sat comfortably in a shabby mom-and-pop grocery store in southern
Any nervousness she felt about conversing with the family
vanished at the sight of the friendly storeowners. She was immediately welcomed
into the shop and offered a seat at the family’s lunch table, where they spent
the rest of the afternoon sharing anecdotes about their lives and native
cultures.
This was the scene of Menendez’s first interview for the
UCSD Mexican Migration Field Research and Training Program, which brought 34
students to the small
Miguel Tlacotepec
in the Mexican state of
Although Menendez spent two weeks of her winter break in an
unfamiliar town interviewing complete strangers, the locals made her feel right
at home, she said.
“It was so amazing to go into a town and just walk into
somebody’s house,” Menendez said. “I don’t know many storeowners in the
willing to pull up a chair, feed me and talk to me for hours about their life.”
The program, partnered with UCSD’s Center for Comparative
Immigration Studies and
minor, is the only one in the nation to train undergraduates to be migration
researchers, according to political science professor and program co-director
Wayne Cornelius.
Each year, the program sends students to one small
migrant-populated community in
to provide an insider’s look on the consequences of international immigration
as seen from a migrant’s perspective. Since the birth of the program in 2004,
students have visited transient populations in the states of Jalisco, Zacatecas
and
findings that are compiled into a book at the end of the year, used by scholars
and policymakers interested in shaping a more humane immigration policy.
The study’s populations are chosen for their longstanding
histories of migration to the
and for their population size of 2,500 people or less, making it possible to
interview every community member age 15 to 65.
Students also witness the other side of the story by
interviewing the migrants who have crossed the border and are now living in
transplanted communities in
Cultural immersion and the hands-on approach to learning are
the program’s distinguishing features, Menendez said.
“This progam is not about just memorizing facts,” she said.
“It’s about learning and engaging in a real world experience. You learn in the
classroom and actually put what you learn into use so you never forget it —
it’s ingrained in you.”
Being forced to interview the townspeople helps bridge
generational and cultural gaps and broaden one’s perspective on the matter,
Menendez said. This personal approach to studying migration puts a face on the
issue, allowing one to look beyond the numbers by forming relationships with
the natives, experiencing their lifestyle and becoming their friends.
“I was able to connect to these people on a human level,”
she said. “I realized that we all had a lot in common. Every one wants to make
their lives better.”
Not only does interviewing give the issue a face, but it also
sheds light on the emotions involved, according to Muir College junior Jonathan
Hicken, who said he remembered the story of a man whose son was killed trying
to cross the border.
The 65-year-old man broke down as he retold the incident, 10
years after it occurred, Hicken said.
“To shoulder the guilty conscience of a country in that
moment was very powerful,” Hicken said. “It put a heart and tears into the
issue and I know his story is just one of countless that are similar.”
For Eleanor Roosevelt College senior Emily Hildreth,
learning about family separation firsthand through parents’ anecdotes of
leaving children behind made her re-evaluate the effects of immigration. She
now considers the costs to Mexico, rather than only assessing the costs to the
United States.
“There are real emotions tied to the whole thing,” Hildreth
said. “It’s not just about data. It’s about real people and the consequences of
crossing the border and having things that pull children away from their
parents.”
According to Cornelius students form close relationships
with both their interviewees and other program participants.
“It’s a very intense 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week
experience,” Cornelius said. “[The students’] project becomes their world and
students make lifetime friends who are mutually supportive. It’s something most
undergraduates are trying to find in Greeks or sports but they don’t have the
opportunity to be with a small group for an entire year.”
The binational team is composed of 23 undergraduates, nine
graduate students and six Mexican graduate students studying in Tijuana and
Oaxaca. The program divides participants into eight teams, each studying a
different subject that will later become a chapter of the book.
The program unites Mexican and American students in a common
cause, according to Mexican graduate student Bribrilia Cota Cabrera, who
discovered that many American students also come from immigrant families and
have a genuine concern about the subject.
“I am happy to realize that American students are actually
interested in this controversial theme,” Cabrera said in an e-mail in Spanish.
“I think that I can share the knowledge that I’ve acquired in my day-to-day
life living out the problems of immigration in my family, in my community, in
my state and in my country.”
Hicken said he is proud to be involved in a program that he
deems valuable and beneficial for the future.
“The program really gives purpose to your studies,” he said.
“Reading books and taking tests is great but you really feel the importance of
your work in this program.”
Cornelius mentioned the increasing mobility of the world’s
populations, where 200 million people are currently living outside the country
they were born, as an important reason to study the topic of immigration.
“You’re likely to work with immigrants as coworkers, go to
school with them,” Cornelius said. “They’re your neighbors, your fellow church
members and your fellow citizens, not just your fellow workers … [Immigration
is] part of the fabric of life in a state like California and it’s important
for people to realize what they bring — the benefits rather than just the costs
of their presence.”
