A five-part series exploring how people from around the world
are finding home in rural America.

Created using oral history interviews conducted all across the country, Routes to Roots offers the perspectives of descendants of ancestors who immigrated generations ago and of newcomers who come from as far and wide as Benin, the Philippines, and Venezuela, landing in small towns all across the U.S. — from the mountains and prairies of Colorado, to the buttes of North Dakota, the forests of Arkansas, and beyond.

Storytellers talk about how they found home in rural places, the challenges they’ve faced along the way, and the ways inclusion and cross-cultural collaboration help rural communities thrive. Their stories show how immigration has always been a vital part of rural American history, and illuminate the major role that newcomers play in preserving the heart of rural life for generations to come. 

Routes to Roots is hosted by Sara Ozawa and Phillip Norman, Rural Assembly 2024-25 Welcoming and Inclusion Fellows. Their fellowship is being sponsored through a partnership between Rural Assembly and Welcoming America, a nonprofit devoted to building a nation of neighbors. 

Episode 1: Movement Across Time and Place

Episode 1, Movement Across Time and Place, pushes back on common misconceptions about immigration in rural America.The stories featured in this episode outline the patterns of immigration to the US over time, the factors that influence an immigrant’s difficult decision to leave home, and highlight the vital contributions that immigrants make when they find new homes in America’s rural places.

Episode One Transcript (Spanish)