Migration project

1. Migration project By Emily Tarantini

2. Why Move? What is home? • This project relates to two class lessons: • “Why Move?” (Sept 18) • “Dwelling, Belonging, and Home” (Oct 19) The purpose of this project is to learn more about the personal experience (struggles, successes, and everything in between) of migration through first hand accounts and stories.

3. Tell Me your story Through creating an online anonymous survey and sharing it with everyone I could, I gathered 48 thoughtful responses to 7 questions about personal migration stories. 22 moves were international, and 26 were domestic. After the 48 surveys were complete, I manually copied and pasted all 336 question responses into a single Word document divided by question. From there, I plugged in each large block of text into an online word art program that would allow me to portray the most important aspects of migration– as shared by the migrants themselves.

4. TELL ME YOUR STORY The following word art pieces represent words and phrases used most in each respondent’s personal answer to the question. The larger the word, the more frequently it was used throughout the personal responses to that particular question. Although some words such as “home” and “miss” were used in almost every response, pay attention to the smaller, more descriptive words as well. Through carefully examining these word art pieces, we can learn more about what migrants might be thinking about before, during, and after moving.

5. WHERE DID YOU MOVE FROM?

6. WHERE did you move to?

7. WHY DID YOU AND/OR Your family move?

9. Notable responses • “Like most people, we moved to LA in hopes of ‘making it big’. My dad worked in the film industry and subsequently, we lived paycheck to paycheck. My parents talked about how agents would be all over him, and how we would be rich and famous, and how my mom wouldn't have to work the night shift anymore… but it didn’t end up like that”. • “Because my family adopted me”. • “My father (an auto mechanic) was crushed under a car while working on it. He survived but was told the cold weather would take a toll on his body, so he chose to move to a warmer climate. I was only a young child and therefore moved with my family”.

10. What were some of the challenges you and/or your family faced DURING the move?

12. Notable responses • “Finding a place to sleep. Housing was a big problem”. • “Legal issues: navigate the complicated system in another country to ensure that my stay is legal can be very intimidating, especially for the first time I live oversea (Singapore) since I was only 15 back then.” • “Since I travelled by airplane, my luggageswere really limited. Choosing what can/should I bring and ensuring that they WILL go with me to my new place is very crucial and can be a head/heart ache.”

13. What were some of the challenges you and/or your family faced after the move?

15. Notable responses • “I want to say that the biggest challenge was the language. My parents could only find manual labor jobs because they didn't know English. My father worked as an executive, wearing a suit and tie and had a company car with a chauffeur in Peru, but in the US, he had to work in a company that manufactured parts for ships. He had to wear sort of construction clothing (jeans, flannel shirt, gloves, cap). The first day I saw my dad come back from work all dirty with black grease stains, my sister and I ran to him and started crying because we had never seen our dad do this kind of work. He talked to us and said we'd do anything for his family. Also, my poor mom was a teacher in Peru, and in the US, she found a job working in a sewing factory. All this because they didn't know the language. As far as assimilating to a new culture, my parents and sister kind of stayed with the Peruvian culture and would only watch Spanish channels on tv, listened to Spanish radio and speak Spanish among themselves. I on the other hand, was still a teen and didn't want to be different than the other kids in HS. So, I was determined to learn English and work on the enunciation as much as possible, I'd listen to American music, watch tv on English channels only in order to train my ear and try to understand English speaking people. On thing, it's my personal opinion, that English is a VERY difficult language to learn and enunciate! Another thing I noticed in HS, I was mortified at the lack of respect some teens had towards authority (teachers, TA's, counselors). All I kept thinking was, if I ever behaved like that in my HS in Peru, I would've gotten smacked so quickly, I would've never seen it coming!”

16. What is home to you, and why do you consider it to be your home?

18. Notable responses • “Home is where you hang your hat”. • “Home is where my family is and where we get together. Somewhere we can relax, talk, and have fun”. • “Home is wherever I am with people that make me smile upon waking.”

19. What do you love and/or miss about home?

21. Notable responses • “MY BED!!” • “My dog. I miss her so much it hurts.” • “I love the hills, I love the environment, the way things work here, the idea of the movie industry and how each individual part builds to something greater.” • “The weather. I thought snow would be cool but it sucks”.