U.S. Immigration History

This course offers an overview of U.S. immigration history from colonial times to the present, with a particular emphasis on the large migration waves of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Proceeding chronologically, students will first examine the historical causes and contexts that brought different groups of people to the United States. Then, they will study immigrants’ experiences and settlement patterns, exploring themes such as American reception, immigrant adjustment to the new country, and the impact of immigration on American culture and society. And finally, they will discuss the politics of immigration, delving into twentieth century public debates over assimilation, incorporation and Americanization, and other salient issues that have reemerged in more recent years such as xenophobia, Islamophobia, nativism and border policing.

034451