Interview with Hector

Hector is originally from Jerez De La Frontera, a city in the southern region of Andalusia, Spain. He has had a successful career as a vet working with small animals, as well as specialising in Tuberculosis testing on farms. Currently, he works for the government. Hector moved to Exeter, Devon, from Spain six and a half years ago, and can speak Spanish, English and Italian. Despite only intending to stay for a year, he has remained living in the United Kingdom (UK) and intends to stay for at least another year. He relocated here with his ex-partner and her daughter, and has now built a life for himself here. I had the pleasure of interviewing Hector about his experience of migrating to the UK, and we discussed ethnographic issues of discrimination, identity, language and assimilation into UK culture. Hector also provided excellent advice to other migrants going through a similar experience. Hector did not have an object that particularly related to a certain memory, so instead we spoke about how he maintains his Spanish traditions while he is here in the UK. With the umbrella theme of migration, I decided to divide my interview into three key sections: my interviewee’s motivation for migration, his hopes and realities and finally his identity and advice.