Immigration & Transnationalism

Catalog description

This course explores some of the many challenges and opportunities associated with the movement of people across national borders. Global migration flows have reached unprecedented levels. About a quarter of a billion people--or 3.3 percent of global population--currently live outside their country of birth. These flows, of course, are not without controversy. In the United States, we are debating how to manage a large undocumented population from Mexico and an increase in undocumented children coming from Central America. Meanwhile, debates rage in Europe about Islam and assimilation while thousands of refugees die in the Mediterranean Sea fleeing conflict and repression in countries like Somalia, Eritrea, Afghanistan, and Syria. Many communities in developing countries, on the other hand, depend on and are changed by the massive sums of money that migrants send home. What drives trends like these, and what are their political, economic, and social implications? Why do people emigrate, how are people smuggled and trafficked, and to what extent can states control immigration and manage xenophobia? How do immigration policies affect families, children, and communities? What is the relationship between emigration and human development in developing countries? This course explores these and other questions about human mobility in the 21'' century.