Esaay

• Where was the person born and what was their life like growing up? What do they remember about the house they lived in, the school they went to, their parents and extended families, etc. Everybody has a history before they arrive in the U.S. Moreover, their story of migration doesn’t begin when they first stepped foot in this country. 

• Where did your subject migrate to? And why? It is not enough to say they came to the U.S. or New York or New Jersey. Was their migration experience part of a “chain migration”? (see Gerber for that term?) Did they have relatives or friends living in the place where they migrated to? What does your subject remember about their first days in their new community? Language? Food? Customs? Laws? Friends? What stories do they tell? 

• Has your subject migrated (either within his or her home country or to another country) before coming to the United States?