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Final Project Part 1
Summary
With my final project I am interested in providing facts about the undocumented population in the United States. I feel like there is a lot of misinformation surrounding the topic of immigration and espeically around undocumented communities. Not only do I want to educate people about this topic but also persuade the reader to care about it and want to join in the “fight” for a pathway to citizenship (or residency) and immigration reform. With the project I hope to merge data, policy information, and real undocumented peoples’ stories. I think just showing hard facts would not make someone care deeply about this issue, there needs to be human stories and a persuasive story rather than just numbers. I hope to make people want to learn more about the topic and find out what they can do to help.
I will start my story with key information about undocumented people: what is an undocumented person, the number of undocumented people in the U.S, what countries they come fromm, where they are located in the U.S, and other demographic data to “set the scene”. From there I want to bring to attention that there is still no pathway to citizenship. I want to bring comparative information about where the U.S is with their immigration policies compared to other countries. From there I would move to more “hard data”. I want to add graphics about the economic contribution that undocumented people make to the U.S (social security, taxes, industries they work in, etc). With this data, I also invison adding a video or stories from undocumented people to show how they live and how they are impacted by policies. After including data about all the things the community contributes I would shift to the resolution stage. I would add graphics about what it would look like if undocumented people were legalized (economic contributions). From there I want to add my call to action (i.e learn more about the topic with these links, what you can do at this very moment, etc).
Story Outline
1. Setup: There are 11.04 million undocumented people in the U.S.
- Define undocumented
- graphic about countries of origin
- graphic on where many undocumented poeple reside in the U.S
- talk about years undocumented people have lived in the U.S
- talk about who they are : your neighbors, friends, students, collegues
2. Conflict: There’s still no immigration reform. Undocumented immigrants contribute so much to the U.S but receive little to no benefits
- Talk about how there have been no recent changes to lawful immigration (no pathway to citizen, talk about outdated policy)
- have a graphic that compares the U.S to other countries (regarding immigration and citizenship, show how other countries have better policies in place)
- include graphics about the contributions undocumented people make to social security, state and federal taxes
- graph with industries they work in
- add quotes or stories of undocumented people (struggles and successes)
- graphic of econ impact if all undocumented people were deported
- maybe mention anti-immigrant laws in FL and Texas?
3. Resolution: Increase awareness of issue and its impacts. Talk about what can be done
- What it would look like if undocumented had a pathway to citizenship/residency
- call to action: what you can do to help/learn more
- include links to resources
Initial Sketches
The Data
I will be using an array of data to create my graphics. Much of the data will come from the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) and the Center for Migration Studies (CMS). Other, smaller data, will come from the Center of American Progress, Pew Research Center, and the American Immigration Council.
The reason why my data will come from different sources is because it is difficult to collect data about undocumented people due to their legal status hindering them from being open due to repercussions that may arise. Different organizations focus on different types of data they want to explore and thus data about this group is dispersed through different outlets. Much of the background information (such as where undocumented people live in the US, what countries they come from, and more state information) will come from the Center for Migration Studies. Data about economic outcomes and contributions will come from th Migration Policy Institute, as they have a profile on the undocumented community. Other, more “niche” data will come from the Center for American Progress where they talk about how legalizing undocumented people would boost the economy. Data from Pew Research will be used to support the Migration Policy Institute and function as a sort of back-up and context for that data. Lastly, the American Immigration Council provides data on the criminalization of immigration in the U.S and how increase immigration does not mean an increase in crimes across the U.S, they also have more data on economic contributions (taxes) of the undocumented community.
| Source | URLSource | Description |
|---|---|---|
| MPI | URL | Economic Makeup and Demographics |
| Center for Migration Studies | URL | State Data |
| Pew Research Center | URL | Key Facts |
| Center for American Progress | URL | Economic Outlook |
| American Immigration Council | URL | Criminalization fo Immigration |
Link to database Excel: Profile of the Unauthorized Population MPI
Method and Medium
I plan on completing my final using Tableau and Shorthand. Tableau will be used to develop my graphics (linear graphs, bar graphs, country map, etc) while Shorthand will be used to tell a story with my data. I will use Shorthand to introduce the topic, its relevance, the data, and a call to action. Shorthand will also include call out quotes, where I can add important information such as numbers that stand out in the research. It is also a great way to add images to my project.