Epilogue

How does immigration to the U.S. since the 1990s compare with immigration during the peak years of Ellis Island’s operation? The numbers are higher, but because there are four times as many people in the country than when Ellis Island opened, the number of immigrants as a percentage of the total population is smaller today.

A major concern about immigration is the number of illegal immigrants coming into the country. Solutions for creating “Ellis Island centers” that would sift out undesirable immigrants have been proposed. (page 412) The notion of the “relative ease in regulating immigrants [at Ellis Island] would have amused those who ran the inspection station and believed they were barely holding back the flood of European immigrants seeking entry.” (page 413)

Some of the concerns and issues Americans face today are

• the number of illegal immigrants coming into the country
  
• fears about the quality of today’s immigrants and that they will not assimilate
  
• the bureaucratic red tape that can discourage those seeking to immigrate legally
  
• the inherent conflict between the principle that all men and women are equal and a need to choose who should be admitted
  
• the need to stop terrorists from entering the country
  

In the face of these concerns, Cannato reminds us that many of the fears of immigration restrictionists during the Ellis Island period ultimately proved baseless.

Can the history of Ellis Island provide lessons that will lead to a satisfactory solution to today’s immigration issues? “Historians should be wary of writing history that provides a ‘usable past,’” Cannato cautions. (page 417) “However, the history of Ellis Island should remind us that the problems that the United States is dealing with today are not unique and the questions Americans are asking themselves today are very similar to the ones that bedeviled those who came before us.” (page 418)

He discusses what it will take to craft a successful immigration policy, one that will “keep the gates open to continue our long history of welcoming strangers who in turn help build this unfinished nation, while reassuring native-born Americans that the laws are being enforced and social dislocations that arise from immigration are minimized.” (page 418)

The words of Sophie Wolf who came to the United States from Germany in 1923, describe the ambivalence many people feel toward immigrants. “We should not let anyone in. When we came, the rules were you could not be a burden to the state,” she said in an interview in 1980. “But,” she added, “You’ve got to give people a chance.” (page 410)