Welcome to America: The Immigrant Experience

<div style="text-align:center"><img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/Immigrantfamilystatueofliberty.jpg" width=30% alt="Immigrant family lookes at statue of liberty"></div> America is a land of immigrants. Many of the first immigrants came from western Europe, countries such as England, Spain, and france. These immigrants are now known as "old immigrants." "New immigrants" began to flood the United States from Eastern Europe, countries like Italy, Russia, and Greece. They came to escape problems in their homelands (*push factors*) and to find better jobs (*pull factors*). Immigrants also came from places like China and Japan, but not all ethnic groups were treated the same. *You are going to follow the path of one of these immigrants and help them try to find a new home in the United States of America.* **Pick where your character is from:** [[Italy]] [[China]]

<div style="text-align:center"><img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/italy-map-flag.png" width=50% alt="Map of Italy"></div> Congratulations! After months of planning and saving you have enough money to travel from your home in Italy to New York City. Now it is time to buy your ticket! Just like airlines today, ships that traveled from Europe to the United States sold both first class luxury tickets and economy tickets. Economy tickets were called //steerage.// [[Buy a ticket in steerage]] [[Buy a first class ticket]]

<div style="text-align:center"><img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/dragon-line-area.png" width=50% alt="Chinese Dragon"></div> Congratulations! After months of planning and saving you have enough money to travel from your home in China to San Francisco, California. One of the things you need to arrange before you leave China is a sponsor family in America who will claim you are their child. You will also need forged paperwork that "proves" your relationship. Doing this is both a lie and against the law in the United States, but it may be the only way to gain permanant residence papers. This is known as being a "paper son." <img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/Paperson.jpg" width=50% alt="document certifying the family relationship between a Chinese immigrant and an American resident"> Do you get papers and a fake family? [[Yes!]] [[No!]] <audio src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/audio/180239__iluppai__chinese-flute-hulusi.wav" autoplay>

First Class tickets are expensive! You are a poor chinese laborer, and you will need your money when you get to America. This is no time for luxury! Now go back there and buy that steerage ticket! Return to the previous screen: [[Go Back|Yes!]]

<img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/Chinese_Emigration_to_America.jpg" width=100% alt="Drawing of a Group of Chinese Immigrants eating dinner on a ship"> Steerage is crowded, and it is often dirty and smelly, but it is your path to a more prosperous future. Your ticket gets you a small bunk bed in a room with other steerage passengers, mostly other chinese laborers. You talk together, making fun of the dirty, rude English speaking sailors. They call you "long-tailed Chinaman," making fun of your traditional hair style, called a queue. You call them white devils, in chinese of course, which they don't understand. They don't like you and you dislike and distrust them back. [[Next| Buy Steerage Ticket 2]] <audio src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/audio/450755__florianreichelt__waves-of-hawaii.wav" autoplay>

<img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/steeragepassengers.jpg" width=100% alt="Passengers in Steerage"> Steerage is crowded, and it is often dirty and smelly, but it's your path to a new life. Your ticket gets you a small bunk bed in a room with other steerage passengers. Ships crammed as many people in steerage as possible. The passengers speak in different languages. There is an Italian family traveling together, but they are the only other people who speak your language. Depending on the ship, meals might be provided or you may have to bring your own food, but don't worry, you will be too seasick to eat much food anyways! After several days at sea the sailors yell "Land ho!" You rush to deck and join the crowd jostling for a spot at the rail. There, in the distance, you see it: land. And a lady, holding up her torch, guards the harbor and welcomes strangers to a new life. Your fellow travelers drift back inside, but you stand there a bit longer, gazing at the distant shore, and wondering what it holds for you. The first ferry boats arrive several hours later, but they were for first class. Port officials checked paperwork, and then the wealthy passengers left, the ferries taking them straight to the city. Steerage passenger wait, and wait some more. Sailors say it might take a day or two for it to be your turn, so you all settle down for another night on the ship. The middle of the next day you board the ferries. Excitment shivers in the air as you press together on the bench seats and strain to see your next stop: [[Ellis Island]] <audio src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/audio/450755__florianreichelt__waves-of-hawaii.wav" autoplay>

First Class tickets are expensive! You are an average immigrant, and you will need your money when you get to New York. This is no time for luxury! Now go back there and buy that steerage ticket! Return to the previous screen: [[Italy]]

<img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/ellisislandwithferry.jpg" width=100% alt="Ellis Island with Ferry docked nearby"> The ferry docks at the pier with a hard thump that almost knocks you off your feet. The gang plank has barely dropped in place before you heft your soft-sided suitcase in your hand, toss your duffle bag over your shoulder, and push through the crowd toward the dock. Land! For the first time since leaving Italy the surface you are standing on is solid. It takes you a moment to adjust, and you almost stumble, but you keep walking, excitement and uncertanty all mixed and bubbling inside you. The women from the Italian family who traveled with you gathers her children around her, looking like a hen rounding up her chicks. Her voice is sharp and demanding, but a dampness in her eyes betrays the tears she is holding back. The mass of people surge toward a large building and you are carried along, but as you hurry forward you look around, and you can see the massive lady lifting her torch, and behind her the city of plans and dreams: New York. [[The Registry Room]] <audio src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/audio/162350__felix-blume__boat-horn.wav" autoplay>

<img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/angelislandimmigrationcenter.jpg" width=100% alt="panoramic picture of Angel Island Immigration Center"> Your ship has anchored in San Francisco Bay, near Angel Island. You wait as immigration officials talk to the captain. "Divide into groups on the deck! First class passengers in the dinning room! White passengers on the front deck! Chinese to the back!" The order is shouted over and over. You learned some english before your trip, so you interprete for others who don't understand. Everyone slowly shuffles into their assigned area and then we wait. First class passengers soon begin boarding the ferry, with sailors carrying their luggage after them. The ferry departs, headed straight for the San Francisco docks. Then immigration interviews the European/white passengers. Time passes slowly, but eventually those passengers also board the ferry which has returned, and they too depart. [[Next|Angel Island 2]] <audio src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/audio/162350__felix-blume__boat-horn.wav" autoplay>

<img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/registryroomellisisland.jpg" width=100% alt="The Registry Room at Ellis Island"> <span style="font-size: 75%; font-style: italic; line-height: 1">The Pens at Ellis Island Great Hall: These people have passed the first mental inspection. from The New York Public Library Digital Collections</span> The two story registry room is large and loud, voices talk over each other, babbling in every possible language. You are asked to check your bag so you do not have to carry it through all the stations of the immigration process. After thinking briefly, you decide to check the suitcase, but continue to carry the duffle bag. From there you move through station after station of eligibility and fitness checks. A man asks your name and where you are from, another asks about your intentions, do you plan to stay perminantly or only for a short while. You don't know English yet but that is not a problem. There are interpreters who speak Italian, as well as most of the languages of the many immigrants. You are asked if you are an Anarchist, someone who thinks central governmental rule should be abolished and replaced with some sort of voluntary system. You say: [[Yes]] [[No]] <audio src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/audio/266191__cognito-perceptu__chattering-crowd.wav" autoplay>

<img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/weedingoutunfitnews.jpg" width=100% alt="News article about weeding out unfit immigrants"> You are not allowed to enter the United States. You will be put on a ship back to Italy. Your political point of view is not welcome here. You Adventure is over. Anarchists were unwelcome, particularly after during the First Red Scare after World War I. It was feared they would plant bombs and do other things to overthrow the government. [[Try Again]]

Your next stop is the physical. Are you healthy? A doctor checks you from head to toe looking for contagious diseases or anything that migh prevent you from supporting yourself, making you dependent on charity or the government. One of the contagious diseases doctors check for is a serious eye disease called trachoma. The doctor pulls your eyelids away from your eye, looking for any symptoms of the disease. [[You are healthy]] [[You have a fever]]

Congratulations! You are close to being done! One more stop: [[I.Q. Test]]

No worries! A little fever might delay you, but it is not the end of your immigration plans. The doctor pulls you from the main crowd and you are escorted through the building and out side. After a short walk you reach the hospital building. A few days of rest and good food is exactly what you needed. After a final exam and a release from the doctor you are back in the main building to complete your mental test. [[I.Q. Test]]

<img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/ferryboattoellisisland.jpg" width=100% alt="Ferry boat from Ellis Island"> You wait on the pier, clutching your suitcase and duffle bag. You can see the ferry approaching across the harbor. After all the work and the time you have almost made it. You are about to start your new life. The ferry docks and you wait for your turn to board. Months or even years of saving and planning, five days at sea, and six or seven hours in processing (if you were not sick), and now you are here. Just a short ferry ride away. The ferry begins to move. You find a place at the rail, and look toward the New York City shore. The short ride is soon complete. The ferry docks, you cross the gang plank, and take your first step onto land. Your new life has begun. [[Immigration to America]]

<img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/ellis-puzzle.jpg" width=100% alt="Wooden puzzle used to test immigrants"> You have to pass an I.Q. Test before you get the official okay to enter the United States. The test is simple and complicated all at once. Simply assemble these pieces of wood into the right shape. Oh, and its timed. Good luck! When assembled the shape is: [[A Bird]] [[A Face]] [[A Dog]]

<img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/weedingoutunfitnews.jpg" width=100% alt="News article about weeding out unfit immigrants"> You failed. You have been labled feebleminded, and as such, you will not be permitted to enter the United States. You are being put on a ship back to Italy. [[Try Again]]

<img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/passedandwaitingtobetakenoffellisisland.jpg" width=100% alt="Waiting to leave Ellis Island"> Congratulations, you passed! You are now ready to get final immigration approval and collect your luggage. Next stop New York City! [[New York]]

<img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/weedingoutunfitnews.jpg" width=100% alt="News article about weeding out unfit immigrants"> You failed. You have been labled feebleminded, and as such, you will not be permitted to enter the United States. You are being put on a ship back to Italy. [[Try Again]]

<img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/statueofliberty.jpg" width=100% alt="Statue of Liberty"> "New immigrants," Europeans immigrating at the turn of the century and after World War I were welcomed to Ellis Island where they were screened for physical and mental fitness. The was to weed out anyone who would become a danger or burden to society. Approximately one out of every thousand applicants were rejected. Processing was completed in a matter of hours, remarkable considering the high number of individuals processed each day. Treatable illnesses required a stay at the Ellis Island medical ward, but once recovered the individual could continue with the immigration process. In all, almost twelve million people entered the country through Ellis Island. Now that you have learned about the experience of Europeans entering through Ellis Island go back and see what the immigration process was like for individuals coming from China. [[China]]

<img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/Angel_Island_Immigration_Station_Dormitory_b.jpg" width=100% alt="empty dormitorys at Angel Island"> Health exams. Mental and intelligence evaluations. Questions about your finacial ability to care for yourself, and your future plans for work. It has been several days since you arrived at the Angel Island Immigration Station. The exams and questions are almost a welcome break from the boredom. The most important question was asked early, and repeated over and over in different ways: do you belong to a family already living in the United States? This is the only sure way to gain admittance, but it is hard to prove. You must have papers and witnesses, and even that is not enough. You have forged paperwork and a "family" in San Francisco that will swear you are their child. Even with both those things officials will keep you here until officials are satisfied that the claim is true. Some immigrants have been here weeks. There are rumors of a mother and child who have been here over a year. Some immigrants spend their time carving poetry about their frustration, their hopes, and their dreams into the walls of the dormitories. [[Next|Angel Island Immigration Station, San Francisco Bay, CA 2]]

Now it is time to buy your ticket! Just like airlines today, ships that traveled from Asia to the United States sold both first class luxury tickets and economy tickets. Economy tickets were called //steerage.// [[Buy a First Class Ticket]] [[Buy a Steerage Ticket]]

<img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/Chinese_Emigration_to_America.jpg" width=100% alt="Drawing of a Group of Chinese Immigrants eating dinner on a ship"> Steerage is crowded, and it is often dirty and smelly, but it is your path to a more prosperous future. Your ticket gets you a small bunk bed in a room with other steerage passengers, mostly other chinese laborers. You talk together, making fun of the dirty, rude English speaking sailors. They call you "long-tailed Chinaman," making fun of your traditional hair style, called a queue. You call them white devils, in chinese of course, which they don't understand. They don't like you and you dislike and distrust them back. [[Next|Buy a Steerage Ticket Now 2]] <audio src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/audio/450755__florianreichelt__waves-of-hawaii.wav" autoplay>

<img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/angelislandimmigrationcenter.jpg" width=100% alt="panoramic picture of Angel Island Immigration Center"> Your ship has ancored in San Francisco Bay, near Angel Island. You wait as immigration officials talk to the captain. "Divide into groups on the deck! First class passengers in the dinning room! White passengers on the front deck! Chinese to the back!" The order is shouted over and over. You learned some english before your trip, so you interprete for others who don't understand. Everyone slowly shuffles into their assigned area and then we wait. First class passengers soon begin boarding the ferry, with sailors carrying their luggage after them. The ferry departs, headed straight for the San Francisco docks. Then immigration interviews the European/white passengers. Time passes slowly, but eventually those passengers also board the ferry which has returned, and they too depart. [[Next|Angel Island 2...]]

<img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/Angel_Island_Immigration_Station_Dormitory_b.jpg" width=100% alt="empty dormitorys at Angel Island"> Health exams. Mental and intelligence evaluations. Questions about your finacial ability to care for yourself, and your future plans for work. It has been several days since you arrived at the Angel Island Immigration Station. The exams and questions are almost a welcome break from the boredom. The most important question is usually asked early, and repeated over and over in different ways: do you belong to a family already living in the United States? This is the only sure way to gain admittance, but it is hard to prove. You must have papers and witnesses, and even that is not enough. It is true that many lie, and claim to be sons or daughters of American residents. Many even have fake papers to prove their claims. They keep Chinese immigrants here until officials are satisfied that their claim is true. Some immigrants have been here weeks. There are rumors of a mother and child who have been here over a year. Some immigrants spend their time carving poetry about their frustration, their hopes, and their dreams into the walls of the dormitories. [[Next|At Angel Island Immigration Station, San Francisco Bay, CA 2]]

<img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/The_only_one_barred_out_cph.3b48680.jpg" width=100% alt="A political cartoon titled The only one barred out, showing the rejection of chinese immigrants"> In the current political and legal climate it is almost impossible for a Chinese immigrant to gain admittance without paperwork and other proof to back up their claim of family relationship. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited immigration of Chinese laborers. As a Chinese laborer with no immediate family living in the United States you are prohibited from coming to live in America. You are put on the next ship back to China. Because you used most of your money to buy your ticket to the United States you are forced to work for your ticket. [[Try Again]]

<img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/The_only_one_barred_out_cph.3b48680.jpg" width=100% alt="A political cartoon titled The only one barred out, showing the rejection of chinese immigrants"> While refusing to lie is admirable, it is not a good way to gain admittance to the united states as a Chinese immigrant in the current political and legal climate. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited immigration of Chinese laborers. As a Chinese laborer with no immediate family living in the United States you are prohibited from coming to live in America. You are put on the next ship back to China. Because you used most of your money to buy your ticket to the United States you are forced to work for your ticket. [[Try Again]]

After several weeks of questions and waiting you make it through the approval process. You are free to take the ferry to San Francisco. When you get off the ferry in San Francisco you meet your "family," Chinese immigrants who have been here for many years. You worke in their business in exchange for a place to live and a small amount of pay. It is a very long time until you earn enough money to strike out on your own, and even though you are a hard worker it is difficult to find employment as anything other than a basic laborer. There is a strong prejudice against Chinese Americans, and many people dislike you simply because of your ethnicity. You never return to China, but you think of your childhood home often. [[Next|Yes they are 2]]

<img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/The_only_one_barred_out_cph.3b48680.jpg" width=100% alt="A political cartoon titled The only one barred out, showing the rejection of chinese immigrants"> The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited immigration of Chinese laborers. As a Chinese laborer with no immediate family living in the United States you are prohibited from coming to live in America. You are put on the next ship back to China. Because you used most of your money to buy your ticket to the United States you are forced to work for your ticket. [[Try Again]]

Start your adventure over and choose a different path to see if you can successfully enter the United States: [[Italy]] [[China]]

You are responsible for your own food. Simple meals of rice are cooked in pots over tiny stoves, but you are often too seasick to eat! After several days at sea the sailors yell "Land ho!" You rush to deck and join the crowd jostling for a spot at the rail. There, in the distance, you see it: land. Is that California? Maybe. But you have heard there is a stop before you reach the mainland: [[Angel Island]]

Stress shows in the faces and motionless postures of the Chinese travelers crowded around you. A law passed years ago, The Chinese Exclusion Act, makes it hard for new immigrants to be approved. You all took a chance coming, and you all hope and pray you will find success. This time the immigration officials do not interview. "Gather your things and board the ferry!" You clutch your bags and boxes of belongings and move to crouch on the open deck of the ferry. It moves away from the ship and toward the place where your fates will be decided. Angel Island. You cross the gangplank, walk down the dock, and up the path toward a large building. The sea breeze smells pleasent. Maybe this will not be so bad. Maybe you will soon be on your way. [[Angel Island Immigration Station, San Francisco Bay, CA]]

Stress shows in the faces and motionless postures of the Chinese travelers crowded around you. A law passed years ago, The Chinese Exclusion Act, makes it hard for new immigrants to be approved. You all took a chance coming, and you all hope and pray you will find success. This time the immigration officials do not interview. "Gather your things and board the ferry!" You clutch your bags and boxes of belongings and move to crouch on the open deck of the ferry. It moves away from the ship and toward the place where your fates will be decided. Angel Island. You cross the gangplank, walk down the dock, and up the path toward a large building. The sea breeze smells pleasent. Maybe this will not be so bad. Maybe you will soon be on your way. [[At Angel Island Immigration Station, San Francisco Bay, CA]]

<img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/poetryondormitorywallai.jpg" width=100% alt="Poetry on the walls of Angel Island immigration center"> Why? Why are the officers so particular? Why do they not like you? It is true, you do not particularly like them either, but you do not plan to break any laws. You only wish to work, earn money, and perhaps go home to China some day with enough money to be admired by your family and friends. You sit in an interview and they ask you "Do you have a mother or father living in the United States?" The true answer is no. You even decided not to get paperwork or contact the family your reletives told you could be your fake parents, but you are desperate to be released with approval to live here. You answer: [[Yes I do!]] [[No I do not!]]

<img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/poetryondormitorywallai.jpg" width=100% alt="Poetry on the walls of Angel Island immigration center"> Why? Why are the officers so particular? Why do they not like you? It is true, you do not particularly like them either, but you do not plan to break any laws. You only wish to work, earn money, and perhaps go home to China some day with enough money to be admired by your family and friends. Once again you sit in an interview and they ask you "Are these people you claim to be your parents truly related to you?" The real answer is no, but you are desperate to be released with approval to live here. You answer: [[Yes they are]] [[No they are not]]

<img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/chinesemotherandchildren.jpg" width=100% alt="A chinese mother and children sitting on steps"> Chinese immigration was targeted by the Chinese Exclusion Act which made it extremely difficult for Chinese nationals to become residents. Japanese immigration was also severely limited by an arrangement between the United States and Japan, called the Gentelman's Agreement (1907). The immigration of people from Asia was often referred to as the "Yellow Terror." This racist term was part of a wide distrust and dislike for Chinese and Japanese immigrants. Racist and offensive political cartoons like the one below were common, and summed up the feelings of many people. <img src="https://www.adventureinhistory.com/adventurefiles/welcometoamerica/img/YellowTerror.jpg" width=100% alt="Political cartoon of the yellow terror, an offensive potrayal of the percived danger of Chinese immigrants"> Even with all this opposition and prejudice Chinese immigrants still created a place for themselves in their new country. Now that you have learned about the experience of Chinese immigrants go back and see what immigration was like for people from Europe. [[Italy]]