Italian Immigration Diary Entry

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Michael Walsh 10/27/14 DNY paper #2 Dear Diary, It’s five O’clock in the morning and today was the day where my family and I finally got a chance to start over! We’ve been waiting for this day for as long as we can remember. I’m so excited to start a new job and finally be able to put food on the table for my wife and kids here in America! My name is Michael and I am from a little town in Italy called Erice which is located in Sicily. In the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, my family and I left Italy to travel to the beautiful New York City. My family and I were included in the 1890 New York census, which concluded that about 75,000 Italian were born as residents in New York. This all occurred before the Emergency Quota Act, which was an act that stated that about only three …show more content…

Following this act, out of six hundred million Italians in the United States, only eighteen million immigrants were allowed to travel throughout the year. When my family and I arrived to Ellis Island, we had to go through an inspection. Doctors were ordered to check if we were healthy enough to make a living in the states. I personally witnessed many immigrants fail their health inspection test, and return back to Italy. It was actually pretty upsetting knowing that my family could have been in their position. If one was to have some sort of criminal background on their record, they were known the fail the legal inspection and were sent back to Italy as well. There were a few requirements that we each had to reach in order for us to travel

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