From Eastern Europe to the United States: A Personal Look into Transatlantic Migration During the 1910’s

Last week, the 3C students expanded their knowledge on historical migrations by listening to a presentation on my family’s historical migration in Geography class with Mónica. I shared my family history with the students through a presentation interspersed with personal anecdotes, 19th-Century photographs, and historical information as well as a lot of maps for geographical background.

    

Through the history of my paternal great-grandparents Rueben and Bess, fleeing pogroms in the Ukrainian territory of the Russian Empire to find work in industrial Detroit, and that of my maternal great-great-grandparents Henry and Elizabeth, changing the Volga area for the plains of Montana to earn a living as farmers, the students learned about push and pull factors, connecting abstract concepts to real persons and their struggles in life. While dutifully listening to my presentation, the students completed a worksheet where they had to analyze certain aspects of my relatives’ migration. Some aspects that they considered included whether the particular migration was forced or voluntary, whether it was temporary or permanent, and the principal factors driving their migration. Furthermore, we contrasted the great migrations of my relatives with the more recent migrations of myself and my family within and between high-income countries, including my current stay in Spain.

I am incredibly privileged and immensely grateful for the sacrifice and courage of my relatives to have made these migrations and it was a meaningful endevour to research them. Moreover, I was happy to stand as a real-life product of these migrations and help make the concepts that the students have learned more concrete.

I am very happy to spend the year as language assistant in Al-Qázeres High School and look forward to sharing more in our remaining months!