Arrival: The Island Immigration Stations
In the first half of the 20th century, many Americans regarded immigrants as almost intrinsically dangerous – to health, to wealth, and to the American state. The 'Progressive' Era was in fact marked by virulent 鈥榥ativism鈥� and even nostalgia for an imagined American past (an irony that was observed even by contemporary commentators). Historical scholarship has often painted the immigration stations at Ellis Island and Angel Island as a specific response to these concerns. They were certainly both sites in which medical professionals and public health workers actively strove to address fears about 鈥榰ndesirable鈥� immigrants through scientific and organizational innovation. But why did anti-immigrant sentiments so often focus on migrants as a threat to the nation鈥檚 health? Were public perceptions of the risks posed by imported disease (and its unclean importers) realistic? What other factors played into fears of immigrant bodies -- and how did they shape and reflect the screening processes and 'medical gaze' at America鈥檚 borders? Finally, why were practices at the two stations so different – and so differently remembered?
This week, we will divide into two groups to cover the material. Archive Groups 1 and 3 will read about Ellis Island, with its predominantly European migrant population; Archive Groups Archive 2 and 4 will look west, to Angel Island with its dominant East Asian (and especially Chinese) migrant population. You should discuss with your archive group how your want to cover the readings. After time for discussion within archive groups, and paired with your neighbouring group from the other coast, we will have a general discussion.
Note that there are also two powerpoints from previous years that you can look at in advance, if this will be helpful to you.
Note that there are specific discussion questions, background readings, and e-resources for each of the immigration stations, as below.
GENERAL DISCUSSION QUESTION, ALL STUDENTS:
- Does your immigration station fit within the national narrative/myth of the 'nation of immigrants' we discussed last week?
- What do the differences between the medical inspection regimes at Angel and Ellis tell us about ideas of American identity and citizenship during the periods of their operation? What do the historiographies of these two sites tell us about the history of migration in the US?
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Required Readings: All Students:
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AND the readings for your group, as specified below:
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Group 1 and 3 Ellis Island Required Readings |
Group 2 and 4 Angel Island Required Readings |
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Amy L. Fairchild, 'The Rise and Fall of the Medical Gaze: The Political Economy of Immigrant Medical Inspection in Modern America', Science in Context, 19(3), pp. 337-356. |
Erika Lee and Judy Yung, Angel Island Immigrant Gateway to America, pp 29-111 for experiences of migrants who passed through Angel Island. E-Book (This is very easy reading, but remember that e-books may have limitations on simultaneous usages, so don't leave it too late!) |
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Roxana Galusca, 鈥楩rom Fictive Ability to National Identity: Disability, Medical Inspection, and Public Health Regulations on Ellis Island鈥�, Cultural Critique, no. 72 (2009): 137-63. . |
Robert Barde & Gustavo Bobonis, 'Detention at Angel Island: First Empirical Evidence', Social Science History, vol. 30 no. 1, 2006, pp. 103-136. Project MUSE, muse.jhu.edu/article/196223. Note: This article is a bit chewy, but the methodology is important! |
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Reading/Essay Questions: Inclusion or exclusion: what was Ellis Island for? And why has Ellis Island become a touchstone of 'American' identity and history? (You might find it useful to think about the ways in which the Ellis Island has been commemorated/celebrated, too. You can compare it to other memorial/commemorative sites of migration using Eureka Heinrich's chapter 'Paying Tribute: Migrant Memorial Walls and the 'Nation of Immigrants' (kindly made available to us by Dr Heinrich, here). |
Reading/Essay Questions: Why haven't Americans celebrated and commemorated Angel Island? What does this comparative silence tell us about differences between immigration at Angel and at Ellis Islands? Pro-tip: If you want to explore this question in an assessment, have a look too at Hoskins and Maddern, 'Immigration Stations: The Regulation and Commemoration of Mobility at Angel Island, San Francisco and Ellis Island New York', Geographies of mobilities: Practices, spaces, subjects (Surrey: Ashgate, 2010): 151-166, available at www.academia.edu if you are connected, or as an E-book chapter at 糖心TV Library. |
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Discussion questions:
Background Readings: General Garland E. Allen, 鈥楾he social and economic origins of genetic determinism: a case history of the American Eugenics Movement, 1900-1940 and its lessons for today鈥�, Genetica - Den Haag 99 (1997): 77, E-journal. David Gerber and Alan M. Kraut, eds, American immigration and ethnicity: a reader (Basingstoke: Palgrave 2007). Alan M. Kraut, 鈥楩oreign Bodies: The Perennial Negotiation over Health and Culture in a Nation of Immigrants鈥�, Journal of American Ethnic History 23 (2004): pp. 3-22. Electronic Journal. Howard Markel, Alexandra Minna Stern, 鈥楾he Foreignness of Germs: The Persistent Association of Immigrants and Disease in American Society鈥�, Milbank Quarterly 80 (2002): 757, E-journal. Howard Markel and Alexandra Minna Stern, "Which Face? Whose Nation? Immigration, Public Health, and the Construction of Disease at America's Ports and Borders," in Nancy Foner, Rub茅n G. Rumbaut, and Steven J. Gold, eds., Immigration Research for a New Century: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2000), 93-112. Jonathan Reinarz, Past Scents: Historical Perspectives on Smell(Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2014), 鈥楥hapter 3 Odorous Others鈥�, pp. 85-112. Try this for an alternative sensory perspective on prejudice, race and migration! Ellis Island Ronald Bayer and Amy Fairchild, 鈥楾he Limits of Privacy: Surveillance and the Control of Disease鈥�, Health Care Analysis 10 (2002): 19–35, E-journal Tobias Brinkmann, 鈥榃hy Paul Nathan Attacked Albert Ballin: The Transatlantic Mass Migration and the Privatization of Prussia's Eastern Border Inspection, 1886-1914鈥�, Central European History 43, no. 1 (2010): 47-83. This article covers the European side of migration to US as Ellis Island is opening, and addresses role of private firms in regulating flows of migrants and migrant bodies. It鈥檚 an unusual perspective, and worth exploring. Lorie Conway, Forgotten Ellis Island: The Extraordinary Story of America's Immigrant Hospital (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 2007). Amy Fairchild, Science at the Borders: Immigrant Medical Inspection and the Shaping of the Modern Industrial Labor Force(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003). Sarah Gualtieri, in Between Arab and White: Race and Ethnicity in the Early Syrian American Diaspora(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009) FOR A VIEW OF 'OTHER' AND PRE-ELLIS ISLAND MIGRANTS. David Gerber and Alan M. Kraut, eds, American immigration and ethnicity: a reader (Basingstoke: Palgrave 2007). Nancy Green, 'A French Ellis Island? Museums, Memory and History in France and the United States', History Workshop Journal, vol. 63 no. 1, 2007, pp. 239-253. Project MUSE, muse.jhu.edu/article/215840. Alan M Kraut, Silent travelers : germs, genes, and the "immigrant menace"(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995). Alan M. Kraut, 鈥楩oreign Bodies: The Perennial Negotiation over Health and Culture in a Nation of Immigrants鈥�, Journal of American Ethnic History 23 (2004): pp. 3-22. E-Journal. Krista Maglen, 鈥業mporting Trachoma: The Introduction into Britain of American Ideas of an 'Immigrant Disease', 1892-1906鈥�, Immigrants & Minorities 23 (2005): pp 80–99. Shelley Reuter, 鈥楾he Genuine Jewish Type: Racial Ideology and Anti-Immigrationism in Early Medical Writing about Tay-Sachs Disease鈥�, The Canadian Journal of Sociology, Vol. 31, Number 3, Summer 2006, pp. 291-323 Project MUSE. Brit Tevis, '"The Hebrews Are Appearing in Court in Great Numbers": Toward a Reassessment of Early Twentieth-Century American Jewish Immigration History', American Jewish History, vol. 100 no. 3, 2016, pp. 319-347. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/ajh.2016.0051 Ellis Island E-Resources: You can search ALL passenger landing records here (though you must make a free account): (NB: Not a suitable secondary source at this level -- but it does include some useful primary sources). (NB: this source has been designed to help teachers -- but includes some very interesting primary sources) Angel Island Kornel Chang, "," American Quarterly, Vol. 60, No. 3 (2008): 671-96. Yong Chen, 'In Their Own Words: The Significance of Chinese-language Sources for Studying Chinese American History', Journal of Asian American Studies, vol. 5 no. 3, 2002, pp. 243-268. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/jaas.2003.0013 Yong Chen, Chinese San Francisco, 1850-1943: A Trans-Pacific Community (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000). Lisa Chilton & Yukari Takai, 'East Coast, West Coast: Using Government Files to Study Immigration History.' Histoire sociale/Social history, vol. 48 no. 96, 2015, pp. 7-23. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/his.2015.0030 NB: FOCUS HERE IS ON CANADA -- SO A GREAT COMPARATIVE ARTICLE! Catherine Ceniza Choy. Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History. American Encounters/Global Interactions. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2003. Peggy Christoff, 'An Archival Resource: INS Case Files on Chinese Women in the American Midwest', Journal of Women's History, vol. 10 no. 3, 1998, pp. 155-170. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/jowh.2010.0340 Amy Fairchild, Science at the Borders: Immigrant Medical Inspection and the Shaping of the Modern Industrial Labor Force(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003). Glen Gendzel, 鈥楴ot Just a Golden State: Three Anglo "Rushes" in the Making of Southern California, 1880-1920鈥�, Southern California Quarterly 90, no. 4 (2008): 349-78. US Anglo (internal migration) and the health rush. Nancy Green, 'A French Ellis Island? Museums, Memory and History in France and the United States', History Workshop Journal, vol. 63 no. 1, 2007, pp. 239-253. Project MUSE, muse.jhu.edu/article/215840. Hidetaka Hirota, 'Exclusion on the Ground: Racism, Official Discretion, and the Quotidian Enforcement of General Immigration Law in the Pacific Northwest Borderland', American Quarterly, vol. 69 no. 2, 2017, pp. 347-370. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/aq.2017.0031 Estelle T. Lau, Paper Families: Identity, Immigration Administration, and Chinese Exclusion, (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006). Erika Lee, 鈥�,鈥� New York Daily News, August 18, 2015 Erika Lee and Judy Yung, Angel Island Immigrant Gateway to America (Oxford: OUP, 2010). (reviewed here: Erika Lee, 'Chinese San Francisco, China in America', Reviews in American History, vol. 29 no. 3, 2001, pp. 417-423. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/rah.2001.0048) Krista Maglen, 鈥業mporting Trachoma: The Introduction into Britain of American Ideas of an 'Immigrant Disease', 1892-1906鈥�, Immigrants & Minorities 23 (2005): pp 80–99. Adam McKeown,鈥� Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 58, No. 2 (1999): 306-337. Anna Pegler-Gordon, 'Chinese Exclusion, Photography, and the Development of U.S. Immigration Policy', American Quarterly, vol. 58 no. 1, 2006, pp. 51-77. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/aq.2006.0032 Robert Shaffer, '鈥淎 Missionary from the East to Western Pagans鈥�: Kagawa Toyohiko鈥檚 1936 U.S. Tour.' Journal of World History, vol. 24 no. 3, 2013, pp. 577-621. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/jwh.2013.0071 Nayan Shah,Contagious Divides : epidemics and race in San Francisco鈥檚 Chinatown (Berkeley, CA : University of California Press, 2001), esp. Chapter 7. Cecilia Tsu, Garden of the World: Asian Immigrants and the Making of Agriculture in California's Santa Clara Valley (Oxford: OUP, 2013). Scott Wong, 'The Transformation of Culture: Three Chinese Views of America', American Quarterly, vol. 48 no. 2, 1996, pp. 201-232. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/aq.1996.0022 -- NB: Looks at the impact of visits and immigration to the USA on China, offering a useful alternative perspective. E-Resources, Angel Island: (NB: this source has been designed to help teachers -- but includes some very interesting primary sources) |