life at the turn of the 20th century
New immigrants

It has been said that in the United States, all the Americans are immigrants except the Native Americans. By 1880 more than 10 million immigrants were living in the US, they were known as the old immigrants. They were mostly Protestant Christians from Northern and Western Europe. Most immigrants came in search of jobs or economic opportunity. A lot of Chinese immigrant were also living in North America. From 1880 to 1910 18 million immigrants arrived to America, they changed everything : the population was more diverse than ever, 1 in 12 Americans were foreigners.
They came from Southern and Eastern Europe and they were Roman Catholics, Orthodox Christians or Jews, many Arabs, Japanese and Canadians also arrived in the US. Immigration laws reduced new Chinese arrivals. Japanese were working on sugar plantations in Hawaii. Leaving your life and family is not a simple decision, they were brought to America by their desire for a better life and a lot of various reasons like Russian Jews in search of religious freedom, Europeans to escape the horrible poverty of their countries or because of the too few jobs for too many inhabitants, America was then known as the land of opportunity.
However, immigrants often came with their whole family, one member usually made the journey first, work hard there, save money and send tickets back to his family. Many immigrants didn't live in big cities and had to make a journey only to go to the docks. There was a law in America about immigration, since 1893 the immigrant had to be approved by the authorities before coming on board , they had to indicate their past and show their ids, they were also examined by doctors and be vaccinated and disinfected. They travelled in terrible conditions at the lowest prices. Not all of them survived the journey. In 1892 the U.S government opened an immigration station in New York Harbor called Ellis Island. More than 112