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Angel Island Essay

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Angel Island is called “the Ellis Island of the West”. Angel Island was supposed to be a beacon of hope for many immigrants; who were wished to start a new life in the United States. These immigrants wished to achieve their own “American Dream”. Angel island did not live up to its name expectation of being a welcoming utopian paradise for immigrants. Angel Island had a plethora of people from many nationalities go through its doors. Yet, the immigration station becomes a “home” from many immigrants, using home in the loosest sense of the word. Over half a million people passed through the doors of the Western immigration station, but immigration officials detained a significant number of individuals. The population with the largest amount …show more content…

Out of this large number, a high number of dentitions occurred; seventy percent or about 300,000 of the immigrants who arrived at Angel Island were detained. Erika Lee and Judy Young break down that statistic, “100,000 Chinese, 85,000 Japanese, 8,000 South Asians, 8,000 Russian and Jews, 1,000 Koreans, 1,000 Filipinos, and 400 Mexicans,” The diverse population of the immigration station was quite difficult to meet. At Angel Island’s peak, there could be over thirty nationalities; who all spoke different languages. Adequate interpreters were sparse at the immigration station, this exacerbated the detention time. Angel Island ran during an immigration era of exclusion, particularly the Chinese. The Chinese Exclusion Act became law in 1882. The exclusion act prohibited the hiring of Chinese workers. Although Angel Island was allowed hire employees of Asian descent because there were not white proficient enough for these positions. These factors set a particular polemical situation for the immigrations coming to Angel Island.
Secondly, there was a major difference between the risk of detention at Angel Island for Chinese and Russia Jewish immigrant. Chinese immigrants had a significantly higher rate of detention than other groups especially, Russian Jews. Non-Chinese immigrants had a higher proclivity of avoiding passage to Angel Island to gain access to the United States. Out of the

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