Ellis Island (the Island of Tears or the Heartbreak Island) is the main gate to the USA for immigrants
coming
from all over the world from 1892 to 1924, when it was closed. Now it is Ellis Island Immigration Museum.
The USA is a melting pot society because it is characterised by a mixture of people coming from different
places, so they bring different cultures, traditions and languages. The push factors are the lack of food, lack of
job (economic reason) and lack of religious and political freedom. They were attracted to the USA to find a
better living condition, better job and a reasonable freedom of speech or thought (pull factors).
Amadeo Peter Giannini
Amadeo Giannini, the son of Italian immigrants, from Favale di Malvaro (Liguria), built a vast banking empire
and created a national system of branch banks to serve ordinary people. Amadeo Peter Giannini has been
called "America's banker". As a young man, Giannini was a vegetable salesman, he then saw opportunities in
banking. Angered by the era's typical banking practices – making loans to and servicing only wealthy clients- he
founded the Bank of Italy in San Francisco in 1904 as an institution for the "little fellows" - the hardworking
immigrants that other banks would not serve. He offered those ignored customers saving accounts and loans.
After a disastrous earthquake and subsequent fires destroyed much of San Francisco in 1906, Giannini set up a
temporary bank immediately, collecting deposits, making loans, and proclaiming to all that San Francisco
would rise from the ashes. He based his business on openness and trust, making his reputation by helping the
city rebuild. Then he expanded the Bank of Italy across California, breaking with an American tradition of
independent local banks by providing his egalitarian banking services to the "little fellows" in the immigrant
communities. By the mid-1920s, he owned the third largest bank in the nation. In 1928, Giannini put his banks
into a giant holding - company he called Transamerica Corporation, reflecting his new ambition. In 1930, he
formed the Bank of America, which would eventually become the largest in the United States. As a measure of
its success it withstood the Great Depression, funding large industrial and agricultural interests as well as
California's movie industry (Walt Disney and Charlie Chaplin) and even the Golden Gate Bridge. Giannini died
on 3rd June 1949.
The Irish Immigration
There was a terrible Famine in Ireland from 1846 to 1850 because the potato crop failed. A lot of Irish people
died of hunger and disease. The Irish Famine created new waves of immigration to the United States, Britain
and Australia. The Irish immigration and the Italian immigration from the end of the 19th century have aspects
in common: the poverty and desperation of the population.The immigrant’s life was hard because the
immigrant was often victim of prejudices and intolerance.
A lot of people died during the long journey to America. The ships were so called “coffin ships”.
The melting pot: Italian Immigration to the USA
Although the first Italian to reach America was Christopher Columbus in 1492, and despite the fact that two of
the people who signed the Declaration of Independence were of Italian origin, few Italian immigrants reached
America before 1870. From 1871 to 1915, approximately four million Italians immigrated to the United States.
Seventy percent of them were from the south of Italy. The Italian population in the USA increased quickly as a
result of “family chaining”. This means that when immigrants to the USA began to settle down, they sent
money to relatives and friends to pay for them to come to America and helped to find them places to live and
work. For this reasons we can find groups of Italians who come from the same area in Italy in one particular
place in the USA. Sometimes, non-Italians called these places “Little Italy”.
Through America’s gate
After 1830 a lot of immigrants started to arrive from Europe. They came from Ireland and Germany first, then,
by the end of the century, from other European countries such as Sweden, Poland and Italy. Most immigrants
were poor people looking for jobs and better living conditions or, like Jews, for religious freedom. In 1891 the
American Government decided to control immigration, so millions of people arriving from Europe were taken
to Ellis Island. There they were examined by doctors and questioned by inspectors. Most of them were
accepted but about 2 % of them were sent back home. Ellis Island has been restored and has become a
museum in honour of all American immigrants.
The immigrant experience and journey
Sometimes travellers waited days, weeks even months at the port, until they were accommodated in the third-
class, the “steerage”. For most immigrants the experience of steerage was like a nightmare. The third-class was
situated in the worst part of the ship. During the journey the immigrants told strange stories of rejections and
deportations at Ellis Island. They were scared of the inspector’s questions because they did not know the new
language.
The first thing they saw from the ship was the Statue of Liberty.
Italian Immigrants in Hollywood: Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola was born in Detroit, in 1939, to an Italian-American family, and grew up in New York.
After he studied at the UCLA film school, he made several films which were not very successful.
He became famous when he directed the film “The Godfather”. This film about the Mafia was a big hit and
received wonderful reviews from film critics.
Coppola gave many young actors a chance to appear in his films, and some of them became world-famous
stars, for example Tom Cruise and Nicolas Cage. Nicolas is his nephew, the actor changed his name to Cage to
make his own reputation in the film world.
The film “The Godfather” is based on the novel by Mario Puzo, son of Italian immigrants. He was born in New
York in 1920. He has written many books but “The Godfather” is his most famous. Coppola and Puzo won an
Oscar for the best writing of a film.
Don Vito Corleone is Godfather of one of the richest families in New York. He is a gangster and his business is
fear and murder. Corleone’s son, Michael, an innocent college boy, wants a quiet life, he doesn’t want
anything to do with his father but things happen, and Michael begins to change. He slowly realizes that he’s a
Corleone too. He changes into the most dangerous gangster of them all.
Italian Immigrants: Giuseppe Petrosino and Charles Angelo Siringo
Most immigrants had a very hard life and not for all of them the American dream became true. Some of them
became members of local criminal organizations or brought the Mafia to the USA. However, one Italian
immigrant became famous for his determination to fight these organizations. Giuseppe Petrosino had left
southern Italy in 1873 at 13 years old. He entered the New York police. He was given permission to form a
squad of Italian policemen and to fight the Mafia with his own methods. The Brooklyn sheriff, as he was called,
thought that Mafia members had to be stopped and arrested at the Italian ports when they were going to
leave for the USA. He came to Italy hoping to find Italian authorities ready to help him. They promised their
help but in fact he received very little and he was killed in Palermo in March 1909.
Charles Angelo Siringo, an Italian immigrant born in 1855, had an adventurous and lucky life in America. After
being a cowboy he became a detective in the famous Pinkerton Agency, one of the first detective agencies in
the United States. Later he wrote autobiographical books that were very successful.
The People of the USA: A Nation of Immigrants
President J.F. Kennedy called the United States “a nation of immigrants”; it is also called a melting pot. People
have always immigrated to America from all parts of the world. They come for different reasons: for religious
freedom, to escape hunger and poverty, or just to improve their lives. The United States has always been
considered a land of opportunity.
Most of the first immigrants came from Britain and other countries in northern and western Europe. By the
1880s people were also arriving from southern and eastern Europe. Later people came from Latin America,
too.
People from Europe and Asia brought with them a great variety of languages and customs. Many of them
settled in the cities, living close to each other and forming ethnic communities. Life was difficult for the
immigrants. Many of them were poor. They did not speak English and some were not educated and had no
skills. They had to work in factories or on farms. In the cities they often lived in poor, crowded conditions and
many children worked like their parents. Even today to get American citizenship immigrants have to pass
special tests to show that they can speak, read and write basic English.
America, a nation of immigrants
In the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, it was easy to enter the USA. People came from
all over the world, many of them arriving to escape poverty and persecution. In 1862, the Homestead Act
offered free land in western areas of the USA. The Ellis Island Immigration Station was the main point of entry.
All new arrivals were interviewed on the island and given a medical examination. About 2% were denied
admission and sent back to their own countries because of disease, criminal background or mental illness. For
this reason, the island was known as the “The Isle of Hope and Tears”.
Immigration today
In 1921, the American Congress passed a law to slow down the pace of immigration. It is now more difficult to
settle in America. However, the United States accepts more legal immigrants as permanent members than any
other country in the world. In 2016 immigrants represented about 13.5% of the total US population.
Illegal immigration
The difficulty in obtaining legal residence has led to a serious problem of illegal immigration. Today about 3.5%
of the total population are illegal immigrants. A lot of people enter the country illegally from South America.
Donald Trump has introduced measures that allow the federal government to arrest and deport unauthorised
immigrants. The largest number of illegal immigrants who settle in the USA each year, however, are not cross-
border migrants, but the people who stay in the country after their visas expire.
