North-Central West Virginia · Est. 2024
West Virginia
Immigrant
Voices Project
Preserving the stories that built our community.
Whatever country your road started in, tell us how it took you home to West Virginia.
— West Virginia Immigrant Voices Project
The West Virginia Immigrant Voices Project is a community-driven oral history initiative dedicated to documenting, preserving, and sharing the stories, histories, and lived experiences of immigrants in Morgantown and North-Central West Virginia. Through recorded interviews, written narratives, and multimedia storytelling, we aim to build a publicly accessible archive that contributes to a more complete and honest account of who we are and where we came from.
About the Project
West Virginia was built by people who came from somewhere else. Polish and Italian miners who went down into the same shafts as their neighbors. Syrian merchants who set up shop on Main Street. Families from a dozen countries who planted gardens together, danced and worshipped together, mourned together, built homes and businesses together, raised and taught children together; all became West Virginians. Today is no different. People born all over the world still come to this wild and wonderful state, plant gardens, build lives and make this place unique.
These stories are our story. But most of these stories, these voices, have still never been told to the wider public. The West Virginia Immigrant Voices Project was created to help change that — to sit down with real people, listen, and make sure these pieces of our community and heritage don't fade away.
We work in partnership with the Morgantown Immigrant Support Coalition and Mountaineer Indivisible Citizen Action. Our interviews are personal and conducted on the narrator's own terms — people decide what they share and how it's used. The archive is built to last and open to anyone who wants to learn more about the people who helped shape this state.
In-depth audio and video oral history interviews with immigrants and their families across North-Central West Virginia — in their own words, in their own time.
A permanent, publicly accessible digital archive — carefully maintained and built to be available to families, researchers, and communities for generations.
Multimedia stories, community events, and educational materials that bring these accounts to schools, libraries, and living rooms across the state.
Every life lived here deserves an honest reckoning. These stories belong to the people who lived them — and to West Virginia's history.
Immigrants in West Virginia
Source · American Immigration Council, 2020
As neighbors, business owners, taxpayers, and workers, immigrants are an integral part of West Virginia's diverse and thriving communities and make extensive contributions that benefit all residents of the state.
Read the full fact sheet →Contribute to the Archive
Upload Your Story Here
If you or your family came to West Virginia from another country, we want to share your story. You can record your own interview following the prompts provided, write your story down, or share your story through visuals (photographs, artistic work, songs, etc.) and upload your story directly to our shared archive. Your materials will be preserved as part of West Virginia's rich and diverse heritage. We will share this tapestry of stories as widely as possible and remind our communities that we are neighbors from everywhere.
Upload to the ArchiveOpens in Google Drive · All file types welcome · Questions? Email us below
Get Involved
If you came to West Virginia from somewhere else — or your parents or grandparents did — we'd like to sit down and hear your story. You decide what gets recorded and how it's used.
We need interviewers, translators, transcribers, and people who know their communities well. No special background required — just the time and willingness to show up.
We welcome partnerships with churches, community groups, schools, libraries, and local businesses who want to help find and preserve the stories in their midst.
This project runs on community support. If you can contribute financially or help connect us with funding opportunities, we'd be grateful to hear from you.
Let's build this record together.
Whether you want to share your story, volunteer, explore a partnership, or just find out more — reach out. This project exists because of the people in it, and there's always room for one more.
You can also reach us directly at:
changethenarrativewv[at]gmail.comA project of West Virginia University, in partnership with the Morgantown Immigrant Support Coalition and Mountaineer Indivisible Citizen Action.