Overview 

Now that you have chosen an oral history, listen and read the transcript carefully. Take some notes on the Push, Pulls, and Means discussed by the interviewee. Your next task is to fill in some gaps by doing research. This research will help you place the experience of your subject into the larger context of immigration to the US.

In terms of push factors, you may need to find out more about what was happening in the country of origin during the time of immigration. For pulls, you may want to find out more about the reasons why the interviewee would want to come to the US at the time of migration. Was this interviewee part of a large “wave” of immigrants from their country of origin? Was the interviewee a “typical” immigrant from their nation of origin? Finally, for means, investigate more on how the interviewee came to the U.S. Did they have work or student visas? Were they part of a resettlement program? Was it difficult or easy? Your research should do some investigation of the process. 

TheTask

Think about the questions posed above, or any other question that sparked your curiosity after listening and reading the oral history. What I would like you to do is write a paragraph or two (about 200 to 350 words) on what you plan to investigate. You should also consider the kind of sources that you think might help provide context for your essay. (i.e. statistics, history of nation of origin, more details about immigration policy and laws, etc.) You do not have to provide any specific sources at this point. Instead describe a road map for your research.