Questions to Ask an Immigrant for a Project
Interview questions for a school assignment, oral history, or documentary project. They move from ordinary background to harder ground, and they deliberately leave out legal status, which is not a safe subject for a student project.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Where did you grow up, and what was your life like before you moved?
Why ask it
Starting before the move treats them as a whole person rather than an arrival story. It also gives you the details, such as work, schooling, and family, that make everything later in the interview legible.
When did you first start thinking seriously about leaving?
Why ask it
Most departures involve years of weighing options, not one dramatic moment. The timeline usually reveals who else was involved in the decision.
How did you decide on this country in particular?
Why ask it
The reason is often practical, such as a relative already here, a visa route that existed, or a job. Practical answers correct the assumption that any destination is chosen for its ideals.
What do you remember about your first week here?
Why ask it
A narrow window produces sensory, specific memories, such as the weather, the food, or a first phone call home. These are the details that make a project readable.
What surprised you most in the first year?
Why ask it
Surprises reveal the gap between what they were told about this country and what they found. The answer is often something small, such as how people greet each other or how quiet residential streets are.
What was hardest to get done: paperwork, housing, work, or something else?
Why ask it
Offering categories makes an otherwise broad question easy to answer, and the one they pick usually opens onto the most concrete story of the interview.
Who helped you when you arrived, and how did you find them?
Why ask it
Turns the account from an individual struggle into a description of a network: relatives, congregations, employers, or a stranger. It also shows which institutions were absent.
What did you have to learn that nobody warned you about?
Why ask it
Draws out the unwritten knowledge, such as how to see a doctor, how credit works, or how to read a lease. Answers here are the most useful part of the interview for other newcomers.
Was your qualification or experience recognized here?
Why ask it
Many people arrive with training that does not transfer and end up working well below it. The answer is factual, easy to state, and one of the most significant things a project can convey.
Which language do you use at home, and which do you think in?
Why ask it
Separates the practical question from the interior one, and the second half often produces an answer they have never been asked for. It can also change over the course of a life.
How often are you in touch with people back home, and what do you tell them?
Why ask it
What is edited out of those calls is often the honest measure of how the move is going. Expect answers about not wanting to worry family.
What do you miss that you cannot replace here?
Why ask it
Specific enough to avoid a general answer about missing home. People usually name a food, a street, a climate, or a way of spending an afternoon.
What have you kept doing that keeps the connection: cooking, music, holidays, anything?
Why ask it
Balances the question about loss with one about continuity, and it lets them describe practice rather than emotion. Listing options makes it easier to answer briefly.
How do people react when they hear your name or your accent?
Why ask it
Lets them describe daily treatment at whatever depth they choose, from mild mispronunciation to hostility. Do not press for more than they offer.
What do people here get wrong about where you come from?
Why ask it
Gives them the chance to correct a stereotype directly, which is often the reason someone agrees to be interviewed. The correction is usually quotable.
Has anything about you changed in a way that surprised you?
Why ask it
A reflective question that works only after the easier ground is covered. Answers tend to be about becoming more direct, more private, or more religious than before.
What has been better than you expected?
Why ask it
Projects on immigration often collect only hardship, which flattens the account. This question restores the other half without prompting anyone to be grateful.
Do you think of this place as home now?
Why ask it
Frequently answered with a qualified yes or a genuine uncertainty, and the hesitation is more truthful than either simple answer. Leave silence after asking it.
What would you tell someone about to make the same move?
Why ask it
Shifts them from being a subject to being an authority, which is a good place to be near the end of an interview. The advice is normally practical and specific.
Is there anything you would want included that I have not asked about?
Why ask it
Standard interview practice for good reason: it catches the thing they came to say and that your question list missed. It also tells you where your framing was wrong.
Interviewing Well for This Kind of Project
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before and During the Interview
Be Clear What the Project Is For
Say at the start where this will appear, who will see it, whether it will be recorded, and whether their full name will be used. Written or recorded consent matters even for a school assignment, and it changes how safely someone can speak.
Leave Legal Status Alone
Do not ask about visas, status, or how anyone entered the country. The information can expose people to real risk, it is rarely necessary for a project, and asking damages the trust that carries the rest of the interview.
Offer Anonymity Before They Have to Ask
Say early that you can use a first name only, change identifying details, or leave out an employer or town. People decline interviews they would have given if that offer had been made up front.
Ask About Their Own Life, Not Their Nationality
One person cannot speak for a country or a diaspora. Keep questions anchored in what they did, saw, and decided, and let any wider pattern come from having more than one interview.
Sort Out Language in Advance
Ask which language they would rather use. If it is not one you share, arrange an interpreter who is not their child, since children asked to interpret for a parent tend to soften or edit the answers.
Handling the Recording and the Write-Up
- Record only with explicit permission, and say when you have stopped recording.
- Agree a phrase that means off the record, and honor it even when the material is good.
- Read direct quotes back before publishing, especially any translated from another language.
- Check the spelling of names and places rather than guessing from the audio.
- Send them the finished piece before anyone else sees it, and give them a way to correct a factual error.
- Store recordings and notes somewhere private, and delete them when the project is finished if you promised to.
Common Pitfalls
Opening With the Hardest Question
Starting with trauma, discrimination, or family separation usually produces a short, guarded answer and sets the tone for everything after it. Earn the harder ground with fifteen minutes of ordinary questions first.
Collecting Only Hardship
An interview made entirely of difficulty is not a more honest account, just a narrower one. Ask about work they are proud of, friendships, and what improved.
Filling Silence
People composing an answer in a second language often pause longer than you expect. Interrupting to rephrase loses the answer they were assembling.
Rewriting Their English
Tidying grammar in quotes can change meaning and can read as condescending. Quote accurately, and if a sentence needs clarifying, ask them to say it again rather than editing it yourself.