Encountering Ellis Island: How European Immigrants Entered America

Fourteen million hopeful immigrants from Europe and Russia coursed through Ellis Island between 1892 through 1924; irrevocably changing American demographics even as the spike resulted in stricter immigration laws. Bayor (Neighbor in Conflict), former president of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society, fills his quick-moving narrative with dozens of oral and written accounts of those who experienced the “Island of Hope, Island of Tears” in their quest for the American dream. Fleshing out the harsh reality of degrading physical and mental examinations and heart-wrenching familial separations behind the mythologized checkpoint, Bayor describes the infrastructure of the island, using short, revealing first-person staff reports to describe the hospital, school, and sleeping arrangements for those who suffered weeks of detainment. He notes that as crowded and rat-infested as Ellis Island was, the immigration process experienced by Europeans contrasted sharply with that of the openly disparaged Chinese immigrants callously herded through Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. Once dilapidated and unsuccessfully listed for sale, the impressive fortress-like building and surrounding area became a National Park attraction, memorializing the inspirational yet unforgiving process of immigration channeled through layers of bureaucracy. Illus. (May)