Introduction
Angel Island, for such a small place, only measuring seven miles in circumference and standing at an altitude of nine hundred feet (Bamford, 1917), has a rich history that has seen it transformed from a fishing spot to a military fort, to a detention station, immigration station, a quarantine station, and finally, a state park. While European immigrants coming into the country at the beginning of the twentieth century were more familiar with Ellis Island of New York, the Orientals underwent the experience of the immigration station at Angel Island.
Angel Island immigration station
Starting from the early 1800s, America saw mass immigration with millions of people coming into the country from all over the world. There were Irish, Chinese, Russian, and Italian immigrants, fleeing their home countries for various reasons whether those transpired by their leaders or natural calamities (Flanagan, 2006).
Those of Chinese descent, the majority of them originally coming from Huangdong Province in China, was attracted by the California gold rush of the 1820s. They believed they could make quick money and send it back to their families in China. Most of these immigrants were so poor that it was by collective efforts from family and friends that they could raise the fare for their passage to America (Flanagan, 2006).
Though immigrants were originally not treated with strong hostility, during the economic downturn of the 1920s attitudes towards them began to change. Since immigrants of Chinese descent worked in manual jobs such as the building of roads and railway lines, white laborers saw them as a threat because the Chinese were willing to work for much lower wages (Flanagan, 2006).
It was because of these hostilities that the Chinese Exclusion Act was introduced in 1882. It stipulated that the number of Chinese immigrants into the country would be greatly limited. The Act, though formally denounced in 1940 when China became an ally of the U.S, was still informally in play until the 1950s.
The Angel Island Immigration Station was established in 1910 and was taken as a place where non-European immigrants were taken for clearance. Just the simple fact that the European and non-European immigrants were cleared at two different stations was an act of discrimination in itself. But the treatment that the immigrants underwent at Angel Island was sometimes less than humane (Angel Island Immigration Foundation, 2010).
When the ships ferrying immigrants reached San Fransisco bay, Europeans in first and second-class cabins, who had already gotten their immigration papers processed while still on board were allowed to disembark. The rest, the majority of them being Chinese, were taken on to Angel Island Immigration Station to be processed (Angel Island Immigration Foundation, 2010).
The construction of the Immigration center began in 1905 in a place that was ironically but appropriately called China Cove. The aim of such a center was to regulate the number of people of Chinese descent who were coming into the country (Angel Island Immigration Foundation, 2010).
Though the Exclusion Act of 1882 had barred Chinese from coming into America, there were the wives and children of those who were already citizens that automatically acquired citizenship as well. As long as one could prove relation in this sense to a Chinese man already in the States, they were legally entitled to come into the country (Bamford, 1917).
The screening process at Angel Island Immigration Station detailed verifying whether one actually had a husband or father in the country. This was done through thorough interrogations to verify family lineage. It was also done to weed out ‘paper’ sons, daughters and wives. This was a phenomenon that arose because those desperate to get into the States bought papers from immigrants already in the country with detailed genealogies and necessary information so that they could pass the interrogations (Bamford, 1917).
The stay at Angel Island for its detainees was never pleasant and would at times go on for extended periods lasting over a month (Anon, 1910). As one detainee recounted, as he would look at the faces of those around him, trying to find even traces of joy, he would be met by sadness, fear and disillusionment. Under the given circumstances, he would wonder whether it was better if he could just go back to China and learn to plow the land (Flanagan, 2006).
The hours of waiting were filled with emptiness and to fill the hours, some of the immigrants wrote poetry on the walls in Chinese script. The poems and other writings are filled with melancholy that aptly reflects the general mood of disenchantment that pervaded the immigration station (Flanagan, 2006).
For the aspiring citizens, the wait and all the trials that had come before may add up to nothing if their reviews failed and they were then deported back to China (Flanagan, 2006).
Conclusion
There are dark periods in American history, as with the history of all other nations worldwide. The atrocities that were committed against Chinese immigrants along with other non-European immigrants coming into North America at Angel Island between 1910 and 1940 mark such a low period for this country. Angel Island should be conserved as a constant reminder to future generations of the struggle
References
Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation. (2010). History of Angel Island – The Journey to America. Agnel Island Station Foundation. Web.
Anon. (1910). Chinese merchants protest; Declare Conditions at Angel Island Immigration Station are Intolerable. New York Times, 20. New York.
Bamford, M. (1917). Angel Island – California’s “Immigration Station”. Chicago: The Women’s American Baptist Home. Web.
Flanagan, A. (2006). Angel Island. Minneapolis: Compass Point Books.