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Instructors: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Axel Schäfer
Event type:
online: Practice class
Displayed in timetable as:
05.866.521
Hours per week:
2
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
- | 45
Requirements / organisational issues:
The famed “nation of immigrants” has historically felt highly ambivalent about the people that came to its shores as slaves, indentured servants, contract laborers, free workers, or refugees. Rather than welcoming the “tempest-tost”, the United States in its history has avidly sought to restrict, control, and manage immigration primarily based on ethnoracial categorization and class politics. Indeed, the study of immigration is central to understanding a society that combines a democratic and egalitarian promise with a socio-political reality of conflict, exclusion, and exploitation. This course combines a historical overview of immigration with a closer look at salient issues in immigration debates and policies. It follows a chronological overview of U.S. immigration history, but also includes thematic weeks that cover topics such as the relationship between migration and political ideology, social policy, and industrial capitalism. Primary and secondary sources offer historical context for exploring the shifting boundaries between political participation and exclusion, ethnic assimilation and segregation, and economic opportunities and exploitation.
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