New book: Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America

New book forthcoming by Erika Lee and Judy Yung.  Dr. Yung is scheduled to talk about her work on the book October 5 at 6 pm at SJSU King Library. Flyer here:  www.sjsu.edu/faculty/kathryn.blackmerreyes/AngelIsland.pdf

The immigration station on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, in use from 1910 to 1940, has often been called the Ellis Island  of the West. But to what extent is the Pacific gateway a junior version of the storied immigration station that sits next to the Statue of Liberty in New York’s harbor?

If Ellis Island remains the iconic symbol of American immigration, Angel Island represents a more complete history of America’s diverse origins and the government’s diverse policies that welcomed some and excluded others.

That fascinating history is the subject of “Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America,” by historians Erika Lee and Judy Yung, both descendants of Angel Island immigrants, and published on the occasion of the station’s 100th anniversary. Lee and Yung offer a kaleidoscope of immigrant portraits that bring history alive, and, in the process, demolish many myths and stereotypes about Angel Island and American immigration in general.
Readers who already know that Angel Island differed from Ellis Island because the former was built to process Chinese immigrants and the latter for Europeans will be surprised to learn that non-Asians comprised fully one-third of those seeking entry through Angel Island before the 1920s.

According to the authors’ research, about 1 million people passed through the Angel Island station: foreigners and citizens, arrivals and departures, immigrants and deportees. “Angel Island” tells the stories of Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and South Asians, as well as Mexicans, Russians, European Jews and Filipinos who were processed through the station. Their stories testify to the great diversity of American immigration.

Story continues at SFGate