POS 4931 – LATIN AMERICAN IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES
Spring 2009
Philip J. Williams
Email: pjw@polisci.ufl.eduTel: 273-2369
Office Hours: M
8:45-11:45 am, T 10:30-11:30 am, 1:00-2:00 pm, Th 10:30-11:30
am, 221
Homepage: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/pjw/
Course Objectives
The purpose of the course is to give the student a clearer understanding and
appreciation of Latin American immigration to the
Examinations and Course Requirements
Students are expected to complete all assigned readings on time and to attend class. Your grade will consist of regularly scheduled quizzes (20%), three take-home essay exams (15% each), a group presentation (15%), and a seven page research paper (20%) growing out of your group presentation. The paper will be due in class on Tuesday, April 14. Late papers will lose one full letter grade for each day they are late. There are no make-ups for missed quizzes. Students are expected to arrive to class on time and not to leave until class is over. Entering class 10-15 minutes late is disruptive and disrespectful of the instructor and other students. Immigration is a “hot” topic that can generate a lot of passion on all sides. Consequently, I expect students to engage in class discussion in a civil manner, demonstrating courtesy and respect for the opinions expressed by their classmates. If you cannot engage in civil discussion on this topic, you should not take this class. I expect all students to adhere to the university’s standards of academic honesty in their class work. In the event that a student is found cheating or knowingly plagiarizing, he/she will receive a grade penalty - automatic "E" in the course - and will be reported to Student Judicial Affairs.
Links to film festival: Caribbean Migration to Florida
Required
The following required books can be purchased at Goerings,
Schedule and Reading Assignments
Week 1
January 6: Introduction and Course Overview
January 8: Explaining International Migration
Massey
and Durand, Smoke and Mirrors (MD), Ch. 2.
Stephen Castles, “International Migration at the Beginning of the 21st Century: Global Trends and Issues,” International Social Science Journal 52:165 (December 2002). http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/119004112/PDFSTART
Week 2
January 13: History of Immigration to the
Alejandro Portes and Robert Bach, “Immigration to the United States, 1890-1979,” in Latin Journey, Alejandro Portes and Robert Bach, eds. (1985).
January 15: Impact of Immigration on American Society
Charles Hirschman, “Immigration and the American Century,” Demography, Volume 42-Number 4 (November 2005): http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/demography/v042/42.4hirschman.pdf
Film: Wetback
Week 3
January 20: Assimilation
Richard Alba and Victor Nee, “Rethinking Assimilation Theory for a New Era of Immigration,” International Migration Review 31:4 (Winter 1997): http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2547416.pdf
January 22: Segmented Assimilation
Alejandro Portes and Min Zhou, “The New Second Generation: Segmented Assimilation and its Variants,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 530 (Nov. 1993), http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/1047678.pdf
Part II: Mexican Immigration
Week 4
January 27: Historical Overview
Massey and Durand (MD), Ch. 1 and 3.
January 29: General Features of Mexican-US immigration
MD, Ch. 4-5.
Week 5
February 3: Exam #1 Due
IRCA and Post-1985 Immigration
MD,
February 5: Thinking about Immigration Policy
MD,
Samuel Huntington, “The Hispanic Challenge,” Foreign Policy (March/April 2004): http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/blogs/gems/culturalagency1/SamuelHuntingtonTheHispanicC.pdf
Week 6
February 10: Guest Speaker: David Griffith
Alejandro Portes, A Fence to Nowhere, The American Prospect (October 2007): http://borderbattles.ssrc.org/Fence%20to%20Nowhere.pdf
February 12: Group Presentation #1
The Economic Effects of Immigration
George Borjas, “Increasing the Supply of Labor Through Immigration: Measuring the Impact on Native-Born Workers,” http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/back504.pdf
Tim Bolin, “The Economic and Fiscal Impacts of Immigration,”
http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1136&context=iir
Part III: Transnationalism
Week 7
February 17: Theorizing about Transnationalism
Nina Glick Schiller, Linda Basch and Cristina Szanton Blanc, “From Immigrant to Transmigrant: Theorizing Transnational Migration,”Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 68, No. 1 (Jan 1995). http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3317464.pdf
February 19: Film: My American Girls
Overview of Dominican Transnationalism and the Concept of Social Remittances
Week 8
February 24: Family, Gender and Work Life in a Transnational Community
Levitt, Ch. 3-4.
February 26: Group
Presentation #2
Political and Religious Transnationalism
Part IV: Immigration in
Week 9
March 3: Exam #2 Due
Becoming American in
Stepick, Ch.1.
March 5: Group
Presentation #3
Cubans and Inter-ethnic relations
Stepick, Ch. 2.
Week 10
March 17: Interethnic
relations in Miami
Stepick, Ch. 3.
March 19: Group
Presentation #4
Haitians and African-Americans
Part V: New Destinations
Week 11
March 24: New Destinations of Latino Immigration
Williams, Steigenga, Vásquez (WSV), Ch. 1
March 26: Group
Presentation #5
Brazilian Immigrants in
Week 12
March 31: Immigrant empowerment and mobilization
April 2: Group
Presentation #6
Guatemalan Mayan Immigrants
Week 13
April 7: No class
April 9: No class
Week 14
April 14: Papers Due
Religion and Migration
April 16: Religion, Gender, and Migration
Film:
Week 15
April 21: Exam #3 due