My grandma was born in Sicily. then Mount Edna took out the town. So, the men fought to get her, her mom, and her mom's sisters on a boat to the USA. where they went through the port of call called Ellis Island. Then the crazy part. they just started working and were taken in by other immigrants as long as they worked (apartment textile shops). Her father and brothers finally got a boat, to Romania where they worked for almost a year to get enough money to come to the USA. legally, though the same port of call. And they would have qualified for asylum, but there wasn't asylum till the 1940's
different times, different morals, different goals.