In front of the port of Manhattan there are two small islands, one of which is the archiconocidal statue of 'Freedom illuminating the world' that immigrants coming from Europe saw as they approached their destination. But its fate was neither the statue nor the port of Manhattan, but a small island right behind the statue.

They reached thousands in the late 19th and early 20th century, slavery had been abolished and North American industry and large plantations needed cheap labour. But not everyone could enter, first they had to undergo a medical and legal examination. The emigrants were held on the island of Ellis until they got over it and those who didn't stay there until another ship from the same ship took them back to the city of origin.

It is touching to think of those people coming from all corners of Europe, moving on foot or on a wagon from their places of origin to the ports of departure (Hamburg, Naples, Constantinople...) where they would have to wait for the next ship, perhaps for weeks and in very precarious conditions. With all your savings to pay a ticket on a crowded boat. For many it would be the first time they saw the sea. Walking the United States by bike is a fool next to that.

And after so many penalties it could happen that they were rejected. In the case of families it could happen that only one was so. And yet immigrants who came with first and second class passages entered the country directly without passing the recognition. If that passage could be paid, they were people with resources, with studies.

All that was happening behind the statue of Freedom and a few meters from it. Let no one be scandalized, now in Europe we have learned to do the same.