SUMMER 2005

History 410 History of U.S. Immigration (Draft Syllabus)

In this course we will study U.S. immigration policies, using documentary evidence, in their international and national contexts. We will study, for example, how U.S. immigration policy both reflects and creates a spatialization of the world and a racialization of the world’s peoples in Europe and the U.S. in the 19th century. The U.S. national project included the expansion and acquisition of territories populated by Native Americans and creole populations. In what ways and for what reasons were groups included and excluded from citizenship, from belonging to the Republic?

We will also study U.S. immigration policy in the context of the developing capitalist economy. The U.S. expanded into the Pacific region in the 19th century to ensure access both to Asian markets and to cheap Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino labor. When U.S. laborers complained about unfair labor competition in the 1880s, Chinese were excluded from immigration and citizenship for the next sixty years. We will view changing U.S. immigration policy through these lenses, focusing on categories of immigrants created by the immigration legislation, as well as exceptions to those categories. For example, while the U.S. sought to limit immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe by the 1924 Immigration Act, the need for cheap labor continued. Immigration from Mexico surged in the late 1920s because of the exemption of Western Hemisphere countries from the 1924 immigration quotas. At the same time the placement of border guards and medical personnel at the Mexican border, bureaucrats whose techniques were perfected in American colonial possessions Puerto Rico and the Philippines, stigmatized laborers and others who sought to cross.

Transnational spaces became more important in U.S. history after the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act. The Pacific Rim as a geographic space and concept emerged in the 1970s. Globalization created a new international division of labor that in turn affected U.S. immigration policy. Labor needs still “pulled” migrants, but high tech jobs such as computer engineer, were added to the more traditional lower paid ones, such as agricultural and service sector work. Categories of immigrants perceived to be legal and illegal shifted, with Asians emerging as a “model” minority while Latinos, the great majority of whom were in the U.S. legally, were further tainted as “illegal aliens.” Beginning in the 1980s and 90s and accelerating in particular ways after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. on September 11, 2001, policymakers cracked down on “illegal” migration in ways that reflected the global formations of race and gender.

From this course students will master basic material regarding immigration policy, waves of nativism and meanings of U.S. citizenship. They will be expected to think critically about the material and engage in written and oral discourse about issues of significant political relevance.

Academic honesty: All work in this course must be original. Plagiarism and other forms of cheating will not be permitted. Students who plagiarize an assignment will be given a zero for that assignment. YOU MAY NOT TURN IN WORK THAT IS SUBSTANTIALLY THE SAME AS ANOTHER STUDENT’S WORK! Thus you may not do your take home exam with another student.

Lateness policy: Late assignments will be graded down one full grade for each day late, including weekend days. Extra credit summaries may not be turned in late. Students who fail to turn in an exam will be given a ‘0’ for that exam.

Accommodations: If you have a documented disability and anticipate needing accommodations in this course, please notify the instructor and request that Disability Services send a letter verifying your disability.

Grading
In-class Midterm Exam: 35% of final grade.
Paper (3 pages): 20% of final grade.
Take Home Final Exam: 35% of final grade
Attendance and participation in in-class discussions: 10% of final grade.
One point each day for attending lecture, beginning on second day of class (total 15 points). Five points total for informed participation in small and large group class discussions. It should be noted that a student cannot get an ‘A’ in the class without attending and participating regularly in class.
Extra credit reading summaries: one point to final course grade per assignment for a
total of four points to your final average.

Texts
Michael LeMay and Elliott Robert Barkan, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Laws and Issues: A Documentary History (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999).

Nicole Green, Ann Chih Lin, editors, Immigration (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2002).

Websites:
Alexis de Tocqueville Institution www.adti.net
Center for Immigration Studies www.cis.org
Federation for American Immigration Reform www.fairus.org
National Council of La Raza www.nclr.org
National Immigration Forum www.immigrationforum.org
U.S. Bureau of Citizen and Immigration Services www.immigration.gov
Library of Congress http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/features/immig/immigration_set1.html

Week One:
Present Day and Historical Overview
September 11 as a key turning point in U.S. immigration history

I. A Nation of Free White Persons (Film: Middle Passage)
19th Century Inclusion and Exclusion: Know Nothings
19th Century Racial Exclusion: 1882 Chinese Exclusion Legislation

Reading:
Nicole Green, Ann Chih Lin, editors, Immigration (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2002).

LeMay and Barkan, pp. 1-84.

“The Meanings of Citizenship,” Linda K. Kerber
The Journal of American History, Vol. 84, No. 3. (Dec., 1997), pp. 833-854.

Additional Reading
Tyler Anbinder, “Americans Must Rule America”: The Ideology of the Know Nothing Party,” in Nativism and Slavery: The Northern Know Nothings and the Politics of the 1850s, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), pp. 103 – 126.

Alexander Saxton, The Indispensable Enemy: Labor and the Anti-Chinese Movement in California, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971), pp. 19-45.

Alexander Saxton, The Indispensable Enemy: Labor and the Anti-Chinese Movement in California, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971), pp. 229-284

IN WEEK ONE, THE EXTRA CREDIT READING SUMMARY IS DUE BEFORE CLASS ON WEDNESDAY.

Week 2:
II. “New” Migration: Massive migration from Europe 1880-1920
(Film: The Inheritance; Ellis Island footage)
Expanding Racial Exclusions
III. U.S. As a Colonial Power, 1898 - 1945
U.S. Empire and Immigration from Latin America

Reading:
LeMay and Barkan, pp. 84-151.

U.S. Congressional Testimony, 1912, “The Strike at Lawrence, Massachusetts”

Dillingham Commission Report, Pamphlets on Immigration, (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1910), pp. 1 – 40.

Jurgen Osterhammel, Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview (Princeton, N.J. Ian Randle Publishers, 1997), pp. 1-38.

United States Congressional Record. Congressional Record – House: Proceedings and Debates of the U.S. Congress, 73rd Congress, 3rd Session, Vol 77, Part 3: 4926-4937. Washington, D.C., 1933.

IN WEEK TWO, THE EXTRA CREDIT READING SUMMARY IS DUE BEFORE CLASS ON MONDAY.

In-class midterm exam on Wednesday, June30. Paper topics are due (TBA)

Week 3:
Immigration and World War II
IV. U.S. As a Neo-Colonial and Global Power, 1945 – present
U.S. Power in the Postwar Era, An Overview
Categories of Immigrants After 1965: Legal Immigrants

Reading for Week Three:
LeMay and Barkan, pp. 151 – 250.

Ada Ferrer, Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation and Revolution, 1868-1898, pp. 170-202.

Juan Gonzales, Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America, (New York: Viking, 2000), pp. ix-xx and pp. 3-78

David Gutierrez, Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).

IN WEEK THREE, THE EXTRA CREDIT READING SUMMARY IS DUE BEFORE CLASS ON MONDAY.

Papers, 3-5 pages in length, are due on (TBA), on any aspect of immigration exclusion since 1980.

Week 4:
Categories of Immigrants After 1965: Illegal Immigrants
1980s and 1990s: Illegal Immigration in the Context of Globalization
Immigration After September 11, 2001
Review and Final Exam

Reading for Week Four:
LeMay and Barkan, pp. 251-282.

Kenichi Ohmae, The End of the Nation State: The Rise of Regional Economies, or, How Capital, Corporations, Consumers and Communication are Reshaping Global Markets, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), pp. 1-39

Melani McAlister, “A Cultural History of the War Without End,” Journal of American History, Vol 89, No. 2 (September 2002), pp. 439-455.

Michael Welch, “September 11, 2001, and the Challenge Ahead,” in Detained: Immigration Laws and the Expanding INS Jail Complex, (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2002), pp. 187-205.

Rachel Swarns, “Illegal Aliens Can Be Held Indefinitely, Ashcroft Says,” New York Times, April 26,2003, A14.

Additional Reading
James Petras and Morris Morley, “The Role of the Imperial State in the Decline of U.S. Hegemony,” in U.S. Hegemony Under Siege: Class, Politics and Development in Latin America, (London: Verso, 1990), pp. 65-89.

Peter Kwong, The New Chinatown (New York: Hill and Wang, revised 1996), pp. 11-80.

Edward Escobar, “Race and Criminal Justice,” in Race, Police, and the Making of a Political Identity: Mexican Americans and the Los Angeles Police Department, 1900 – 1945, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), pp.

J. Wareing, “The Changing Pattern of Immigration Into the United States, 1956-1975,” Geography 63, no. 3 (1978), 220-224.

Le May and Barkan, pp. 282-312 Includes Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, Proposition 187, and the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act.

Ojito, Mirta, “You are Going to El Norte,” New York Times Magazine, April 23, 2000, p. 68.

Sullivan, John and Matthew Purdy, “Parlaying the Detentions Business Into Profit,” New York Times, July 23, 1995, I,1:1.

Juan Gonzales, Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America, (New York: Viking, 2000), 190 – 205.

Matt Kempner: “The Big Wink: Undocumented Latino Workers are so Vital to Georgia’s Economy That Those in Charge Look the Other Way,” Atlanta Journal, January 23, 2000.

Additional Reading:
Wayne A. Cornelius, “Appearances and Realities: Controlling Illegal Immigration in the United States,” Temporary Workers or Future Citizens? Japanese and U.S. Migration Policies (New York: New York University Press, 1998), pp. 384-427.

Dunn, Ashley, “Greeted at Nation’s Front Door, Many Visitors Stay On Illegally,” New York Times, January 3, 1995.

IN WEEK FOUR, THE EXTRA CREDIT READING SUMMARY IS DUE BEFORE CLASS ON MONDAY.

Take home final exam is due: TBA