Angel Island Immigrant Gateway to America

by Lee, Erika; Yung, Judy

• ISBN13: 9780199734085
• ISBN10: 0199734089
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-08-27
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

From 1910 to 1940, the Angel Island immigration station in San Francisco served as the processing and detention center for over one million people from around the world. The majority of newcomers came from China and Japan, but there were also immigrants from India, the Philippines, Korea, Russia, Mexico, and over seventy other countries. The full history of these immigrants and their experiences on Angel Island is told for the first time in this landmark book, published to commemorate the immigration station's 100th anniversary. Based on extensive new research and oral histories, Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America examines the great diversity of immigration through Angel Island: Chinese paper sons, Japanese picture brides, Korean refugee students, South Asian political activists, Russian and Jewish refugees, Mexican families, Filipino workers, and many others. Together, their stories offer a more complete and complicated history of immigration to America than we have ever known. Like its counterpart on Ellis Island, the immigration station on Angel Island was one of the country's main ports of entry for immigrants in the early twentieth century. But while Ellis Island was mainly a processing center for European immigrants, Angel Island was designed to detain and exclude immigrants from Asia. The immigrant experience on Angel Island-more than any other site-reveals how U.S. immigration policies and their hierarchical treatment of immigrants according to race, ethnicity, class, nationality, and gender played out in daily practices and decisions at the nation's borders with real consequences on immigrant lives and on the country itself. Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America is officially sponsored by the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation. Proceeds will benefit the Foundation.

Author Biography

Erika Lee is Associate Professor of History and Asian American Studies at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of At America's Gates: Chinese Immigration during the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943.
Judy Yung is Professor Emerita of American Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her books include Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island and Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Preface	p. xv
A Note on Language and Terminology	p. xxi
Abbreviations	p. xxv
Introduction	p. 1
Guarding the Golden Gate: The Life and Business of the Immigration Station	p. 29
ôOne Hundred Kinds of Oppressive Lawsö: Chinese Immigrants in the Shadow of Exclusion	p. 69
ôAgony, Anguish, And Anxietyö: Japanese Immigrants on Angel Island	p. 111
ôObstrcles This Way, Blockades That Wayö: South Asian Immigrants, U.S. Exclusion, and the Gadar Movement	p. 145
ôA People Without A Countryö: Korean Refugee Students and Picture Brides	p. 177
In Search of Freedom and Opportunity: Russians and Jews in the Promised Land	p. 211
El Norte: Mexican Immigrants on Angel Island	p. 247
From ôU.S. Nationalsö To ôAliensö: Filipino Migration and Repatriation through Angel Island	p. 273
Saving Angel Island	p. 299
Epilogue: The Legacy of Angel Island	p. 315
Appendix	p. 327
Notes	p. 333
Bibliography	p. 373
Index	p. 389
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.