Angel and Ellis Islands

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there were many immigrants who migrated to the United States, from different parts of the world, in particularly Asia and Europe. The new incoming immigrants either went to California or New York, based on the location of the country they emigrated from. At the time there were two immigration stations, Ellis Island which was on the East coast and Angel Island being on the West coast. These immigrant stations had many similar and different characteristics. The differences include the geographical locations and also the type of people that migrated to these stations. The similarities between Angel and Ellis Island are the difficulty of making it through either one.

Ellis Island is located on the east coast in New York City, New York and is also right across the statue of liberty. This location gave many immigrants hope and faith from the very tiring and horrific ride from their countries. This location also reminds the immigrants the main reason they came to the United States, for freedom and a better life for their family. The immigrants coming here were also a different group of immigrants who usually came from Europe such as Irish and also many Jews from the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, which was disbanded, thus the reason for the Jews migrating to the United States.

Angel Island, the immigration station on the western part of the Untied States, was located near San Francisco and really brought down the morale of many of the immigrants because its isolated appearance. Many immigrants were put in cells based on their ethnicity; it was somewhat of a prison for refugees. The food served at the station was horrible; there were hardly any restrooms/bathrooms. The Immigrants that came to Angel Island were usually Asians, mainly Chinese and Japanese.

If there was one similarity between these two islands, was the difficulty to pass through either one. The questions were asked in English and were also very specific, making it nearly impossible for the immigrants to answer the questions correctly.