Family Immigration Paper Assignment

It is often said that the United States is a country of immigrants, and as we'll learn in detail over the
course of this class, this is definitely the case. Most everyone, besides those descended from the
indigenous people of these territories, came to the United States by some process of immigration, be
it voluntary or involuntary. In this paper assignment, you will have the opportunity to research and
document the immigration story of your family.
Assignment Requirements
Interview at least one member of your family (however you define your family) who either 1)
immigrated or 2) knows your family's story. This will most likely be someone older than you. If you
are yourself an immigrant, you can also write your own immigration story. Though, I encourage you
to still interview a family member to further enrich your paper, and for the experience.
-

Your interview questions/data should include information such as, but not limited to:
o
o
o
o
o
o

Significant names, dates, events

Push/pull analysis of migration events
Details about people's experiences- education, "marriage, occupations, etc.
How they travelled here, their experience doing so
How family structure/careers/etc were impacted by immigrating
Other info that you're interested in learning more about (See interview tips below!)
Incorporate 3 outside *academic* sources into your analysis.
Acceptable sources include:
o Articles from Academic journals (for example Journal of Human Geography,
Journal of International Migration Studies, etc.)
o Academic Books, often published by academic presses (not Sexuality for
Dummies, for example)
o Statistical data sources, such as: Census, Bureau of Justice, Pew Institute,
Center for Disease Control, etc. (can be accessed online)
o News articles from major periodicals (i.e. NY Times, SF Chronicle, Huffington
Post, etc)- no more than 1
o You should use data from these sources to offer social, historical, cultural
context to the story that you're telling.
o For example:
o "Ji Young's mother died when she was thirteen years old,
leaving her to care for her four younger siblings almost
single-handedly. While seemingly a remarkable
experience, Ronald Takaki, former professor of Asian
American Studies at UC Berkeley, found in his research of
the Korean War that this was not an uncommon

phenomenon. As the civilian death toll rose to levels

exceeding 1.5 million, many children were orphaned and
left to care for themselves and one another. (Takaki 179)
Incorporate your personal reflections on doing this assignment in the conclusion of
your paper.
This might include info such as, but not limited to: What did you learn? What surprised
you? Was it a difficult or easy assignment to complete? Explain.
Format:
o

Length: 5 full pages double-spaced, plus separate MLA-formatted works cited (bibliography)
page (cite your own interview here as well)
*The campus library has some great handouts/info on MLA formatting, but I think Purdue's OWL site
is really helpful. You can locate it at: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
-

Include an original and creative title (no separate title page needed)

Standard margins; 12-point Arial or Times New Roman font

Notes from your interview(s) (typed, and included in the same document as your paper in a
separate page after works cited page)

Tips for interviewing:

Do Use open-ended questions- not ones with yes/no answers. For example, ask "What was your
experience in the workplace being an English Language Learner? and not "Was it hard not
speaking English when you got here?
Do Ask lots of follow up questions- The person you interview will inevitably bring up topics that
you never could've anticipated or known to ask questions about. Let the interview follow those
interesting tidbits lead your interview to even more interesting places!
Do custom-tailor the phrasing of your language to your interviewee- For example, if I was
interviewing my lola (grandmother) I would use very different language than if I were interviewing my
older sibling.
Tips for writing a strong academic paper:
Do provide a strong structure to your paper- introduction (where you introduce your interview
subject and offer any pertinent background information- place, time, etc), conclusion (where you can
discuss where your interview subject is today, what their now doing, your own reflections on
completing this assignment, etc), and strong transitions between your paragraphs

Do incorporate data from your interviews effectively- DO NOT just list all the questions you
asked and the responses that you got! This provides lots of filler for your paper, but your job as the
interviewer/author is to weave the info this person tells you into a great story with strong data to offer
context. Be respectful, and really do this story justice! You can incorporate your interview data into
your paper in a variety of ways, but always use quotation marks when using someone else's exact
words. And again, be sure to properly cite your interview(s) in the works cited page.
Do use and analyze data throughout your paper- Introduce (whose data is it, why are they a
reputable source, what's the research study/survey it came from, from what time period, etc), cite
(use MLA citations-in parentheticals, if not otherwise introduced in the body of the paragraph, and in
your bibliography), and analyze (how is this data related to your research question, why is it
important, what does it reveal, what's the larger context, etc).
Do proofread your paper- Be sure to proofread and edit your paper for spelling, grammar, and
wording. I recommend reading it out loud to yourself, or even having someone else look over it for
you. It is always helpful to take a break from your draft before proofreading, at least a couple of
hours but a day or more is even better. You will lose points for spelling/grammatical errors that are
so numerous or confusing that they are distracting.

Reminders
Upload a Word, text, or pdf file via the assignment page in our Moodle course website. Papers
submitted via email will not be accepted. (You should include notes/data summaries from interviews
in the same file.)
Do not wait until the last minute. Technical/web issues at 11:58pm are not an acceptable
reason for missing the assignment deadline.
-

Contact me asap with any questions you have! I look forward to reading your papers!

Essay Notes and interview

Immigration and sociocultural change in Mexican, Chinese, and Vietnamese American families.
Buriel, Raymond; De Ment, Terri
Booth, Alan (Ed); Crouter, Ann C. (Ed); Landale, Nancy S. (Ed), (1997). Immigration and the family: Research and policy on U.S.
immigrants. , (pp. 165-200). Hillsdale, NJ, England: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, viii, 307 pp.

The family was switching from middle class to very poor after the 1975,
Vietnam Revolution, Communist was taken over the South VN.
My older brother, Hai Nguyen, was 2 years old.
My 2nd older brother, Steven Nguyen, was born a month after the revolution
data 04/30/1975.
The father went to jail because he was a helicopter pilot working for the US.
After 5 years, the father went on boat (1980) US and sponsor two brothers
and my mom (Thao Huynh), but he already had another family in U.S.
Fast forward, my mom came with two brothers in 1991.
Leave in Texas for 1 year.
Move to LA and met my dad.
Hai worked at the pho restaurant with my dad for a while.
Steven worked at the 99 super market.
Both Hai and Steven are in and out college since they dont have financial
support

Need to know.
Faced discrimination?
How was your high school years couple did you face discrimination there? How was
your studies?
Neighborhood experiences in both VN and US compare and contrast.
Relationships with family at the time of emigration.
How long did it take to finally feel right
What and/or who did you leave behind?
How they did you travelled here and your experience doing so?
New Questions
Need to know.
Faced discrimination?
Yes, Texas doesn't have a lot of Asian. There were about 5 Vietnameses in my school in San
Antonio, Texas. Majority of my classes didn't have any Vietnamese person. I struggled with the
language and discrimination from classmates. Once a while a group of people pointed at me,

talked, and laugh, though I don't understand what they were saying. Not just facing
discrimination, I even get bullied from PE class. In football game, instead of just touch me to
stop running, they tackled me and pushed me down to the grass and laughed. I finally teamed
up with another Vietnamese guy, we stood up and taught the main bully person a lesson.
How was your high school years couple did you face discrimination there? How was your
studies?
One year of high school in Texas was a tough time. Although I don't understand what my
classmates said, I know they talked about me, make fun, and laughed about that.
The first year at high school in Texas was a horrible experience. I knew very little English and
was facing a difficult time to study. Image study a U.S history book and I have to translate 90%
of the words in the book from English to Vietnamese using the paper dictionary. I had to put in
10 times effort more than regular students to get through every classes.
Neighborhood experiences in both VN and US compare and contrast.
Due to my dad already had another family, we (Mom, Hai, and me) moved into a ghetto
apartment so that we can afford the rental. There were alot of low income African-Amerians in
my neighbor. The coid-laundry place wasn't clean, people are smoking everywhere. I was also
faced some bullying while walked a cross apartments to the laundry area, but luckily we didn't
get into a fight.
Relationships with family at the time of emigration.
While we adapting to the culture without my Dad's help, we were facing culture shock and
struggling to survive. My mom was hired to worked a the assemble line for medical equipment
and the salary was barely enough for level. Beside that, we were also facing some drama on
my dad's new wife. So the life in Texas was very stressful and unhappy.
How long did it take to finally feel right
I took me a few years after we moved to Los Angeles. We finally see my mom gets better and
less stress. In addition, we started adapting to the culture, environment because we know
places to go and much more Vietnamese people and foods around us.
What and/or who did you leave behind?
Ma Ba (Antie 3) and Gramma were left behind. However, they were really happy that we were
able to go to the U.S.
How they did you travelled here and your experience doing so?
We left Vietnam with perplexed mind, don't know what our future would be good or worst, but
we know that we have to go because we didn't see a bright future in Vietnam. We went to
Thailand first, and stayed there for a week to perform medical check up as well as validation
check. We lived like in refugee camp where every family is next to each other without
separation. I had a horrible experience of the week in Thailand which was every day we eat the
same thing, eggs and rice. This experience made me hated eggs 2 years after that.
Thao Huynh

Came to US July 23th 1991

Worked less than 3 months at a factory that specialized in manufacturing needles
for IVs was laid off for lack of language and vehicle.
Lived in San Antonio till June of 1992.
Worked at French Sandwiches starting October till April in San Antonio.