Community Voices: Postville Project Oral Histories
Keywords
Elmi, Salat--Interviews; Postville Immigration Raid, Postville, Iowa, 2008;
Genre
Oral History
Interview Description
Salat Elmi was born in Somalia and spent years in a refugee camp in Kenya after a civil war broke out in Somalia. In 2008, Salat moved to Seattle and eventually settled in Postville in 2010. At the time of the interview Salat worked as the Adult Literacy Liaison for the Postville School providing services and resources to families of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. In the interview Salat discusses his involvement with the Diversity Council, events that occurred in Postville or neighboring towns, and his experience working and living in Postville. Although Salat was not living in Postville at the time of the raid, he was able to comment on some of the ramifications of the 2008 ICE raid. The interview closes with Salat’s hopes for the future of Postville and the Somali community in Postville as well as some of the positive changes he has seen over the years. Salat also answers many questions that people may have about Somali culture, because he believes that spreading knowledge can help combat false stereotypes.
Interview Number
05
Interview Date
8-31-2014
File Format
audio/mp3
Disciplines
Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration | United States History
Project Title
Community Voices: The Postville Oral History Project
Project Description
The Community Voices: Postville Oral History Project sought to capture the remembered past of those who experienced the “Postville story,” that is, the social context leading up to, including, and following the ICE immigration raid that occurred on May 12th, 2008. The Interviews available here showcase the unique memories of 16 interviewees living and working in or near Postville. The interviews will leave listeners with a sense of how a small town in rural Iowa has dealt with and continues to deal with vast demographic change and the aftermath of an ICE raid that threw Postville into the national conversation on immigration reform.
Publisher
Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa
Copyright
©2014 The Postville Project
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Language
en
Recommended Citation
Elmi, Salat, "Community Voices: The Postville Oral History Project Recording with Salat Elmi" (2014). Community Voices: Postville Project Oral Histories. 10.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/postville_oralhistory/10
Project Title
Community Voices: The Postville Oral History Project
Project Description
The Community Voices: Postville Oral History Project sought to capture the remembered past of those who experienced the “Postville story,” that is, the social context leading up to, including, and following the ICE immigration raid that occurred on May 12th, 2008. The Interviews available here showcase the unique memories of 16 interviewees living and working in or near Postville. The interviews will leave listeners with a sense of how a small town in rural Iowa has dealt with and continues to deal with vast demographic change and the aftermath of an ICE raid that threw Postville into the national conversation on immigration reform.
Comments
Click image to play interview:
Interview Conducted by RaeAnn Swanson-Evans
Interview Transcribed by RaeAnn Swanson-Evans