Tell a Migration Story … With Interviews Population Pasta Tell a Migration Story … With Maps Tell a Migration Story … With Photos Through the Eyes of a Refugee Activity Index

<< Interviewing can be a great way to get a firsthand account of someone’s culture. Many cultures pass their ideas through oral tradition. Photo courtesy of James L. Stanfield

Share someone's migration story. "Become a reporter" for your local newspaper and then conduct an interview with someone who has migrated to your community. First get some background information:

• Visit Geography Action! and The Genographic Project to find out more about human migration.
• Learn the basics of human migration by reading the Human Migration Guide for Grades K-2; 3-5; 6-8; or 9-12.
• Then read the Interviewing Guide for Grades K-2; 3-5; 6-8; or 9-12 to learn about how to conduct an effective interview and share someone's story.

A community is made up of people of many different ages and cultures, and every place has a unique migration story to tell. You can learn many things about a place's culture and history from the people who live there. Visit the Xpeditions Hall Migration Station to learn more about migration in Europe during the 1800s.

Those who have migrated, or moved, to your community often have a unique perspective and a strong impact on the community. Conducting an interview is a great way to learn more about these interesting stories. By writing a news article, you can share what you've learned with the rest of your community!

Now prepare for your story by investigating the interview process.

Learn About It
An interview is one example of a primary source—first-hand or direct evidence of an event or topic. An interview provides information right "from the horse's mouth," and it offers a person's unique point of view and firsthand knowledge. A well-thought out and planned interview gives you not just the facts, but also a person's feelings about historical events.

Along with other primary source materials (such as photographs, documents, maps, letters, and diaries), interviews are one way to help you learn about the history of your community. Learn more about how to conduct an effective interview by reviewing the Xpeditions Interviewing Guide for Grades K-2; 3-5; 6-8 ; or 9-12 (PDF, Adobe Acrobat Reader required), adapted from the Geography Action! Project Guide article "The Art of the Interview" written by Ann Williams, National Geographic magazine Senior Writer and Regional Editor.

Think About It
Next you'll want to hone your interviewing skills. Try some of these activities to practice some of the steps of the interview process.

• Interview two people with different perspectives on the same event. Do they have the same memory of events? Do they have the same opinion about the events? Why might their impressions of the events differ? What does this tell you about oral tradition?
• Have a friend interview you to experience what it is like to be interviewed. What kinds of questions did he or she ask that made you want to share more detail? Did any types of questions make you feel more, or less, comfortable? What else can you learn about the interview process from being the interviewee?
• Try to conduct an interview while skipping one of the steps. How did the interview progress if you didn't plan in advance or bring a list of questions?
• Try avoiding a conversation with the interviewee by simply asking the questions and making no comments to his or her answers. Did that affect the flow of the interview?
• Prepare an "autobiographical" interview. Go through the five steps of the interview process as if you were both the interviewer and the interviewee. What insight does this provide you as you prepare to interview another person?
• Interview three people in your community from three different generations. Break their stories into "chapters." Each chapter should tell the story of the same place from a different perspective, from different people at different times.
• Try sending your list of questions to the interviewee in advance of the interview. Compare that interview with another where the interviewee didn't have time to prepare his or her responses. Which interview gave you more detail? How were the answers different?
• Try to conduct a group interview with several people who are familiar with the same event. How did having several people share their stories together affect the "flow" of the interview?
• Have the interviewee illustrate his or her answers to the questions with any "artifacts" or memorabilia (such as pictures, newspaper clippings, objects, etc.). How did this affect your understanding of the story?
• If you were to interview a person whose family followed one of the migration routes on the "People on the Move" map in the National Geographic Geography Action! Migration: The Human Journey Packet (PDF, Adobe Acrobat Reader required), what questions would you ask him or her?

Do It
Now that you've practiced your interviewing skills, you're ready to conduct a community interview, described below. After your interview is finished, share what you've learned about the interviewee's experiences, memories, and feelings about coming to live in your community. Use the Xpeditions Interviewing Guide to help guide your interview process. Read Ann Williams' sample interview and don't forget these steps as you plan and conduct your own interview:

1. Plan: For a migration story, look for someone
   • who was born in a place that's very different from where you are both now living;
   • who lived in his/her birthplace long enough to remember it and talk about it with some perspective; and
   • who is old enough, and thoughtful enough, to speak in detail about coming to your community and making a home there;
   • who is connected well enough among your community's immigrants to tell you about that subculture, and about the journeys that other immigrants made to get to your community.
2. Question: Here are some possible questions to get you started:
   • Where were you born?
   • When?
   • What do you remember about that place?
   • When did you leave?
   • Why?
   • How?
   • Why did you come to the community where you now live?
   • What do you remember about settling here? What was the best moment? Worst? Funniest?
   • How have you seen the immigrant population of your community change since then?
   • What has driven those changes?
   • What interesting stories do you know about others who have settled in your community?
   • How often do you go back to your birthplace? What does it feel like to you today?
   • How do your children/grandchildren view your immigrant journey? Your place of origin?
3. Listen: Be sure to listen carefully during the interview:
   • Make your subject feel comfortable.
   • Take advantage of opportunities to ask more in-depth questions.
4. Record: Don't forget to use a voice recorder or take good hand-written notes during the interview.
5. Tell a Story: Think about how you will share the information you gather from your interview. Some possibilities include
   • news article;
   • poetry; or
   • prose (essay, short story).

Younger Xpeditioners: Submit a "picture story" to the newspaper. Draw pictures about the things you learned from the interview. Make sure your pictures show events that the interviewee remembered. Your pictures can also show the feelings the interviewee talked about, such as happiness, sadness, or loneliness. If you have any artifacts, such as photographs, from your interview, add them to your picture to create a collage. On your drawing or collage, write descriptive words about the pictures (names of people and places, feelings, etc.).

Older Xpeditioners:

• Write an article for the local newspaper that describes the interviewee's experiences and feelings. Use the interactive print press to create your news article.
• You might also like to write a fictionalized account of the interviewee's experiences. Use your interview notes to compose a letter this person may have written to someone in their family, after they moved to your community. Be sure to clearly label that this account is fiction based on the true story of your interviewee.

Parents: Help your child learn more about the culture and history of your community by investigating your own family history. For example, arrange for your child to interview a family member who has moved to or from your community. Investigate some of the reasons for the move. When did he or she migrate? Why did this person leave or come to your community? Did he or she move alone? With his or her whole family? With a large group of people? What was it like? What good and bad memories does he or she have?

Be sure to check out local resources with your child too. A local museum may offer information about your city or town. Explore the documents, photographs, maps, diaries, and other primary sources that a museum offers. Then think about the story these objects tell and how the migration of different groups of people to and from your community has changed the culture and affected the history of your community.