Immigration: The View from Here

Immigration: the view from here is a project of KBUT Community Radio. KBUT is using multi-platform news and information to explore the prominent national issue of immigration from a local context.

Gunnison County’s immigrant population has tripled in the last decade Officials estimate that immigrants currently make up 10% of the local population and 12% of grades K-8. Several hundred guest workers swell these numbers. The majority of local immigrants are Latino, but there are people living and working in Gunnison County from all over Latin America, Europe and Asia.

Presently, as in the past, immigrants are coming to the Gunnison Valley hoping to make a better wage and have a better life. Historically, immigrants were drawn here by mining and ranching jobs. Today, immigrants are filling labor shortages in construction, resort and ranching jobs. The number of immigrants rises and falls with the economy.

Immigration is a complex, multi-faceted and controversial issue. As a non-commercial public broadcaster, the FCC prohibits KBUT from endorsing or opposing political issues. KBUT’s intent with Immigration: the view from here is not to advocate but to inform.

KBUT has partnered with  the Gunnison Country Times and Crested Butte News to provide factual and comprehensive coverage of local immigration issues. Reporting from the Times are Chris Dickey, Michelle Burkhart and Will Shoemaker.  Mark Reaman, Evan Dawson and Seth Mensing are reporting for KBUT from the CB News.  Immigration: the view from here represents an historic first collaboration among Gunnison County’s three main media outlets. 

In addition, local immigrants are recording personal diaries and interviews- relating their experiences and perspectives in their own voices. KBUT's immigrant journalists are Clara Valdes from Oaxaca, Mexico, Marketa Zubkova from the Czech Republic, Miguel Mansilla from Lima, Peru and Alejandra Gonzalez from Mexico City, Mexico.

When asked what interested her about KBUT's immigration project, Clara responded, "Because I am an immigrant, and I meet many other immigrants in my store. It's very hard for us to have American friends. We go to work; we go home. We are ghosts. We are tools. We have no voice.  I want the community to know my story- our stories."

KBUT will air Immigration: the view from here as a special broadcast series this summer. Preliminary audio and all of the broadcast materials will be archived on this site so you can listen on your time.  KBUT will also share MP3 files of broadcast materials with Colorado’s 12 other community radio stations.

All of KBUT's reporters for the immigration project participated in workshops led by independent producer, Adam Burke, a frequent contributor to National Public Radio. The participants learned equipment and technical skills, tips for recording in the field, and using sound to tell a story.