SOC 245
Global Migration Fall 2012
Division II
This is not the current course catalog

Calls for “immigration reform” abound in politics and the media. Legislation in border states (Arizona, Texas, Alabama) is national news, often sparking protests around the country. Communities of foreigners reside in small towns as well as big cities, making up 12 percent of the U.S. population. Similar tensions in Europe have resulted in anti-Muslim legislation and even violence. Yet is global migration a problem or an opportunity? In order to answer that question, we will analyze the social dimensions of global migration flows, focusing first on the politics of migration in the modern economic era and secondly on the migrant experience. We will look historically at how migration has been defined alternately as “good” and “bad” for societies, and discuss the most common arguments on either side. As case studies of large-scale migration, we will focus on three significant flows: from Asia to Western Europe; from West Africa to the U.S. and Europe; and from Latin America to the U.S.