Immigrant Harrisonburg

Immigrant Harrisonburg is a community based project based at James Madison University to investigate the lives of immigrants living in the Shenandoah Valley and beyond.

Students are working with local people and organization on a series of projects related to the immigrant community in Harrisonburg. This includes community service projects, oral histories, documentary films, and advocacy. You are welcome to discover more about immigrants and the projects on this webpage.

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Recent Events

Arsalan Syan: The Refugee Experience

On the 24th of February 2018, I interviewed Arsalan Syan, an Iraqi-Kurdish refugee and case worker at Church World Service refugee resettlement office in Harrisonburg, VA, as part of the Immigrant Harrisonburg project conducted by Dr. Morales’s History of Immigration...

José Cardoso Martinez

José Cardoso Martinez is a home school liaison with Harrisonburg City Public Schools in Harrisonburg, Virginia. This means that he serves as a bridge between the school and parents from Spanish speaking families who may need help understanding communicating...

Many Voices of Harrisonburg – Part 1

Migration from Colombia: My Interview With Fernando Gamboa

Oral Narrative My interview with Fernando Gamboa was among one of the more memorable academic events that I was blessed to have while in attendance at James Madison University. During my time with Fernando Gamboa, I learned a lot about his migration to the United...

Nelly Moreno Shenk

Introduction: On Friday, March 16th, I had the honor of meeting with Nelly Moreno Shenk for an interview for the Immigrant Harrisonburg project conducted by Dr. Morales spring semester history class. We met at 2:30 in the afternoon at her place of work, Skyline...

POSC 371 Immigration Teach-In Fall 2018

(From left to right) Dr. Wylie (she/her), Nancy (she/they), Jack (he/him), Claire (she/her), Kathryn (she/her), and Liza (she/her), and created and hosted the Immigration Teach-In on Monday, November 5th 2018 as part of their community engagement project in Social...

Sal Romero

Sal Romero is an advocate for the strong line of communication between the school and all the families. Romero immigrated to the United States from Mexico at a young age and has lived in Harrisonburg for all this life since then. Romero graduated from James Madison...