Migration - coming to Leicester

Migration: Coming to Leicester is intended to help students think about the different communities who live in Britain today. The oral history material has been drawn from collections held at the East Midlands Oral History Archive at the University of Leicester.

The recordings feature memories of people who have arrived in the UK from other countries and contain a huge range of experiences, both good and bad. The narrators explain why they came to Britain, their expectations, the problems they faced when they arrived, how they settled down and how they celebrate their cultures now they are here.

The interviews from which these extract are taken were mainly recorded in the 1980s and 1990s and are the recollections of first and second generation immigrants. The views and opinions of their children and grandchildren are not represented here, due to the historical nature of material in the archive, but may provide a useful starting point for teachers and students to explore how the lives of younger members of Britain's communities differ from their elders.

This resource offers:

• a series of ten interview extracts (numbered 1 to 10) which have been subtitled and are made available through YouTube
• a Guide for Teachers with curriculum links, full transcripts and suggested learning activities available as a downloadable PDF

Learning at Key Stage 3

Migration: coming to Leicester offers opportunities to:

• learn about challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world 1901 to the present day including topics such as Migration and Movement
• identify significant events, make connections, draw contrasts, and analyse trends by considering the stories of migration against the backdrop of national and international political upheaval and conflict
• use historical terms and concepts in increasingly sophisticated ways by using oral history as a historical source and comparing it with other sources
• pursue historically valid enquiries and create relevant, structured and evidentially supported accounts in response
• understand how different types of historical sources are used rigorously to make historical claims and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed by using first-hand oral testimony and considering the benefits and challenges of this source