Syllabus Contemporary Immigration Soc 146 Winter 2016 Lecture: Tuesdays, Thursdays 2 3:15 Instructor: Edward Telles Office: SSMS room 3423 Office Hours: Tuesdays, 3:30 5:30 Email: e telles@soc.ucsb.edu Teaching Assistant: Liliana V. Rodriguez Office: SSMS 3021 Office Hours: Thursdays, 11:30 1:30 Email: lvrodriguez@umail.ucsb.edu Over the last four decades, immigration has again transformed the United States and is beginning to in Europe. Mass immigration from the Global South over the past 20 years, which is expected to continue increasing in the next 50, presents major challenges to the relatively wealthy and democratic countries of the global North. A major issue is economic: does immigration provide a solution to the labor needs of the host countries with their aging populations? Will these countries be able to absorb these large immigration flows? Why do people migrate across international borders? How will the children of immigrants fare in the new society? Are they becoming part of the mainstream? What is the mainstream? How do sociologists evaluate and theorize immigrant integration? Politically, another set of problems arises: can immigrants and their descendants become full fledged members of host societies? Can states control immigration, including unwanted immigration? Why are some immigrants wanted and others not? Can states sufficiently protect refugees fleeing from countries in which they are persecuted? Culturally, there is widespread public concern about national integrity amidst perceived cultural and linguistic threats and the integration of diverse migrant populations into a national body. This course will examine a wide range of issues regarding immigration, settlement, citizenship, the fate of the second generation and identity from a global perspective, though with an emphasis on the United States. We will explore historical background to immigration and the basic sociological, political and cultural concepts of immigrant integration or assimilation, formal and informal citizenship, migration, immigration, ethnicity, and race, emphasizing how they are used and their relation with one another in various contexts. Much of the course will focus on how migration has shaped lasting ethnic differences.
International immigration is one of the hottest topics today, whether it be undocumented immigration in the United States or Syrian refugees in Europe. So hot that the outrageous but viable Republican candidate to President, Donald Trump, has just released his first commercial which features the presumed threats by undocumented Mexican workers, building an insurmountable border wall with Mexico and the threat of ISIS through refugees to Europe and the United States! California stands at the leading edge of these changes as more than one in four residents was born outside of the United States. This course is open to anyone with an interest in immigration and willing to raise the often difficult moral, political and academic questions related to immigration. Required Book : Portes, Alejandro and Rubén G. Rumbaut. 2014. Immigrant America: A Portrait. University of California Press. Other readings will be posted on Gaucho Space. Grading: 1. Midterm Exam: 35% (covers weeks 1 5) 2. Three 1 2 page memos: 30% 3. Final 5 7 page Memo: 20% 4. Participation: 15% 1. Midterm The Midterm Exam in Week 6 will cover the first 5 weeks, which is essentially the entire Portes and Rumbaut book as well as the lecture materials. The questions will be a combination of short answer and short essay. 2. 1 2 Page Reflection Memos Weeks 7 10 will focus on 4 topics that have become critical to the current debate and news about immigration. You will be required to write a 1 2 page reflection/memo (typed and double spaced) for 3 of the 4 weeks on the topic that week. Memos will be due at the beginning of the Thursday class. You must submit hard copies. 3. Final Memo This will be a 5 7 page paper on an immigration topic/question of your choice due on the final day of class. Topics must be preapproved. Details will be discussed later in class. 4. Participation Finally, you will be graded for participation. This includes attendance and actual participation in class. Of course, you cannot participate in every class but being prepared, raising questions and voicing your thoughts will be noticed. I understand if you cannot make it to all of the classes but repeated absences will be noted. Weekly Schedule :
The topics for each week are described in this section. I have sought to describe the content of each class, though the exact topics are subject to change. Required readings are also presented for each week. The readings are subject to change but you will be given at least one week of notice. You should complete the weekly readings for discussion in your section that week. For example, week 2 readings should be completed for your week 2. Inasmuch as possible the lectures will be related to the readings but that will not always be the case. The class will feature guest lecturers who are local, national and international experts, particularly in the final four weeks. Please try to be present for those lectures. They will generally fall on Thursdays and will be announced soon. The order of the final four weeks is subject to change, depending on speaker availability. Week 1 Introduction (January 5 and 7) 1. Course Content, Basic Concepts, Immigration News, Introductions 2. Global and US Trends in Immigration Reading: Chapter 1 of Portes and Rumbaut The Latest News on Immigration: Obama asks the Supreme Court to act fast to save his immigration orders The Economist. November 24, 2015. Dwindling Hopes for Immigration Reform New York Times Editorial Board. October 30, 2015. In First Ad, Donald Trump Plays to Fears on Immigration and ISIS New York Times by Nick Corasaniti. January 4, 2016. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo way/2014/11/20/365519963/obama will announce re lief for up to 5 million immigrants Week 2 Theories of Migration (January 12 and 14) Who Moves? Why People Immigrate? Origins and Destinations Chapters 2 and 3 of Portes and Rumbaut Massey, D.S., Arango, J., Hugo, G., Kouaouci, A., Pellegrino, A. and Taylor, J.E., 1993. Theories of international migration: a review and appraisal. Population and development review, pp.431 466. Week 3 Structural Integration/Assimilation (January 19 and 21) Education, Occupation, Residential Mobility Chapters 4 and 7 of Portes and Rumbaut Huntington, Samuel P. "The hispanic challenge." Foreign policy 141.2 (2004): 30 45.
Week 4 Cultural Integration/Acculturation (January 26 and 28) Ethnic and National Identity, Language, Politics, Religion Chapters 5, 6, and 8 of Portes and Rumbaut Week 5 Undocumented Immigration and Public Policy (February 2 and 4) 1. Mexican Immigration, Illegality and the Politics of Border Control in the United States 2. Mexican Immigration in Historical Perspective Chapter 9 of Portes and Rumbaut http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/atissue/ai_711hjai.pdf http://www.pewresearch.org/fact tank/2015/08/24/what americans want to do about ille gal immigration/ http://www.cfr.org/immigration/us immigration debate/p11149 Beck, Roy. "The ordeal of immigration in Wausau." Atlantic Monthly 273.4 (1994): 84 97. Week 6. Review (February 9) and Midterm (February 11) 1. Review 2. Midterm Week 7: (February 16 and 18) Guest Lecturer on February 18: Tanya Golash Boza, Associate Professor, University of California, Merced Intro, Chapters 3 and 4 from Golash Boza, Tanya Maria. Immigration nation: Raids, detentions, and deportations in post 9/11 America. Boulder, Colorado: Paradigm Publishers, 2012. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01419870.2015.988739 Week 8 Deferred Dreams? DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) (February 23 and 25) Guest Lecturer on February 25: Veronica Terriquez Associate Professor, University of California, Santa Cruz Abrego, Leisy Janet. " I can t go to college because I don t have papers : Incorporation patterns of Latino undocumented youth." Latino Studies 4.3 (2006): 212 231. Gonzales, Roberto G. "Learning to be illegal undocumented youth and shifting legal contexts in the transition to adulthood." American Sociological Review 76.4 (2011): 602 619. Perry, Andre M. "Toward a theoretical framework for membership: The case of undocumented immigrants and financial aid for postsecondary education." The Review of Higher Education 30.1 (2006): 21 40. http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/5 things you may not have known about daca
Week 9 The European Scene (March 2 and 4) Guest Lecturer on March 4: Shahamak Rezaei, Professor, Roskilde University, Denmark 1. Muslims, Africans and the new Immigration Crisis in Europe 2. Social Welfare and Immigration Adida, Claire L., David D. Laitin, and Marie Anne Valfort. "Identifying barriers to Muslim integration in France." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107.52 (2010): 22384 22390. Barrett, Alan, and Yvonne McCarthy. "Immigrants and welfare programmes: exploring the interactions between immigrant characteristics, immigrant welfare dependence, and welfare policy." Oxford Review of Economic Policy 24.3 (2008): 542 559. Chapter 1 from Dancygier, Rafaela. 2010. Immigration and conflict in Europe. Introduction in Schain, M. 2008. The Politics of Immigration in France, Britain and the United States. Palgrave MacMillan Week 10 Transnationalism, Remittances, Living Wage (March 8 and 10) Guest Lecturer on March 10: Raul Hinojosa, Associate Professor, UCLA