Resources |
In addition to the books in our classroom library, you will find below some links to resources you can use as you begin your study about immigration. They have been arranged by topic with essential questions to help you find information relevant to your study.
Undocumented Immigrants / Immigrant Rights
How did immigrants become “illegal?” What does it feel like to live in the shadows? How have immigrants and their allies fought for rights, protection, and belonging? -------------------------------- Susan Bibler Coutin, Legalizing Moves: Salvadoran Immigrants’ Struggle for U.S. Residency (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000) Mae Ngai, "How Grandma Got Legal" LA Times, May, 2006 “Second-Class Citizens,” New York Times, January 30, 2014 Migration Policy Institute, “An Analysis of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States by Country and Region of Birth,” August, 2015 Jose Antonio Vargas, "My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant," New York Times, June 26, 2011 Patrick Radden Keefe, “The Snakehead,” The New Yorker April 24, 2006 Mike Luckovich, “Show me your papers,” Atlanta Journal Constitution, April 30, 2010 (via Flickr) Jeff Parker, “They say they’re building a wall because many of us enter illegally…”, Florida Today, 2006 (via Imgur) Lydia Kitahara, “My Life as an Out-of-Status Immigrant, Shared After 32 Years” Huffington Post, April 22, 2016 “What Part of Legal Immigration Don’t You Understand?” Reason, 2008 “History of the Undocumented Immigrant,” Lower East Side Tenement Museum Latino USA, “Dreamers”; “The Dream 9”; “Los Otros Dreamers,” National Public Radio Family, Gender, and Sexuality
How does immigration impact gender and family relations? How has immigration policy, gender inequality, and discrimination against LGBT immigrants affected the freedom to move and the immigrant experience? -------------------------------- The Female Face of Immigration, background paper by Caritas Internationalis. Grieco, E.M. and M. Boyd. 1998. "Woman and Migration: Incorporating Gender into International Migration Theory" Center for the Study of Population, Florida State University, Working Paper 98-139. Learning to be Illegal: Undocumented Youth and Shifting Legal Contexts in the Transition to Adulthood, American Sociological Review, Roberto G. Gonzales, 2011. Nancy Foner, “Immigrant Women and Work in New York City, Then and Now,” Journal of American Ethnic History (1999) 18: 95–113. Nevarez, Griselda, U.S. Immigration Law Treats Women and Men Differently, The Huffington Post, June 5, 2013. Deportation Nation
Who has been targeted for deportation throughout United States history, and why? How has expulsion shaped who is considered to be an insider and outsider, and who is considered to be deserving and undeserving? How does the history of deportation challenge the United States' reputation as "a nation of immigrants"? -------------------------------- The Bisbee Deportation of 1917 (Web Exhibit with newspapers, photographs, maps, letters, and interviews), University of Arizona Library Immigration Detention Maps and Statistics, Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC) TRAC Immigration Project, Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse War Resistance, Anti-Militarism, and Deportation, 1917-1919, The Emma Goldman Papers, UC Berkeley Library “Mass Deportation May Sound Unlikely, But It's Happened Before," National Public Radio, September 8, 2015 “Inside a Georgia Immigration Court, One Man Fights to Stay with His Family,” National Public Radio, April 28, 2016 “Immigrant America: The High Cost of Deporting Parents,” VICE News, March 19, 2014 Historical Origins of Nativism and Xenophobia
Why has immigration been a topic of perennial debate in the U.S.? How has the fear of foreigners and the desire to define and protect an “American” identity evolved over time? -------------------------------- Moustafa Bayoumi, excerpt from How Does it Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab In America, NY Magazine, 2008 Max Friedman, “Donald Trump’s Ban on Muslims Echoes Earliest Days of Nazi Propaganda,” NY Daily News, December 9, 2015 Arsalan Iftikhar, excerpt from Scapegoats: How Islamophobia Helps Our Enemies and Threatens Our Freedoms, Truthout, 2016 The Birth of a Nation, 1915 film by D.W Griffith Natalia Molina, “The Myth of the Unassimilable Mexican,” Racism Review, November 28, 2016 Benjamin Franklin, Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc. (Tarrytown, NY: William Abbatt, reprinted 1918) Immigration Restriction League Records, 1893-1921, Harvard University Library U.S. Immigration Commision, Dillingham Commission, 1907-1911 Madison Grant, The Passing of the Great Race; Or, The Racial Basis of European History (New York: Scribner’s Sons, 1918) and Noel Hartman, “The Passing of the Great Race at 100,” Public Books, July 1, 2016 Political Cartoons about Irish immigration from Harper’s Weekly Samuel P. Huntington, “The Hispanic Challenge,” Foreign Policy, October 28, 2009 Lothrop Stoddard, The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy (New York, NY: Scribner, 1920) Woodrow Wilson’s Veto Message on the 1915 Immigration Bill, The American Presidency Project Border Walls & Border Policing
Why do nation-states build walls and police borders? What impact do walls and border policing have on individuals, families, and communities? How do they shape our views of immigrants and our neighbors to the north and south? Why are borders more permeable for some people -- and goods -- than for others? -------------------------------- Border Battles: The U.S. Immigration Debates, Social Science Research Council Bracero History Archive National Border Patrol Museum Oral Histories, National Border Patrol Museum Report of the Boundary Commission upon the Survey and Re-marking of the Boundary between the United States and Mexico West of the Rio Grande, 1891-96, includes 258 photographs of the border in the late 19th century), University of North Texas Digital Library Undocumented Migration Project, University of Michigan United States-Mexico Border, Color Image Map Series, U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Customs Service, 1979-1983, University of Texas, Austin Libraries Border Cantos, Richard Misrach, Guillermo Galindo, and Josh Kun Borderland, National Public Radio Raising Barriers: A New Age of Walls, Washington Post Visualizing the US-Mexico Border, The Intercept Walls of Shame: The US-Mexican Border, Al Jazeera English |
The Rise of Federal Immigration Law
To view the text of specific legislation text go to the Legislation tab. How did policy makers increasingly use race, class, political ideology, health and ability, gender, and sexuality to favor the entry of particular groups and restrict others? How did immigrants and their American-born children persevere during an age of restriction? -------------------------------- Asiatic Exclusion League, "Proceedings," 1908, University of Minnesota Law Library Randolph Bourne, “Trans-National America,” The Atlantic, 1916 Chae Chan Ping v. United States (The Chinese Exclusion Case), 1889 Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882 Frederick Douglass “Our Composite Nationality,” 1869, Teaching American History Madison Grant, The Passing of the Great Race: A Racial History of Europe (Charles Scribner & Sons, 4th ed., 1922) Political Cartoons about the “Chinese Question,” Harper’s Weekly Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives (Dover Publications reprint, 1901) Theodore Roosevelt, “True Americanism,” 1894, Teaching American History Muzaffar Chishti, Faye Hipsman, and Isabel Ball, “Fifty Years On, the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act Continues to Reshape the United States,” Migration Policy Institute, October 15, 2015 Erika Lee, “The Contradictory Legacy of the 1965 Immigration Act,” What It Means to be American, Sept. 29, 2015 Douglas S. Massey and Karen A. Pren, “Unintended Consequences of US Immigration Policy: Explaining the Post-1965 Surge from Latin America,” Population and Development Review, Vol. 38, No. 1 (March 2012): 1-29 Open Access version "1965 Immigration Law Changed Face of America,” National Public Radio (podcast and article) Refugee and Asylum Policy
How are refugees and asylees different from immigrants? Why does the United States prioritize their admission? How are they selected? How is U.S. refugee resettlement policy shaped by U.S. international relations? -------------------------------- María Cristina García, “America Has Never Actually Welcomed the World’s Huddled Masses,” Washington Post, November 20, 2015 Donald M. Kerwin, “The Faltering US Refugee Protection System: Legal and Policy Responses to Refugees, Asylum Seekers, and Others in Need of Protection,” Migration Policy Institute Report, March 2011 The 1980 Refugee Act 1951 United Nations Convention and the 1967 Protocol on the Status of Refugees Immigrant Stories [digital stories created by recent refugees, including a digital exhibit of Southeast Asian Refugee Stories created by the Immigration History Research Center] Catholic Bishops of Mexico and the United States, "Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope" (2003) Sarah Corbett, "The Lost Boys of Sudan: The Long, Long, Long Road to Fargo," New York Times Magazine, April 1, 2001 Valeria Fernández, illustrated by Dan Carino, “These asylum seekers are being forced to raise their kids in immigration ‘jails,’” July 7, 2016, Public Radio International Classroom Journal Publications
Below are journal publications that are available in my classroom. Feel free to ask for copies of any of these journal articles. You can check them out for one week. Anker, Deborah. “The Refugee Act of 1980: An Historical Perspective.” In Defense of the Alien, vol. 5, 1982, pp. 89–94. Bodnar, John. “Remembering the Immigrant Experience in American Culture.” Journal of American Ethnic History, vol. 15, no. 1, 1995, pp. 3–27. Cappo, Julio Jr. “Queering Mariel: Mediating Cold War Foreign Policy and U.S. Citizenship among Cuba’s Homosexual Exile Community, 1978–1994.” Journal of American Ethnic History, vol. 29, no. 4, 2010, pp. 78–106. Gabaccia, Donna R. “Is Everywhere Nowhere? Nomads, Nations, and the Immigrant Paradigm of United States History.” The Journal of American History, vol. 86, no. 3, 1999, pp. 1115–1134. ---------, and Vicki L. Ruiz. “Migrations and Destinations: Reflections on the Histories of U.S. Immigrant Women.” Journal of American Ethnic History, vol. 26, no. 1, 2006, pp. 3–19. Gonzales, Roberto G. “Learning to Be Illegal: Undocumented Youth and Shifting Legal Contexts in the Transition to Adulthood.” American Sociological Review, vol. 76, no. 4, 2011, pp. 602–619. Guzman, Esther Morales. “Imprisonment, Deportation, and Family Separation: My American Nightmare.” Social Justice, vol. 36, no. 2 (116), 2009, pp. 106–109. Hagan, Jacqueline, et al. “U.S. Deportation Policy, Family Separation, and Circular Migration.” The International Migration Review, vol. 42, no. 1, 2008, pp. 64–88. Hester, Torrie. “‘Protection, Not Punishment’: Legislative and Judicial Formation of U.S. Deportation Policy, 1882–1904.” Journal of American Ethnic History, vol. 30, no. 1, 2010, pp. 11–36. Jacobson, Matthew Frye. “More ‘Trans-," Less ‘National.’” Journal of American Ethnic History, vol. 25, no. 4, 2006, pp. 74–84. Johnson, Violet M. Showers. “‘What, Then, Is the African American?" African and Afro-Caribbean Identities in Black America.” Journal of American Ethnic History, vol. 28, no. 1, 2008, pp. 77–103. Motomura, Hiroshi. “The Curious Evolution of Immigration Law: Procedural Surrogates for Substantive Constitutional Rights.” Columbia Law Review, vol. 92, no. 7, 1992, pp. 1625–1704 Ngai, Mae M. “The Architecture of Race in American Immigration Law: A Reexamination of the Immigration Act of 1924.” The Journal of American History, vol. 86, no. 1, 1999, pp. 67–92. Salcido, Olivia, and Cecilia Menjívar. “Gendered Paths to Legal Citizenship: The Case of Latin-American Immigrants in Phoenix, Arizona.” Law & Society Review, vol. 46, no. 2, 2012, pp. 335–368. Sanchez, George J. “Race, Nation, and Culture in Recent Immigration Studies.” Journal of American Ethnic History, vol. 18, no. 4, 1999, pp. 66–84. Sinke, Suzanne M. “Gender and Migration: Historical Perspectives.” The International Migration Review, vol. 40, no. 1, 2006, pp. 82–103. Wyatt, Bradley. "Even Aliens are Entitled to Due Process: Extending Mathews v. Eldridge Balancing to Board of Immigration Appeals Procedural Reform." William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, vol. 12, no. 2, 2004, pp. 605-636. |
Based on a syllabus developed by immigration historians affiliated with the Immigration History Research Center and the Immigration and Ethnic History Society