Interviews

Instructions for Interview Projects

This assignment is inspired by The Human Face of Immigration. Students will conduct interviews with family members or friends to learn their own immigrant heritage story and experience.

Steps for Interview:

1. Choose one family member or a friend with whom you think you will be able to have a good conversation. Ask them about their imigration experience. You may want to ask questions such as:

• Basic Questions:

1. When did person arrive in the US?
2. What immigrant generation is this person? (1st, 1.5, 2nd, 3rd, etc.)
3. What is this person’s primary language of communication?
4. Why choose the US and not somewhere else?
5. Why or how did they choose a particular city?
6. How did they come? By plane, boat, etc…?
7. Did they face particular difficulties in their journey?
• Experiences in US
1. What difficulties did they face?
2. What challenges did they have to overcome?
3. Did they experience any prejudice?
4. Do any particular memories stand out?
5. Were there particular acts of kindness?
• Family and Identity
1. Did they leave behind family? How about close friends?
2. How did they feel about leaving people behind?
3. What were their hopes?
4. What do they worry about for themselves? For their children?
5. Do they see themselves as American?

Remember that your family members may say that they don’t know anything about their origins, but try to remind them that there must be a worthwhile story, that their story is probably a remarkable one. Try to make it a conversation more than a Q&A interview-- you’re trying to get them to open up.

Steps for Summarizing Your Interview:

1. When you finish conducting your interview, summarize your interviewees’ experiences.
2. Also reflect on how their story ties in with your own. Some of you may have always known about your family experience. For others, this may be the first time you’ve heard these stories. Either way, the interviews are likely to have some impact on you; reflect on how it impacts your understanding of your own life story.
3. Finally, tie your essay into some of the readings and discussions we’ve had in class. Did something in your interviewee's story remind you of anything you read or we discussed in class? 
• For example, are your interviewees’ lives prime examples of Sassen’s post-national identities? Or do they remind you of Hansen’s arguments about the continuing importance of citizenship? 
• Think through the common threads of the immigrant experience including the history and evolution of citizenship rights. How do such histories and backgrounds influence your own understanding of your own immigrant experience? Ask yourself questions such as...
• What are the similarities between your family’s and your own experiences with those of previous waves of immigrants?
• Do you think that many immigrants to the United States face discrimination? Economic problems? Racial prejudice? Religious differences? Language difficulties? Educational challenges?

Keep in mind that that the questions above are suggestions, you do NOT have to answer all or any of them.

Steps for Reporting Your Interview:

1. Log into this blog. 
2. Create a new blog post and add your essay.
3. Also include the following Labels (hashtags, tags)
• choose the existing tag "interview"
• choose an existing country label or create a new one indicating country of origin
4. Feel free to add images or videos if you think they will add to your essay.
5. Publish your blog post

Steps for Submitting the Assignment:

1. Return to Bb.
2. Choose "Semester Assignment"
3. provide a link to your post.
4. Submit the assignment.