Lead Partner: The Rural Media Company
Description
This Action Research project is now complete.
Migrant Stories, is a DVD and booklet, containing 18 digital 
stories, a Myth Busting section by a diversity officer, and a short film about the process of making digital stories made by the Rural Media Company. In these shorts, workers, friends and employers tell their own stories, in their own words. The Lithuanians who opened a village shop and the Russian who's saving for a BMW; the Polish teacher coping with loneliness and the couple who carried the hokey-cokey to the snowy wastes of the Ukraine.
Migrant Stories has created a picture of a rural county's relationship with its many thousands of migrant workers. Russian, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Polish, Czech and Ukrainian workers in Herefordshire have been making digital stories, alongside local residents, who befriended them.
This DVD is an output of Migrant Stories, an action research project to demonstrate the use of accessible, creative digital technologies to foster understanding and strengthen community cohesion and networks.
Using microphones, laptops, scanners and photos, each person tells a short 2-minute digital story about their own experience. There are many different reasons for coming to England - to see the sights, to broaden horizons, to make money to buy a house back home, to escape unemployment. Many are homesick, lonely and disappointed by what they find here and exploited by agents, who don't deliver what they promise. Many have a good time and return to pick fruit every summer or decide to stay for years. The Herefordshire locals who get to know them say their lives are enriched by new friendships, activities and travel opportunities.
Copies of the DVD are available to purchase on DVD @ £10.00 each
The individual stories can also be viewed online.
To find out more, please visit: www.ruralmedia.co.uk
Contact Details
Nic Millington, Chief ExecutiveSullivan House 72-80 Widemarsh Street Hereford HR4 9HG Tel: 01432 344039 nicm@ruralmedia.co.ukWebsite: www.ruralmedia.co.uk