Tracing History, Heritage, and Hardship at Europe’s Emigration Museums

Europe has many excellent ‘Ellis Islands in reverse’—museums at the places where millions said goodbye to the land of their birth.

The Irish Emigration Museum offers visitors a powerful, high-tech look at how, through immigration, the little island of Ireland has had an outsized impact on the global diaspora. Addie Mannan, Rick Steves' Europe

Every year, millions of Americans visit Ellis Island, where their ancestors may have arrived from “the old country.” But Europe has many excellent “Ellis Islands in reverse”—museums at the places where millions of people said goodbye to the land of their birth.

Is there anything more poignant than people willing to sacrifice everything in pursuit of a better life for themselves and their loved ones? That’s the story of many hard-scrabble Europeans heading off to dreamed-of opportunities in far-off America. Others, who faced persecution or even starvation, really had no choice—it was leave or die. Across Europe, you’ll find excellent museums that tell some of these compelling stories.