Migrahack brings journalists, students together to examine immigration
Over two days, digging into the complicated, and often flawed, U.S. immigration system
by Esther Hoenig and Jackie Hai, KUNC
The 2019 Colorado Migrahack at University of Denver was a great opportunity to work with the next generation of reporters and content creators. Many members of our team hailed from DU and the University of Colorado Boulder, and showed a strong interest in current topics on immigration. One student recently traveled to the southern border to witness firsthand the impact of current U.S. immigration policy. Another student is herself an immigrant, who came to the U.S. as a child from Russia.
While many in the team were new to journalism and the intricacies of immigration policy, they showed a willingness to dive into new concepts and asked valuable questions. After several hours of research, the students determined there was great need for a digital tool that could help others navigate the complicated, and often flawed, U.S. immigration system.
Using data and information, mainly from the U.S. Center for Immigration Services and Department of Health and Human Services, the team worked together to break down each step and current roadblocks in several of the most common paths to legal migration. Each student chose a path to research and in the process learned about the different requirements for refugees, asylees, family members, foreign investors, and high-skilled and low-skilled workers.
We developed a digital platform using Wordpress and custom CSS tools, and modeled after “choose your own adventure”-style books. This allows users to pick from one of four options for entering the U.S. and learn about the significant wait times, costs, annual caps and mounting backlogs associated with each.
The project, called “Road to Colorado,” aimed to break down common myths surrounding the plight of asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. At a time when popular anti-immigrant sentiment demands everyone enter the country the “right way,” this tool demonstrates just how difficult and constricted legal pathways for immigration have become in recent years.
We used additional data from the Colorado Refugee Services Program, U.S. Department of Labor and USCIS to visualize Colorado-specific numbers for refugee resettlement, family reunification and temporary worker visas. The students had the opportunity to learn how to use Infogram as a tool for data visualization.
The group received a lot of guidance from Carrie Osgood, who often contributes her skills in data research to the Colorado Sun. Osgood encouraged the group to pursue a broader topic that would serve those who are less familiar with immigration policy.
At the end of the Colorado Migrahack event, the closing reception and poster session gave everyone the chance to present their projects and learn about what other groups did. The variety of what the teams accomplished over the course of two days was impressive — from videos and multimedia websites to data-driven maps and infographics. Migrahack was a great way to step out of the daily news cycle and look at the bigger picture of journalism about immigration.
We hope our project will be something the students can reference for future reporting on immigration. No doubt the two-day event provided a valuable crash course for them on data visualization and the fundamentals of journalistic research.
Jackie Hai is digital editor and Esther Hoenig covers agriculture and immigration at KUNC. They traveled to Migrahack Colorado thanks to support from PEN America.
