Ellis Island Immigrants

Summary: This book provides an overview of immigration to the United States. It describes experiences common to most immigrants, regardless of their country of origin. All of the ethnic groups that arrived on America’s shores are included as well as the many cultures, languages, foods, religious views, and holidays each brought with them.

Immigrants needed money to come to America. Sometimes they would get their money from 'loan sharks'. Loan sharks are unlicensed lenders who will lend you money when no one else will. They often target unemployed people, immigrants, or lone parents. The loan sharks would lend the immigrants money and they would recollect it along with a little profit from interest. Other times immigrants would get money from family already living here. Ellis Island could be heaven for one family, and hell for another. Many people were sent out, no matter what their age. Families were broken apart because some members would be sent back, and some were allowed to stay.

The United States is made up of two different types of immigrants: those who are born on U.S. soil and those who travel to settle here. However, despite whether one is born in the United States or not for most their lineage runs back to other countries. It is evident that a majority of the U.S. first immigration wave was around the late 1800’s to the 1920’s. This was a time in which many immigrants where leaving their countries due to different reasons and finding prosperity in the U.S. In the book 97 Orchards: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement (97 Orchard) by Jane Ziegelman she explores and paints the history of five different immigrant families. The book goes into great detail sharing stories of daily

The author wrote this essay because he wanted to inform people about the trouble's immigrants had to face on their way to the United States. “It was occupied by passengers paying the lowest wage,” (Freedman 1). The boat rides to this country was very long and rough. Illness and diseases were going all around the passengers. Ellis Island was not much of a better scenario either. People were detained or even sent back. Living in America was also not a good time. The homes were run down and messed up everywhere.

Ellis Island was the gateway for over 12 million immigrants to the United States as the nation’s busiest immigrant inspection station for over sixty years from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with land reclamation between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the site of Fort Gibson and later a naval magazine. The island was made part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965, and has hosted a museum of immigration since 1990. In the museum, there are descriptions and stories from those who entered at the turn of the century, escaping persecution in the countries they left behind.

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door”(Lazarus).This is what America stood for when immigrants were free to come to the U.S., before the wars broke out and we became afraid that immigrants could be terrorists.

The shrieks of a hungry child pierce through the solemn silence. All those who hear can only endure the horrid noise, for there is nothing that can be done to help. Her family can no longer provide food for her. Their home country, Ireland, has faced a severe shortage in one of the main staples of the native cuisine: the potato. This famine led to a decrease in not only the amount of available food, but also in the amount of money that each individual family had (Irish and German). These issues in unison made life exceptionally hard for the common Irish citizen. There was a point when the amount of hardships was too much for families to bear. They had two options: stay and hope that life would get better in Ireland, or relocate to America,

The immigrants experienced a hard life in the twentieth century, because they came from a different country or continent and they had to adapt to the American life. They faced many difficulties such as trying to learn English and trying to get a job to earn money for food and shelter. Another difficulty for the immigrants in The Jungle was they were told lies about how much they were paying for their houses.

In the 19th century, many immigrants came over to the United States by entering Ellis Island, one of the biggest seagates to America, but they had to go through many steps in order to go beyond the border lines (Hillstrom, 2014). Ellis Island is a drop off location that let over one- hundred million immigrants enter America. Europe would be where most immigrants came from (Parrish, 2017). To arrive over to Ellis Island steamboats were used to transport the immigrants. On the steamboats, the immigrants were all part of “classes”. The poorer classes would be inspected right away, but the first and second classes, or rich people, would be sent right into the Great Hall to get sent into America. The only reason why somebody from first or second class would be held at Ellis Island was that if there was a problem with their paperwork, or if they were ill (“Processing Immigrant Arrivals at Ellis Island”, 2006,). After first and second class got to leave the Registry room and the Great Hall, the doctors came and started examining the immigrants (Parrish, 2017). Once Ellis Island got extremely busy newly President Theodore Roosevelt elected a commissioner, William Williams, to help keep Ellis Island clean and straight. The commissioners were people that would go around and check the immigrant's paper and make sure they weren't forged (Heaps, 1967). Ellis Island allowed many immigrants to enter America, but many were forced to go back to their country or told to stay at the station.

Why did immigrants leave there nice, warm homes? Some left because of a famine, or a loss of food. Others because they were escaping war. And some left just to go on an adventure. Little did they know that hard tests were coming their way.

The United States is a place of freedom and opportunity. From the beginning of the 19th century, the US experienced a large wave of immigration for those wanting to start a new life and seek economic, religious, and societal freedom. In 1950, my Nonna and Nonna emigrated from Italy and took full advantage of the opportunities that American had to offer. Although the immigration for my grandparents happened to be a smooth transaction, they both still dealt with cultural barriers, immigration stereotypes, and financial struggles. My grandparents were very fortunate to have a relatively easy immigration process when coming over to America, but many others struggled with tightly packed boats, immigration laws, and hardship and stress when

The Ellis Island Trip, taken by students in the International Human Rights class, taught by Upper School History teacher Stacy Savin, was held on Jan. 14.

Ellis Island was the source of much immigration back in the day. From 1892 to 1954, over 12 million immigrants arrived at Ellis Island (“Ellis Island History”). Most of the immigrants originate from all over Europe. Specifically, the main countries were Russia, Austria/Hungary, and Germany. A ton of the citizens today are descended from those immigrants. In fact, 40% of current U.S. citizens are related to at least one person who came from Ellis Island(“Ellis Island”). Due to this, those discouraging influxes of immigrants are obviously not cognizant of their own origins and the similarities between the two. This will lead to a better, more educated perspective on this topic.

“Remember, remember always, that all of us... are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.” says President Franklin D. Roosevelt about immigration. America is a country of immigrants, made up of people from all around the world. When our great, great grandparents traveled over to America, there were no big, fast planes to carry them overseas; they had to travel by dirty, slow boats that were only prepared to carry products and carriages. We know that there are many different people in America from different nations, but what was it like for those people to voyage all the way here, and what was it like to experience The Island of Immigrants, Ellis Island?

The major challenges that immigrants faced are that they were treated poorly and looked down on. These immigrants leaving their home what they know somewhere else they have no idea of but to start a new life. Also, everyone didn't like them because of their color or what they looked like. Since they were the minorities they were expected to work harder and keep their mouth shut, so what they did was work hard and prove their abilities and show them what they can do. America was where everyone wanted to come and live the dream. It is a multicultural country because everybody wanted to be here but at first, they weren't getting along. Over time, it got better and learned to work well with one another. But once a major situation happened with a certain ethnic group, others automatically associated with them and wanted them kicked out of America. After such situations tried to control immigration by not letting any other refugees in. So even though they tried to control it, it didn't help because America was built on diversity and when we all come together we are created equal which is more strength than you ever need.