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Ellis Island Research Paper

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From the start of the 20th century until today, immigrants haven’t been treated as equal as natives, however that didn’t stop immigrants from entering the US. America received a lot of immigrants up to 20 million, mainly coming from Europe. The immigrants went through a variety of check ups in Ellis Island, which determines their fate of entering America or not. The check up revolved around health. Ellis Island had a high acceptance rate, which was “Approximately 80 percent successfully passed through in a matter of hours, but others could be detained for days or weeks” (Ellis Island). As well as 80 percent sounds amazing, it isn’t the best because lots who made it had to leave family behind who got rejected. Also the article stated that …show more content…

Millions of newly arrived immigrants passed through the station during that time. Immigrants would be checked physically for any diseases to see if they would be approved to enter the United States. In the beginning of 1925 to its closing in 1954, “only 2.3 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island–which was still more than half of all those entering the United States”(Ellis Island). Other immigrants staying at Ellis Island lived in really bad conditions to the point where many immigrants couldn’t survive. Not to mention, Ellis Island wasn't even big therefore many people were cramped towards each other which made the odds of being ill a lot higher. Furthermore at Ellis Island “In June 15, 1897 a fire destroyed the buildings and killed many immigrants” (Immigration). This fire nearly killed everyone and unfortunately, only two hundred seventy people were able to survive (Immigration). Lastly, immigrants who passed Ellis Island still had to go through 1 more test to get to America. Immigrants were then lead to a “great hall where they were asked 29 questions” (Ellis Island). These questions consisted mainly of personal information like what's your name, how old are you and some history questions like what is the 4th of July (Questions Asked of Immigrants at Ellis …show more content…

Nativism was a big storm of hatred towards immigrants in the Twentieth Century. Also “By 1855, more than 50,000 men belonged to the ritual-bound organization” (Nativism). In other words, more than 50,000 men were anti catholics and wanted to kill them. This was an act that was targeted against immigrants then it excelled to another multifarious amount of people. Additionally, immigration “served as a catalyst for anti-Semitism in much the same way as it did for anti-Catholic sentiment” (Nativism). This demonstrates how immigration was the reason why this discrimination started. To add, all of these anti discrimination killed many natives and immigrants. On top of all those discrimination, hatred there was another anti black group. In the 1920s there was a KKK Klan against blacks. The “Klan began to lose members following the passage of the Immigration Act (1924), which severely cut back immigration from southern and eastern Europe. By the end of the 1920s, following an era of prosperity for the white middle class, the Klan had only 82,000 members” (Nativism). This clan was powerful enough to stop black immigration and this is all because nativism. For instance, immigration was equally spread, but because of the KKK klan, black immigrants were denied immigration to the

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