Presentation

Extreme poverty, on one hand, and emigrants’ desire for redemption on the other hand, were often combined with the hope of easy money, as distant lands were presented as real heavens on earth. Such hopes were encouraged by shipping companies with their speculation activities. Furthermore, migration agents were deceptively recruiting those who were most disappointed and desperate. Shipping companies advertisements were promising departures on time, safe comfortable trips, as well as dreamy destinations. More often than not ships turned out to be very different to how they had been described in the advertising posters. They were not quiet and tidy at all: they were overcrowded, filthy and dangerous. This was followed by a number of tricks and deep disappointment: the Agents used the reckless and turned emigration into a business.