In this class, we will focus on immigration into the United States from the late 19th century to the present. We will investigate political, economic, social, and cultural dimensions of migration through historically specific cases. Using texts from a number of disciplines, we will analyze important thematic and ideological continuities and contradictions.
We will investigate the changing economic, political, and legal dimensions of immigration. What is the relationship between the labor needs of the United States and immigration? What is the connection between imperialism and migration? Why does war and political violence spur migration? How do laws, policies, and institutions attempt to manage and regulate migration?
This class will also investigate the subjective experiences of immigration through fiction, ethnographies, and film. We will discuss themes such as assimilation, generational conflict, gender differences, transnationalism, nativism, and racialization. We will also discuss changing and contradictory attitudes toward migration over the last 150 years.
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