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The inspiration for the project came from my personal
experience as an immigrant to the United States. We moved to the
Boston area in 1984 with my father, who worked for a French High
Tech company, in what was then the Silicon Valley of the East, the
128 belt. We stayed mostly because my mother, who could not work
as a teacher in France because she did not have the required diplomas,
was able to have a very fulfilling career as a pre-K teacher in
a French American school. My siblings and I also enjoyed having
a much more flexible education system here, which allowed us to
explore who we were more deeply. My father was also making more
money then he could have in France, and was able to work well beyond
the required retirement age in France (where he would have been
forced to retire).
The advantages offered to us here came at a cost,
of course. Depending on the political or cultural climate, being
an immigrant can be tough: cultural references are different, there
can be language barriers, and we are here "alone", meaning
my extended family to whom I was very close growing up, has now
drifted out of my life. I have suffered through World War II jokes
on a regular basis when I worked in corporate settings, I regularly
get interrogated as to my national origins, and I have to listen
to numerous ways people know about French culture.
In late 2015, when candidates for the presidency were
starting to talk about their platforms, I wanted to have a way for
native born Americans to experience the other side of immigration:
the good, the bad, and the ugly! I wanted a project where people
could walk in my shoes, and learn to be a little kinder to folks
who have a different background and experience from them. All the
tiles in the game are based on true facts, meaning the action in
the tile actually happened to an immigrant. Some are based on my
own experience, some on interviews I conducted with friends, family
and acquaintances. Others are based on research I conducted in the
last two years. Below are the books and websites that I used for
the project. I encourage anyone interested in the subject to read
Crossing the Boulevard, The Death of Josseline, and
Immigration Stories: Geo Detention Center as a good starting
point.
- Crossing the Boulevard, by Lehrer & Sloan
- A Nation of Nations, by Tom Gjelten
- The Death of Josseline, by Margaret Regan
- Stories of Diversity, by Alessandro Ghebreigziabiher
- Immigration Stories: Geo Detention Center, by Loretta Perry-Wilborne
- Through their Eyes: Experiences of Mexican Immigrants in Green
Bay, Wisconsin, by Kathryn Ebben
- www.myimmigrationstory.com
- www.reddit.com: discussion/forum on culture shock
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