Third floor of the Museum

Destinations: Ellis Island (USA)

UNITED STATES, 1907. Towards the end of the 19th century, Anglo-Saxon, Irish and Scandinavian emigration to the USA decreased, while labour demand remained sustained. They need unskilled workers, from employees in the construction of railways, roads, or mines and factories. Thus immigrants of different nationalities began to arrive: Poles, Russian, Greek, Lebanese, Syrian and Italian Jews. The Federal Government, faced with this new emigration, seems concerned about public order and welfare costs. On this basis, an immigration filter is organized: starting from 1892 on the island of Ellis Island, third class passengers (not the others) are disembarked and subjected to medical examinations and interrogations. Chronic sufferers, mentally disabled, unaccompanied women and minors, convicted offenders, anarchists and in general those who do not have a minimum of means of subsistence, are rejected. In 1907, arrivals to Ellis Island reached 700,000, mostly Italians from the South. Like them, we too will be subjected to the judgment on which our future depends!