Being engaged in the practice of a humane and dynamic form of medicine, I have long been interested in the history of psychiatry in the United States and its connection to the major waves of immigration at the turn of the 20th century.

My visit to Ellis Island hospital in 2018 affected me profoundly. It was subsequent to this visit that I undertook the writing of this narrative.

This book seeks to shed light on how healthcare teams and social workers interacted with immigrants at the time. It also highlights how these spaces of care and disease prevention were conceived, and aims to provide a record of what has endured despite decades of neglect.

Meandering through the abandoned corridors of the Ellis Island hospital brings the original layout of the complex back to life. A new space is created, where, beyond the idea of confinement, it becomes possible to revive the life stories of those that once passed through there, thereby expanding our understanding of those lived experiences.
Being concerned about demonstrating how the history of this place can renew our contemporary approaches to caregiving in society, I was eager to ask what we can do with the world we've inherited in order to preserve it from oblivion.