Incredible Photos Of Immigrants Arriving At Ellis Island

The Reasons For Immigrating

More than 12 million people passed through Ellis Island from 1892-1954. According to History.com, about 40 percent of current Americans are able to trace their history to at least one ancestor that came to the United States through Ellis Island. That’s pretty amazing.

The immigrants had many reasons for leaving their countries. Many of them wanted to distance themselves from economic and political instability or for religious freedom. Is that so different from today’s immigrants and refugees? Emma Lazarus wrote a poem to raise money for a foundation for Lady Liberty to rest upon. The pedestal now displays the poem in its entirety, including the line “From her beacon-hand glows world-wide welcome” and the famous stanza “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”