Ellis Island Immigration Case Study

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Dear Jimmy Sullivan, Greetings cousin Jimmy! I have exciting news to share with you and the family back home. I have successfully been accepted into America! I had to go through a place known as “Ellis Island.” From what I heard, Ellis Island was once originally was a 3 acre pile of sand and mud, and when high tide rolled around, it could barely be seen above the water. Then, in 1891, the United States made plans to convert it into the federal government’s immigration inspection center. As you know, I arrived here in 1902 and the total number of immigrants from our home country of Asia has reached 22,271! Coming to America may sound easy, but believe me, getting here is just the tip of the iceberg. My fellow immigrants and I had to undergo …show more content…

Since many of the original immigrants to America were criminals and mentally ill people, America was viewed as a dump rather than the nation of freedom it had worked so hard to achieve. The American federal government decided it needed to do something. Eventually, in 1902, countries that had shipped people from their own country to America had stopped selling tickets to people that were ill or insane. After this change, immigration through Ellis Island improved. Doctors and inspectors were stationed at the immigration center and they were tasked with finding physical weaknesses, such as limited vision, broken bones, and contagious diseases. These people were sometimes treated, but mostly they were sent back to their home countries. When I went to my inspection, the doctors saw my sword wound, but surprisingly when they tested my strength, they passed me with flying colors. Most of the immigrants who were granted access into this country settled in New York because it was connected to Ellis Island. Most New York neighborhoods put restrictions on the immigrants because their lifestyles differed from the Americans way of life. However, some neighborhoods set up aids for the immigrants to attempt to help them to …show more content…

I never had to take the literacy test but I am sure I would’ve passed it because I was one of the smartest adolescents in our village! Roosevelt acted and then immigration centers, such as Ellis Island, were required to have stricter rules and expectations for the arriving immigrants so they could follow Roosevelt’s motto. These restrictions lessened the amount of immigrants that were granted access into the country. They also severely limited the amount of immigrants coming from the southern and western part of Europe. In result of these changes, Ellis Island saw less and less immigrants passing through each year, and eventually the famous immigration center was gradually converted into a detention center. Now that I look back, I never really thought about Ellis Island after I was cleared to become apart of this beautiful nation. During the years of World War II, Ellis Island was used as a prison for suspected Nazi and fascist sympathizers. Then finally in 1954, the once proud and symbolic immigration center closed its doors and stood in the New York Bay, abandoned. As the years passed by, Ellis Island was reopened as a tourist attraction. I went back there with my wife, Valery, and it had been almost 60 years since I had

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