Research Update 2/24—Draft of Interview Questions

A Google Document with our drafted interview questions may be accessed via password here.

A PDF of our drafted questions as of 2/24/18 may be accessed here. (PDF has been included for the inevitable time when the Google Doc will be updated, outdated, or deleted, and thus no longer accurately reflect our writing and research at this stage.)

My research partner Megan Kraus’ personal blog may be accessed here.

First Research Update—Campus Archives Visit

Campus’ Special Collections sit high above the surrounding academic buildings in a corner of the third floor atop the library. The sterile, warmly lit main room is lined with tables, an encased Gutenberg Bible, large computer monitors, and a select handful of rare books. These few books that sit out in the open here have been deemed sturdy enough for the harsh environment outside vaulted areas, and the single line of bookshelves they rest on runs beneath a lofted area accessed by a white spiral staircase. High windows look out on the general sciences building, Student Union, and a panorama of the northeast Missouri sky.

We had scheduled yesterday’s appointment with Amanda at the beginning of the semester, and as per usual, she was well-prepared with materials for us. The bulk of her findings fell into two main categories: previous oral histories, and local history.

A stack of perhaps a couple dozen or more CD’s and their accompanying transcripts formed the bulk of an oral history project carried out by interdisciplinary classes almost exactly a decade ago. Focusing on the Hispanic population in nearby Milan (pronounced MY-lən in local parlance), the data, which occupies two boxes, is still unprocessed. Milan is now also home to a number of Congolese, so these boxes will hopefully, upon further inspection, yield an already-existing migration narrative into which a new population has recently arrived.

In addition to the Milan project, Amanda also walked us through the Collections’ sources on local history; among these sources, the most impressive was a catalog of several decades worth of issues of the Kirksville Daily Express, compiled by a former president of the University. While compiling an historical narrative on local migration would be a whole project in and of itself with these sources, glancing at them was at worst intriguing, and at best assured us of easily accessible texts should they become necessary.

We agreed to work with the Congolese population some weeks ago. Having now glanced through both the Milan project as well as other oral histories for class, the following few questions (among others) have come to mind:

  1. What was life like in the home country?
  2. When did this people begin to arrive in Kirksville? What various factors compelled them to leave their country and come here (both the US and Kirksville specifically)?
  3. What impressions did they have of this place before they moved here? How was this different from the reality?
  4. What is a hope they have for themselves/their families’ futures?
  5. How can the local community help them achieve these goals?

Map of Refugee Populations in Europe

Attached here is a map in which I’ve attempted to create a decent picture of where refugees have settled throughout major countries in Europe since the start of the migrant crisis in 2015. This graphic aims to create a basic overview and concrete vision of how this phenomenon has unfolded in various places. Clicking on the pin of each country brings up a brief summary of the nation’s interactions with displaced persons. The total national population is also included to emphasize that even in the countries with the highest numbers, such as Germany, Sweden, or Italy, refugees form only a tiny fraction of the overall population.

I say “decent picture” due to the complicated nature of tracking numbers of refugees, who tend to move from country to country quickly, oftentimes without documentation; additional difficulty arises from the fact that certain data sets are from different years. I also stress that this is an extremely basic summary. All numbers are taken from the CIA World Factbook except where otherwise noted, and most come from 2016. Some countries with particularly interesting or outstanding situations, such as Malta and the Vatican, receive a special note.

A larger version of this map can be found at this link.

 

Welcome, or: A Personal Introduction to Immigration

On this blog, I’ll be keeping a personal track record of the research and interviews Megan and I conduct throughout the semester. Other sections of the site will have more of an academic/professional orientation; these posts, however, will take on a more personal tone.

I found out about the Voices course offering (and about COPLAC itself) through my faculty advisor, who is incidentally our dean of Interdisciplinary Studies. She recommended it to me after I told her about my summer job as a journalist, which at times touched on migrancy coverage; I had also worked the previous semester as an office assistant for the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in Rome. Thinking it would serve as a good résumé builder, we began to fill out the forms.

However, my interest in and, more importantly, concern for issues of immigration and refugees extends to before these jobs. Months before I started with JRS, I had paid more and more attention to the growing migrant crisis. The plight of many throughout the world plucked at my heartstrings: What must it be like to suddenly have everything, your home, your daily life, your family, even at times your children, ripped away from you by the powers that be or forces above your control? These questions sound cliche, but the issue lodged in my heart, in my mind, and in my prayers.

The new administration brought a heightened awareness of this crisis. Announcements of President Trump’s executive orders on a border wall and refugee vetting came as I sat in the Newark airport on my way to Italy; shortly after landing, I contacted my representatives, and my opposition to the measures was shortly thereafter hardened as the US Catholic bishops roundly condemned the orders; Pope Francis had already famously made the refugee crisis and immigration themes of his pontificate, which for Americans came into particular light during his visit to Ciudad Juarez at the US-Mexico border.

With this, weeks of pondering the migrant crisis, a pondering which had seemingly arisen in me of a sudden from nowhere, came to a head with amateur political activism as I called and wrote my representatives from Rome and tracked progress both in the White House as well as Congress. My time with JRS brought me an opportunity, to some degree, to let this percolate into my everyday life; however, due to my limited hours, a multi-layered language barrier, and an office staff who were almost as new as I was, I did not receive an opportunity to interact personally with any of the many migrants whom JRS helps in Rome out of our offices by the Chiesa del Gesù. The following summer, the brief coverage of immigration panels I provided was even done remotely.

The Voices course, then, came as an opportunity for a long-delayed change of perspective. Rather than continuing to simply sit in some sort of journalistic or bureaucratic ivory tower as this issue continued to bump into my life, this presented me a tangible possibility of interacting personally with groups of people who had chosen to leave their homeland. Kirksville has been a good home, and migrancy has woven itself in and out of my life over the past year. A course covering immigration would allow me to turn my attention from headlines on a screen to a human person in front of me, and furthermore allow me to provide new resources to the community that so generously welcomes us undergrads. Voices, then, personally fulfills its name: I finally get to hear the voices of those I’ve read so much about.