Border Security and Immigration Regulation.

Catalog description

Border security, immigration enforcement, and citizenship regulations are interconnected. In the United States, the prospect of comprehensive immigration reform and a pathway to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants living in the country has been connected in past immigration reform proposals to the “achievement and maintenance of effective control in high risk border sectors along the Southern border.” But what would it require to achieve effective control of unauthorized immigration? How do our strategies compare to the European Union and other areas of the world that are struggling to facilitate the free movement of people while safeguarding their states against security threats? In this course, we will take a big picture approach to understanding border security and immigration regulation. Throughout the course, we will consider possible legal and political alternatives for reshaping existing immigration policies to balance the tensions between the desire of states to safeguard their sovereignty, national identity, and labor markets with the interests of citizens and migrants to profit from mobility and the ability to pursue economic and personal relationships across borders.