853 natives of Mexico in this country in 1890, would be 1,557.

Aliens of the Mexican race debarred from entering the United States during the fiscal year 1927 numbered 1,794 (1,165 male and 629 female). The principal causes for these rejections were: Without immigration visa (1,356), likely to become a public charge (206), mentally or physically defective (75), unable to read-over 16 years of age (64), and criminal and immoral classes (44). In the same year, 2,701 Mexicans were deported under warrant proceedings after entering the United States, practically all having been returned to Mexico via the land border.

In the fiscal year 1927 a total of 2,774 emigrant aliens of the Mexican race left the United States to make their future homes in some foreign country, mainly Mexico; or about 4 Mexican emigrants having been recorded as permanently departed for every 100 Mexican immigrants admitted during the year. The bulk of these departures were recent arrivals in the United States, 2,006 of the Mexican emigrants leaving during the year 1927 having made their permanent residence in this country from 1 to 5 years and 2,431 not over 10 years, while 191 had been here from 10 to 15 years, 96 from 15 to 20 years, 28 from 20 to 25 years, and 28 had resided here continuously for over 25 years. Of the Mexican emigrants leaving last year, 1,978 were males and 796 females; 1,652 were recorded as single, 974 as married, 146 as widowed, and 2 as divorced. The number giving their ages as under 16 years numbered 307; 2,255 were in the prime of life, from 16 to 44 years of age, and 212 were 45 years of age

or over.

In last year's annual report reference was made to the fact that 486,418 persons born in Mexico were resident of the United States as shown by the census of 1920; that since then the net increase of Mexicans though immigration was 369,480, making a grand total of 855,898 Mexicans then in the United States, to say nothing of the number of such aliens who presumably have entered since 1920 through other than the regular channels. The estimate then made of a resident population of over 1,000,000 Mexican aliens is believed to understate the situation rather than overstate it.

The following table showing persons in the United States and specified cities reported as born in Mexico-as shown by the census. reports from 1850 to 1920-is interesting in this connection:

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As indicated by what has preceded, the present quota law, coupled with preinspection abroad, accomplishes, with a minimum of hardship and complaint, even more than its most ardent proponents expected of it.

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