Give me your tired your poor your huddled masses yearning to breathe free

[undeterred]

How many generations ago were your family immigrants? My parents parents came over from Europe in the early 20th century and passed through Ellis Island.


The New Colossus
by Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

How many generations ago were your family immigrants? My parents parents came over from Europe in the early 20th century and passed through Ellis Island.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

1. I think things are changing a bit...

[undeterred]

3. I like what we were, not what we are

I post on some international web boards and I find that when someone in another country is talking about coming here, I want to be the first to make sure they really understand that the direction we are going in is not a good one.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. My grandparents came over on the 1890's, via Ellis Island

It was very different then...:(

[meti57b]

4. Last line to be added: Send us our jobs back. We will outsource no more.

[Cleita]

5. My father's family came through Ellis Island in 1908.

My mother, who was Chilean, was brought here by my father in 1941 right before Pearl Harbor. Oh, I came too at that time. I was eighteen months old although I had an American passport because my father was an American.

[Bad Thoughts]

6. My grandfather's family were never immigrants to this country

They were, along with other Spanish-speakers in New Mexico, annexed by the US.

[oneold1-4u]

7. Family

Had nearly all arrived as pioneers on west coast by 1890 and that was just back two generations. They survived storms, floods, earthquakes, wars, and the depression. Now some of the children will survive through what is going to be, although it will be harder because they were never "pioneers of the land"!

[mdmc]

8. four different families of immigrants in my family

one of them was here before the USA!

[TallahasseeGrannie]

9. We need to add another few lines

and they should say....

"Yada yada yada yada."

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. My mother arrived here in 1921.

My grandmother fled poverty in Ireland and married a Brit soldier. They fled the poverty in England to Canada where he broke horses for the Canadian Army. He was killed by a bad horse. She had 6 kids to support and became (to put it nicely) a "soldier's woman". The 2 sons were adopted out and the older girls went to work as house maids. My mother started working when she was 9. She took the girls and moved to California. I don't know if she ever got citizenship or crossed the border "illegally".

My sympathies lie with the immigrants. Whether "legal" or "illegal" and to hell with the racists and capitalists who prey on them and want them deported.

[Missy M]

11. All four of my grandparents came over from Hungary in the....

early 1900's. Two passed through Ellis Island. My one set of grandparents were going to go back to Hungary but WWI broke out so they stayed, lucky they did otherwise I wouldn't be here.

[VADem11]

12. 1 generation ago

I'm really young so my mom came in 1969 and my dad a few years later. They were part of the wave of immigrants after the quotas against asians were lifted.

[ellenfl]

13. my paternal ancestor(s) came over

on the mayflower. i have forgotten when my maternal grandfather's family came here but my maternal grandmother, who met my grandfather when he was in france on business, came over in the 1900s and passed through ellis island. it should be remembered that the vast majority of americans are immigrants.

as for the current immigration controversy, dubya and big business want cheap labor. that is the whole (non-stated) rationale for letting illegal immigration continue. no matter the arguments put forth by the bush cabal, it's all about the money.

we will soon have only the landed gentry and serfs in america.

ellen fl