Chicana/o Studies 245 History of the Americas

Maria Elena Fernandez

RESEARCH PROJECT GUIDELINES

Your final project is an 8 page family history that includes three generations on one side of your family, focusing on one person each generation, including yourself.  This project is designed for you to focus on one family member’s migration to the United States.  However, if immigration is not relevant to your family history, or you prefer to focus on a native American or African American ancestor, see me and we will determine a research focus. Also, if you are an international student, please see me to determine your research topic.

There are two major steps to complete this project, the first is to obtain your family story through at least one interview of a family member. After completing the family history, you will conduct scholarly research on the historical process your family member was part of and interweave it with his/her story.

ALL WORK MUST BE TYPED AND DOUBLE-SPACED.

Part I.   Family History (5 page maximum) Due Week 5

You will tell the story of 3 generations of your family history on ONE side of your family focusing on the story of 1 person per generation.  The family history should be told in chronological order from oldest to youngest. You are included in the 3 generations, so your story will be last.  For one of the generations, choose someone that migrated to the U.S. from another country.  This generation is the focus of the project and therefore his/her story must be detailed, but no more than 3 pages.  Your story and the story of the other generation will be approximately 1 page each.

You will interview at least one person in your family to obtain the story of 2 generations of your family besides yourself. Attached you will find interview questions for all three generations, those in bold are specific to the migration experience.  When you write your own story, be sure to include all the relevant questions, including the specific questions for you at the end of the interview questions.

Interview guidelines: Make an appointment with the person you will be interviewing for an hour or an hour and a half. Before you interview him/her, be sure to identify your priority questions. I highly recommend audio or video taping it so that you can review it and keep it as part of your family’s records, if the person feels comfortable with this. If when you are interviewing, it is still not complete after one hour, ask the person you are interviewing if s/he would prefer to finish the interview at another time.  Be gentle with your interviewee, since there may be sensitive material in his/her story.  But also be (gently) persistent in soliciting vivid, concrete details of his/her experience.

Once you have compiled all the information on the person who migrated, you should write his or her story (no more than 3 pages) organized according to the following 7 topics.  These topics will parallel the research you will conduct after completing the family history portion.  Make sure that the questions in each topic are answered in your family member’s story and that they appear in the following order.

1.) Push factors 

Describe your family member’s living conditions in the country of origin that led to her/his migration; most often it is difficult economic conditions or political conditions like war or religious persecution.  *This is the most important one of all the topics, so please be sure to paint a clear picture of what her/his experience was like.

2.)   Pull factors

What information did your family member have about the U.S. that was pulling her/him here, especially regarding the economy or political conditions?  Beyond information, did s/he have specific job offers or family ties pulling her/him here?

3.)   Immigration Laws

Did your family member decide to migrate documented or undocumented?  Why did s/he choose one over the other? What information or opportunities did your family member have about her/his best means for a successful migration? 

4.)   Migration Experience

Describe your family member’s actual migration, how and where s/he actually traveled to get to the US.  How did being documented or undocumented affect her/his experience?

5.) Sector in U.S. Economy

Explain the type of work your family member initially found in the U.S., including the pay and the number of hours per day or week.  What did s/he feel was good and what was difficult about the working conditions of this job?  Did it provide for his/her needs?

6.) Networks

Describe how your family member found housing and work, who helped her or him?  Friends, family, church, a community organization?

7.) Cultural Adjustment

Explain the cultural adjustments your family member had to make, whether with regard to language, urban setting, social or family life.  Describe how friends, family or social institutions helped them in this initial process.

Part II.  Research on the experiences of immigrants from your country of origin who came at the same time as your family member.  (3 pages)

Sources: You must use a minimum of 5 sources, they must be scholarly or government sources, at least 2 must be from our library data bases. A maximum of 2 sources can include encyclopedias and only the following non-scholarly internet sources: migrationpolicy.org, PBS and everyculture.com). You will be given instruction on finding scholarly sources.  Reliable, non-scholarly sources may be used for very recent migrations.

Paralleling the story of your family member who migrated, the research section of your paper will cover the same topics.   This section of the paper is a big part of your grade, so the completed version of your research should include each of the topics listed below in the order listed, should answer the questions under each topic and must meet the 3 page requirement. If you are following the migration of a woman, your research should reflect the specific experiences women had in contrast to men. Please note that you are researching the general experience of immigrants from your country of origin and this may not exactly match your family member’s experience.

1.)Push factors* 

What were the economic, political and/or social conditions in the country of origin that were pushing residents out of your country of origin during the time period of your family member’s migration?  Explain economic or political policies and the effect these had on the population.  If there was internal conflict such as civil war, explain the cause. If available, please note how urban and rural populations were affected differently.

This is the most important of all the research topics, it must be substantive!

2.)Pull factors*

What are the typical information and opportunities that immigrants from your country of origin had about the U.S. that motivated their migration?  To what extent did having family and friends in the U.S. influence their decision to migrate, as well as information about job opportunities?

3.)Immigration Laws

What were the U.S. immigration policies that affected your country of origin during the time period of your family member’s migration that enabled her/him to migrate legally or encouraged her/him to migrate without documents?  Be specific about the eligibility requirements needed for a legal migration.

4.)  Number of Immigrants

Include the number of immigrants that entered the U.S. from your country of origin during the time period your family member migrated.  If available, include totals that distinguish between women and men, documented and undocumented, rural and urban. You may even find the number of immigrants from your family’s state or region.

5.) Sector in U.S. Economy*

Where did the majority of immigrants from your country of origin typically fit in the U.S. economy?  Explain the types of jobs in this sector of the economy, including the typical wages and working conditions.  How did their earnings compare to the minimum wage at this time? Explain why there was demand in this sector of the U.S. economy for immigrant workers from your country of origin.  What did education, language and work experience have to do with these immigrants obtaining jobs in this sector?

*If you are following the migration of a woman, your research should reflect the migration experience specific to women.

DEADLINES FOR RESEARCH SECTION

Research Statement & Sources                 Due Week 7

1.)       Research Statement: Write a maximum of half a page single-space overview on the immigration experience of people from your country of origin who came at the same time period as your family member (Focus on the push/pull factors, immigration laws and types of jobs they have in the U.S. economy). Use any internet source you find reliable and informative. Make note of the sources these websites use, you will need some of them for the second part of the assignment. Be specific about the time period, make sure it matches your family member’s migration period.  Write the country of origin and time period as the heading for the assignment, ie. “Peruvian Immigration in the 1980’s.”

2.)     A works cited page that includes 5 sources, a minimum of 3 sources must be scholarly or government, at least two from JSTOR database. A maximum of 2 sources can come from encyclopedias (Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural History is a good one) and only the following non-scholarly internet sources: Migration Information Source, PBS and everyculture.com. Please see me if you have any non-scholarly internet source that you feel is essential. Articles on university websites that have an author and footnotes count as scholarly sources. Use MLA format. (See CSUN library website for MLA style.)  Please make sure your sources cover the following research areas: push factors (#1), immigration laws (#3) and sector in the U.S. economy (#6).  These are the most important areas of your research

3.)    Include at least 1 question that came up for you about searching for sources.

Push and Pull Factors due with works cited page Due Week 9

 At least 3 sources-MLA format

Immigration Laws and Economic Sector with works cited page  

All 5 sources-MLA format Due Week 11

Final Draft of Research Project (8 pages)              Due Week 13

Now that you have both the research and the family story completed, you must integrate the two.  The structure of the final product is the story of 3 generations of your family history on one side of your family told in chronological order.  You must intertwine the research with the story of your family member who migrated.  The easiest way to do this is to insert the scholarly research for each topic right after the same topic of the family story.  You should do this for each of the first 6 topics.  The final draft should include a map with the capital, the states, your family member’s city or town, and the neighboring countries.  And, of course, you will include your works cited page.

 Questions for Oral Interview(s)

You will focus on the generation that migrated, and the others will be included more as background. Before your interview, be sure to identify your priority questions. I highly recommend audio or videotaping it so that you can review it and keep it as part of your family’s records, if the person feels comfortable with this. If when you are interviewing, you are still not done after one hour, ask the person you are interviewing if s/he would prefer to finish the interview at another time.  Be gentle with your interviewee, since there may be sensitive material in his/her story.  But also be (gently) persistent in soliciting vivid, concrete details of his/her experience.

Questions are for all three generations as they are relevant.  Those in bold are specific to the migration experience.

Childhood

-When and where were you born?  Where did you grow up? Did you grow up in a rural or urban area, small town or city?  (Be sure to get the name of the town or city, and the state or region within the country.)

-What did your family do for a living?

-Did you have access to formal education, if so, up to what year?  If not, how did you learn to read and write?

-What were you taught about your social class?

-Was there any form of migration (internal or external) in childhood or adolescence? What prompted this migration?

(-Did your family have a strong political allegiance or beliefs?  Strong religious convictions or cultural identity?)

What were you taught to aspire to in adulthood?

Adulthood

-Where did you settle in adulthood? Again, was it rural or urban, small town or large?  Specify name of town or city, region or state. What motivated you to choose this place?

-What did you do for a living?  How did you come to do this work?  Was this different from what your parents did?  How did people in your area make a living? Did how you earned a living change over time?

-How did you see yourself in terms of social class?

-At what age and in what year did you marry or have children within or outside of marriage? Who did you marry and why?  Did you share the same social class? Was this typical for the times?

-What passions did you have?  What motivated you?  What struggles did you face?

-Did you have strong political allegiance or beliefs?  Strong religious convictions or cultural identity?

1.)  Push: If migrated to the U.S. , why did you do so?  Please specify if it was due to political conflict, war, terrorism, economic hardship in your town or city or another reason.  Describe the conditions of your daily life that motivated your migration to the U.S.?

2.)  Pull: What information did you have about the U.S. before you migrated that motivated you to go there?  Did you have a job opportunity or family or friends you were going to join?

3.)   Immigration Laws: Did you decide to migrate documented or undocumented?  What was your understanding of the process and the requirements to migrate documented?  How did this impact your decision?

4.)   Migration: What was the migration experience like? Who advised you about where and how to migrate? What was your means of transportation?  Were there any difficulties or dangers?  How did you feel on your journey leaving your country and moving to the United States ?

5.) Economic Sector: How did you earn a living upon arriving in the U.S?  Was this job very different from work you had done in your country of origin?  Did it match your level of experience and education?  How much did you earn?  How many days a week and hours per day did you work?  Did you feel you were treated fairly?  Did you have any difficulties, especially with regard to language? Were you able to support yourself adequately and any dependents you may have had?

6.) Networks: Who helped you and how did they help you find housing and a job? Were they family, friends, church or community organizations?

7.) Cultural Adjustment: What changed for you in the migration?  Rural to urban setting?  Small town to big city?  How did living conditions change? How did family life change?  Did your legal status affect your experience?  Was speaking and understanding English a difficulty? How did your social life change?  Who helped you make these adjustments?  Did your belief systems change? What was the best thing about the migration?  What was the hardest thing?  

-How has your life changed since your migration? Do you believe the migration was worth the sacrifices you made? Did you live out the aspirations you were taught or did you choose another direction? What passions do you have?  What motivates you? 

-What do you see as the events that most influenced the direction your life has taken?

Questions Specifically for You

Answer the questions above that are relevant in addition to the ones below.

1.) If you or your parents migrated, what have you observed about you and your family’s ability to integrate into U.S. society in terms of legal status?  In terms of economic well-being?  In terms of political life?  In terms of U.S. culture?

2.) To what extent would you say your family has retained the culture, language and identity of your family’s country of origin?  For example, describe how fluent you and your siblings are in the language of origin compared with previous generations. Give examples of cultural practices your family has retained and those that have been lost.  How do you feel about this?