Interview

Interview Process

After the new immigrants reached America, they were shipped to Angel Island where they waited for their interview, an interview that became more of an interrogation. The interview was to be given to all the immigrants on Angel Island and those still arriving. Many studied hard for the interviews. Even before the interviews, the immigrant's applications would be first reviewed. That was round one, but round two was a big obstacle involving questions that made little or no sense. The questions were thought to help identify whether the immigrants were family members of American Chinese. They studied a broad range of questions like who lives in the fifth house from you and where is your uncle's birthmark located on his body? Those outrageous questions were meant to outwit the Chinese. Many of the children were questioned separate from their parents and they wouldn't know how to answer, so they'd guess and get it wrong. When answers were wrong, sometimes children and their parents were separated.

Interview process
Interrogation process

They were then given medical exams where boys were to be stripped in front of everybody in a room full of people. They would check for hookworms in the most painful ways and most immigrants looked back at that with a grim memory. After they were finally interviewed many were still deported. Many were taken away after the exams without knowing where their parents or family were. Many families were separated at this time, and never seen again because sometimes some of the family members were accepted while others were not. The process the immigrants had to endure to come to a supposedly just country was many times unjust and unfair.

Try putting yourself in these immigrants' shoes by taking the quiz, "Will America Accept You?"

Continue to Conditions