Describing My New York City’s Immigrant.

Describing My New York City’s Immigrant.

UNIT 2 MAJOR ASSIGNMENT: A GREAT CITY GROWS

Fieldwork

Directions: Using the template provided, write a 3-5 page typed fieldwork report detailing your interview of an immigrant to New York City. Select an informant who is an immigrant of any status to the United States and who currently lives in New York City. Begin with an introduction about the historical and continuing importance of immigration to the United States. Your introduction’s very last sentence should be a simple thesis statement suggesting that one such important immigrant is your informant. After your introduction, you should have:

  • A paragraph describing your informant. What do they look like? What sort of person are they? What sort of personality do they have? What sort of work do they do? Include photographs if you have your informant’s permission. If included, each photograph should have a descriptive caption, and be re-sized to no more than 250 kb.
  • A paragraph describing where your informant grew up. What country? What town? How many people live there? What do the local people do? How is the local economy? How safe is the area? Provide statistics and facts about the country and town. You will need to cite at least 2 sources. I suggest using the CIA world fact book and other such sources.
  • A paragraph describing where your informant lives now. What borough? What neighborhood? How many people live there? What do the local people do? How is the local economy? How safe is the area? Provide statistics and facts about the informant’s local area. You will need to cite at least 2 sources. I would suggest using precinct reports, Trulia, Zillow, Google Street View, and other such sources.
  • 10 questions and 10 answers. Be sure to make your questions open-ended. Be sure to let your informant speak in their own voice. Do NOT fix their grammar. If they answer in a language other than English, provide a translation, but keep the grammar of the original responses. It is important to let your informant be the person they are. It is very important that the 10 questions are not YES/NO questions but are open-ended questions designed to evoke anecdotes, stories, memories.
  • A conclusion stating whether or not you believe your informant’s experiences to be typical for their community of immigrants and a suggestion of ways to improve life for new immigrants to New York.

word limit: 1200