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The health test administered to new immigrants processed through Ellis Island
was rather amusing.
The big hall milling with new arrivals contained a two stage grand staircase
that led to the upper level.
Anyone who could easily clamber up that incline would easily qualify for
immigration, no other questions asked. However, if you had a mobility problem
or a lung condition, you had to wait for a relative from the city who had to
convince the immigration officer that you would be looked after.
They were looking for a chance to let you in rather that keep you out. And from
those humble beginnings grew much of New York's new money.
Somewhat like the Sindhi Hindus of West Pakistan many of whom came to Bombay
and Delhi with just a shirt on their backs as DPs (displaced persons) and ended
up with cornering the wealth that was once exclusively the property of the
city's Gujarati and Parsi community.
Reminds me of an incident at the customs shed at Ballard Pier where I was
waiting my turn to board the SS Dwarka on my maiden voyage to the shores of the
Persian Gulf to check out lucrative job prospects in Bahrain.
It was 1974. There was this regal looking Sindhi male senior customs officer
who had an imperious Begum from Karachi dressed in expensive embroidered
clothes and bedecked with gold who had alighted from the ship come up to him to
complain about the harsh treatment she was getting from his junior. Both had
elite Catholic school accents and spoke in chaste English.
"There is nothing that my junior officer can do to you Madam that your people
have not done to me and my family. Like you I too am from Pakistan. Now let me
do something my officer hasn't done. Take off all your gold. I need to impound
it." She had come to the wrong person to complain.
Roland.
Toronto.
Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.
-----Original Message-----
From: eric pinto <[email protected]>
Sender: [email protected]: Wed, 19 Oct 2011 06:21:39
To: GOA2<[email protected]>
Reply-To: eric pinto <[email protected]>, "Goa's premiere mailing list,
estb. 1994!" <[email protected]>
Subject: [Goanet] US Entry - Pre/Post 1965.
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The Exclusion Act of 1928 barred "Orientals," "East Europeans" and "South
Europeans" from entry to the US. The much respected Rep. Peter Rodino pressed
for the repeal that resulted in the Immigration Reform Act of 1965 that was
signed into law by John F. Kennedy. Quotas were based on population, the
biggest going to India and China, set at 25,000 each a year.
Sen. Strom Thurmond would claim later that he did not block the measure in
the senate because Kennedy's Attorney General had mislead him with the
numbers: 50,000 entrants over ten years, when in fact the law was set to bring
in as many every month of the year !
Quirks in the old law would result in situations such as a child born to
British parents residing in India being denied entry whilst a sibling born in
Britain was welcomed.
I invite Santoshbab to comment on the 'moron' tests administered
to non-Anglo Europeans in 1928.
