Kosovo refugees entering the United States seeking protection from a war-torn homeland join millions of our ancestors who also were persecuted and sought refuge here.

For most of the world's oppressed peoples, the United States offers hopes of freedom and opportunity, as symbolized by the Statue of Liberty. Standing in New York Bay, it was a breathtaking sight for the millions of immigrants who entered the United States through Ellis Island.

Although many more tourists visit the statue, the Statue of Liberty National Monument also includes a museum on Ellis Island, slightly more than a mile away. Seventy percent of the 12 million immigrant arrivals to the United States between 1892 and 1924 came through Ellis Island. An average of 5,000 hopeful immigrants a day were medically screened there before entering the United States. Nearly half of all Americans today can claim an ancestor who entered through Ellis Island, according to a recent Scripts Howard News Service article.

Ellis Island was the busiest of 30 scattered U.S. immigration centers. When new immigrants arrived, their ships docked at the Hudson River pier and the immigrant passengers were ferried to Ellis Island, which they called the "Island of Hope, Island of Tears."

Many arrived totally destitute, having spent every cent on passage in steerage. Steerage accommodations were dank and noisy group quarters in the stifling holds of ships, where passengers saw no daylight during the one- to three-week passage. Because this was many passengers' first trip on a ship, seasickness made life a torment for the sick and the well alike.

It generally took immigrants less than 12 hours to be processed through the Ellis Island. Luggage was left on the ground floor of the building, before immigrants proceeded up a great staircase, dubbed the Stairs of Separation, for their examinations.

Although only about 2 percent of the immigrants were rejected during Ellis Island's operation, it was a traumatic ordeal for large families, fearful that a family member would be rejected.

When immigrants cleared Ellis Island, they were essentially on their own. However, a process known as networking often eased the transition for immigrants.

Networking occurs when potential migrants communicate with former migrants. Sometimes this occurs between family members or others within a common culture, such as religious, village, or tribal groups. Such transfer of information to new immigrants through the networking process is common the world over.

Thus, most Ellis Island immigrants moved directly to areas where their own culture prevailed. Immigrants from Ireland moved to Irish neighborhoods, Germans to German areas, and Italians to Italian sections. This eased the immigrant assimilation process.

Between 1820 and 1940, Europe was by far the leading source area for U.S. immigrants. Germanic states, including Austria provided the largest numbers at 8.5, followed by Italy(4.7), Ireland (4.6) , United Kingdom(4.3), former U.S.S.R. republics (3.3) and Canada (3.0 million).

Only 56,787 emigrants from the former Yugoslav states arrived in the United States during this same period. Between 1941 and 1996, however, 100,000 more arrived.

Now, as more than one million new homeless refugees flee persecution in Kosovo, some are becoming U.S. immigrants. They represent the most recent wave of "...those huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

The Statue of Liberty National Monument is the 10th most visited National Park site in the United States, established purposefully to remind us of our own immigrant ancestry.