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THE STORY OF ELLIS ISLAND
Mass migrations have marked the history of the human race ever since people began to dream of a better life
Migration is in the news these days, as Donald Trump tries to set up new physical and administrative barriers
against people wanting to enter the USA – mostly from Central America, Asia and Africa. But a century ago, the USA
welcomed immigrants, most of them people from Europe who were migrating in mass, looking for a better life in the
USA. Ellis Island, the small island in New York Harbor was, for millions of would-be immigrants, their first experience
[5] of the promised land.
The year is 1906, the date November 16th. Franz and Ulrike Schumacher and their three children have just
disembarked from the Hamburg-Amerika line steamship that has carried them across the stormy North Atlantic
Ocean from Germany.
Like the thousands of other people milling around them, they are totally bewildered, caught up in a mixture of
[10] hope and apprehension, as they crowd into a vast waiting room. The room sounds like the Tower of Babel, for few of
those in it speak a word of English. They speak German, Polish, Dutch, Hungarian, or Russian maybe, yet they have
come, seeking a new life in a new world; and now they are on American soil for the first time. This is America!
America! Or at least it is Ellis Island.
After interminable hours of waiting, the Schumacher family are finally called to a desk; immigration officials
[15] study their papers, and ask them where they intend to go. They don't ask how long they're planning to stay, however,
since they know the answer already. All those who pass through Ellis Island – and that could mean over 11,000
people per day – are would-be immigrants. They are looking to start a new life in a new world.
For many, passing through Ellis Island was not so much a matter of stepping into a new world, it was stepping
into a new life, a new character. And so it was that the man who finally led his family through the door and onto the
[20] ferry packed with a jostling crowd of new Americans was not Franz Schumacher any more, but Frank Shoemaker,
even if he still didn't understand more than a couple of words of English.
Disponível em: https://linguapress.com/advanced/ellis-island.htm. Acesso em: 7 out. 2019. Adaptado.
O pronome “them” (Linha 7), refere-se a(à):
