Research Steps: Letter Home
Step 1:
In this activity, you will imagine you are a young adult who has migrated to a new area to live. You are writing a letter back home to a friend or family member. To get a better idea of what your life is like now, your family and friends want to know why you left home for the place you live now. Did you move by choice, or were you forced to leave? Did you move because you were dissatisfied with your home, or because you just wanted to live in this new place? To tell your loved ones your migrant story in your letter, you need to examine and analyze the Core Interactive Test and video segments and images about life from the perspective of a particular migrant group.
Step 2:
Choose one of the migrant groups below to research. This will be the character for your letter.
- Chinese workers
- Refugee migrants
- Latin American migrants
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Step 3:
Examine your Core Interactive Text and EXPLORE resources, as well as the following video segments about the migrant population you have chosen to research. Take notes on any information related to the factors behind their migration.
Step 4:
Take notes and use the graphic organizer to guide you through creating your letter.
Step 5:
Write your letter based on the research you collect
Research Video Resources
Chinese Workers
Video 1: “Migrant Workers in China” (3:24)
This video segment introduces factors that influenced rural Chinese to leave their villages in search of work.
Video 2: “Migrant Workers Lifestyles” (3:23)
In this video segment, migrant workers Fan and Zhao share the pros and cons of having left their homes for factory work.
Video 3: “Migrant Workers” from China Rises: Getting Rich (5:49)
This video segment shares information about the push and pull factors behind one young girl’s transition from rural life to factory life in the city.
Refugee Migrant
Video1: “Life as a Tibetan Refugee” from My Country is Tibet (8:37)
Seventeen-year-old Tibetan refugee Namgyal Wankchuk describes why he and his family live in India and explains what Tibetan culture is like there.
Video 2: “Stories of Survival: Immigrants of Australia” from Discovery Atlas: Australia Revealed (5:50)
This video segment introduces students to migrant refugees living in Australia.
Video 3: “Soghra’s Story” from Daughters of Afghanistan (4:15)
In this video segment, students will gain an understanding of how war can create refugee migrants.
Latin American Migrants
Video 1: “Lupe” from Made in LA (Hecho in Los Angeles) (1:28)
This video segment shows a glimpse of life for Lupe, a Mexican worker in the Los Angeles garment district.
Video 2: “Marcelo’s Story” from American History: Battling Beyond U.S. Borders (5:42)
In this segment, students will hear about Marcelo, a teenager who sneaked across the U.S. border from Mexico in search of work and money.
Video 3: “Culture Clip: The American Dream” from Crossroads Café: Winds of Change
This segment shares Edgar’s story about leaving Colombia in search of the American Dream in the United States.
Video/Research Notes
Why did these people migrate from their homes?What push factors influenced their decision?
What pull factors influenced their decision?
How is their new life different from the one they left behind?
Create a character profile
Step 4: Notes for the character profile you have chosen. Use the graphic organizer below to organize and record information from your notes to help create you profile.
Character: ______/ DescriptionName, Age, and Gender
Where are you from originally?
Where do you live now?
What push factors influenced your decision to migrate?
What pull factors influenced your decision to migrate?
How is life different in your new home? What is the best thing about your new home?
How has your presence influenced life in your new home?
Write your Letter
Use the information from your notes to write a letter from the perspective of the migrant you have chosen. Write your letter in the space below. Your letter should contain descriptive information include the following:
- Who you are and where you live
- Where you migrated from
- Why you left your home and/or why you decided to live in your new location
- One or two ways in which your life has changed since leaving home
Project Reflection
Meet with several other classmates representing different migrant groups for a Modern Migrant Summit. After you discuss your stories, work together to answer the guiding questions. As you talk with representatives of other groups, discuss the following questions and record your response in the chart below, use evidence from the letter and sources to support.
Discussion QuestionWhat similarities exist between all three perspectives?
What are some of the differences between these three perspectives?
What are some of the differences between these three perspectives?