The journey to America wasn't the easiest. It took about an average of 40 days to get to America and the amount of money it took to get to America was thirty US dollars. Immigrants spent their journey crowded together with only clothes on their backs because of the lack of room on the ships. While they were on the ship, they were fed stew or soup and had to bathe themselves with salt water. Since they had to bathe themselves with salt water, they had infections and irritations.
There were many single men among these immigrants in the U.S. Those who stayed sent home money for their families. Often the father and older sons would be the first to come to America leaving the mother and the family behind. They would work and save their money and then send for their families to come to America. Most of the Italian immigrants went through New York's Ellis Island. It was America's largest and most active immigration station. It was an "Island of Hope." For some of the Italians it became the "Island of Tears". This was because families were separated and some were denied entry to the U.S. Most Immigrants only had to stay there for about two hours and not that many immigrants were kept and detained.
The immigrants had to pass medical and legal inspections before they could enter the US. Some had to wait five hours for a six second exam. Others had to stay longer for additional testing or a legal hearing. If the immigrants had a health problem they were marked with chalk to identify them as "problems." The final journey was going down "The stairs of separation." One stairway for immigrants who were going to New Jersey, and one for going to New York. A third set of stairs for those that were detained. Only about 2% of immigrants had to return to their countries. The immigrants mostly settled in New York, New Jersey, California, Pennsylvania, and Florida. They kept their old customs and their knowledge of their new country was limited.