It's nice to be nostalgic, but try to remember how many received any benefits. Also, try to remember how many were sent to their eventual death while trying to escape the Holocaust.
Nostalgic? Not at all.
The similarities in the journey - Getting from home to the port of departure hundreds of miles away (by train for some, but more usually some combination of walking and sitting in a horse-drawn cart), teens leaving on their own (to avoid conscription) knowing they may never see family again, escaping from violence (pogroms), traveling in groups for safety (though even so, not all made it through alive), carrying one bag with all one's possessions and food the trip (though some lost it to robbers and scammers), sleeping on the ground, the risky border crossing (dangerous for men who lacked documentation of army service, and required swimming across rivers, seeking desolate, unguarded regions, hiding beneath merchandise in a cart), spending weeks or even months to reach your destination, and then finally the steerage class ship travel.
Once they reached NY, most went quickly through Immigration, though about 2% were turned back for things like tuberculosis or eye infections or senility (suspected in anyone over 60).
True, they received no benefits from the government, but then, neither did native-born Americans. There was no safety net for the unemployed, elderly, disabled. Social Security began in the 1930s, Medicaid and Medicare in the 1960s.