(Reupload because I accidentally posted to public)

I find it interesting that the author doesn't contrast the "living conditions" that immigrants had to experience when arriving on Ellis Island with the experience of landing in JFK. I remember learning in school that the Island was remarkably dirty, since no one wanted to clean up after immigrants due to the popular belief that they harbored diseases. There is none of that in JFK now, since our beliefs on medicine and immigrants have changed. This also connects to the idea of immigrants having it "easy", when there's nothing easy about uprooting your life and moving to a new place.

This makes me think deeper about the way my family, and me in turn, view immigration in New York. My family immigrated here many years ago, and they take a lot of pride in the fact that they "made it" without government handouts. They regularly put others down for accepting Welfare, Medicaid and other government assistance. I had never really put it past anything more than competition, but the highlight of this perpetuated stereotype made me think about his way more.