Core Participants

Background

1.    Where are you from, and what is it like there?

2.    What was your family like?

3.    Did you go to school? What did you study?

4.    As you were growing up, was your father and/or mother employed, and if so, what did he or she do?

5.    What work did your grandfather and/or grandmother do? What about your brothers and sisters?

6.    Has your family lived for a long time in the place that you’re from? If not, where did they live before, and why did they move?

7.    Did you work at any jobs in the place that you’re from? If so, what jobs? What was your income?

Migration

1.    Why did you decide to emigrate to the United States?

2.    Did you know anyone in the United States who helped you move? Did anyone in your family or any one of your friends support your decision to move?

3.    How did you get into the United States?

4.    How much did it cost you to move to the United States?

5.    When you arrived in the United States where did you go?

6.    What was your first job in the United States, and how did you get it?

Immigration and Legal Status

1.    What was your legal status when you arrived in the United States?

2.    What is your legal status currently, and if it has changed, how did it change?

3.    How have you, as a Mexican immigrant, been treated by people in the United States?

4.    Have you had any experiences in which you think you have been treated differently from a U.S. citizen because you are a Mexican immigrant?

5.    Has there been any instance in which you feel like you have been taken advantage of or singled out because of your legal status?

6.    Do you keep in contact with family and/or friends in Mexico? Do you send money to Mexico and, if so, how much? Have you gone back to Mexico since you first arrived in the United States?

7.    Do you think that Mexican immigrants have a mostly positive or mostly negative impact on U.S. society? Please explain your answer.

8.    Do you think that undocumented immigrants are criminals? Why or why not?

9.    Have you helped a friend or relative cross the border and/or find work in the United States?

Work and Work Relations

1.    Tell me about each job that you have had in the United States, including the type of work you did, how many hours per week you worked, how you got hired for the job, and how much you were paid.

2.    For each of the jobs that you have had, how many of your co-workers were Mexican immigrants like yourself, and where were they from? Do you know what the legal status of your co-workers has been?

3.    For each of your jobs, how many of your co-workers knew each other from “back home,” or through friends from “back home”?

4.    Would you say that, in general, the Mexican workers at the jobs that you have had help each other at work? Please explain your answer.

5.    Do you think that being a Mexican immigrant affects the type of work you get and how much you get paid?

6.    What were your non-Mexican co-workers like?

7.    What have your employers been like?

8.    How would you describe your relationships with your non-Mexican ­co-workers and employers?

9.    Do you think you have ever been taken advantage of by an employer or co-worker because of your legal status?

10.  Do you think that not having legal papers affects undocumented people’s work relations and income? If so, in what ways?

11.  Do you think you are a hard worker? Do you think that Mexicans as a group are hard working? Why or why not?

12.  Have you worked with people who are not hard working, and if so, how have you and/or your co-workers handled that situation?

13.  Do you have plans for work in the future?

Household Organization and Resources

1.    Tell me about the places that you have lived in since you came to the United States, including who you lived with and what type of place (i.e. house, apartment, etc.) you lived in.

2.    How did you meet the people that you have lived with? How did you come to live with them?

3.    Have you shared bills with the people that you have lived with? How did you divide bills between household members and pay for them?

4.    Have you shared household chores with the people that you have lived with? How did you decide who had which household responsibilities?

5.    Have you pooled money with the people you have lived with?

6.    Have you shared clothes, cars, or other things with people that you have lived with?

7.    How have you and your housemates managed conflict between household members?

Identity and Community Solidarity

1.    Describe the type of people who you think are most like you.

2.    What things are most important to you in your life?

3.    What characteristics do you most admire in your friends or family members?

4.    Do you think that Mexican immigrants help each other out? If so, how?

5.    Do you consider yourself part of a community? If so, what characteristics do members of your community have in common?

6.    Are there any businesses that you know of that have policies or practices that help Mexican immigrants and people without legal papers? If so, what kinds of policies and practices are those?

7.    Do you think that Mexicans as a group are different from other people? If so, how are they different?

8.    Do you think that immigrants as a group are different from other people? If so, how?