WEEK 9
The 1965 Hart-Celler Act and the Remaking of Immigrant America
Which groups of immigrants did the new law privilege, and what contradictions did the new law produce? What was so new about the “new” immigration following the 1965 Hart-Celler Act?
- Yvette Alex-Assensoh, “African Immigrants and African Americans: An Analysis of Voluntary African Immigration and the Evolution of Black Ethnic Politics in America,” African and Asian Studies, Vol. 8, No. 1 (2009): 89-124
- Elliott Barkan, Hasia R Diner, and Alan M Kraut, From Arrival to Incorporation: Migrants to the U.S. In a Global Era (New York: New York University Press, 2008)
- John Bodnar, Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in Twentieth Century America (Indiana University Press, 1994)
- Devon Carbado, “Racial Naturalization,” American Quarterly, Vol. 57, No. 3 (September 2005): 633-658
- Gabriel J. Chin and Rose Cuison Villazor, eds. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965: Legislating a New America (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2015)
- 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
- Tom Gjeltin, A Nation of Nations: A Great American Immigration Story (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015)
- Nancy Foner, From Ellis Island to JFK: New York’s Two Great Waves of Immigration (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000)
- Marilyn Halter et al., eds. What’s New about the “New” Immigration ?: Traditions and Transformations In the United States Since 1965 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014)
- Violet Showers Johnson, “What, Then, Is the African American?: African and Afro-Caribbean Identities in Black America,” Journal of American Ethnic History, Vol. 28, No. 1 (2008): 77-104
- Charles B. Keely, “Effects of the Immigration Act of 1965 on Selected Population Characteristics of Immigrants to the United States,” Demography, Vol. 8, No. 2 (1971): 157-69
- Erika Lee, “The Contradictory Legacy of the 1965 Immigration Act,” What It Means to be American, Sept. 29, 2015; and “Making a New Asian America Through Immigration and Activism” and “Transnational Immigrants and Global Americans” in The Making of Asian America: A History (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015): 283-313 and 357-372
- Maddalena Marinari, “‘Americans Must Show Justice in Immigration Policies Too’: The Passage of the 1965 Immigration Act,” Journal of Policy History, Vol. 26, No. 2 (April 2014): 219-245
- 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
- Alejandro Portes and Rubén Rumbaut, Immigrant America: A Portrait. Fourth edition (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014)
- Mary C. Waters, Reed Ueda, and Helen B. Marrow, eds., The New Americans: A Guide to Immigration Since 1965 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007)
Primary Sources
- First Days Project
- Documenting the Southeast Asian American Experience, Documenting the Southeast Asian Experience, UC Irvine
- The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act (Hart-Celler Act), University of Washington Library
- Lyndon Baines Johnson, Special Message to the Congress on Immigration, January 13, 1965, The American Presidency Project
Multimedia
- Audio excerpt of Johnson’s speech
- Global Boston: A Portal to the Region’s Immigrant Past and Present, Boston College (website)
- “1965 Immigration Law Changed Face of America,” National Public Radio (podcast and article)
- “Prejudice and Pride,” Episode 5, The Latino Americans (documentary film)
- “Peril and Promise,” Episode 6, The Latino Americans (documentary film)
- Origins and Destinations of the World’s Migrants, from 1990-2013, Pew Research Global Attitudes Project
WEEK 10
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?
- Carl J. Bon Tempo, Americans At the Gate: The United States and Refugees During the Cold War (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008)
- Gil Loescher and John A Scanlan, Calculated Kindness: Refugees and America’s Half-Open Door, 1945 to the Present (New York: Free Press, 1986)
- Maria Cristina Garcia, “What’s New About the New Refugees?” in Halter et al., eds., What’s New About the New Immigration” Traditions and Transformations In the United States Since 1965 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014): 247-264 ; and “Refugees or Economic Migrants?” in Seeking Refuge: Central American Migration to Mexico, the United States, and Canada (University of California Press, 2006) ; and María Cristina García, “America Has Never Actually Welcomed the World’s Huddled Masses,” Washington Post, November 20, 2015
- Kelly M. Greenhill, Weapons of Mass Migration: Forced Displacement, Coercion, and Foreign Policy (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2010)
- David W. Haines, Safe Haven?: A History of Refugees In America (Sterling, VA: Kumarian Press, 2010)
- 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
- Erika Lee, “In Search of Refuge: Southeast Asians in the United States” and “Making a New Home: Hmong Refugees and Hmong Americans” in The Making of Asian America (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015): 314-356
- Aihwa Ong, Buddha Is Hiding: Refugees, Citizenship, the New America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003)
- Philip Schrag, Asylum Denied: A Refugee’s Struggle for Safety in America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009)
Primary Sources
- 1951 United Nations Convention and the 1967 Protocol on the Status of Refugees
- The 1980 Refugee Act
- 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
Multimedia
- Amnesty International, 7 Free Short Films About Refugees Recommended by Human Rights Educators
- Amnesty International, “Seeking Safety,” [Eight interactive and adaptable activities to enable 11-16 year olds explore asylum in a participatory way. Includes background information on refugees and asylum-seekers to support teachers in discussions or Q&A sessions]
- First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (documentary film)
- Four POV Documentaries to Discuss the Syrian Refugee Crisis
- Lost Boys of Sudan (documentary film);
- La Jaula de Oro/The Golden Dream (documentary film)
- The Betrayal: Nerakhoon (documentary film)
- UNHCR, “Against All Odds: The Game that Allows you to Experience what it’s like to be a refugee”
- 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
WEEK 11
How Globalization Produces Migration: Immigration Law, Economic Policy, and Global Markets in Skilled and Unskilled Workers
How do immigration restrictions serve corporate interests? How do immigration laws benefit “skilled” workers and disadvantage “unskilled” workers?
- David Bacon, The Right to Stay Home: How US Policy Drives Mexican Migration (Boston: Beacon Press, 2013)
- David Bacon, “Displacement and Migration,” from Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants (Boston: Beacon Press, 2009): 51-82
- Jeanne Batalova, “H-1B Temporary Skilled Worker Program,” Migration Policy Institute, Oct. 7, 2010
- Sergio R. Chávez, Border Lives: Fronterizos, Transnational Migrants, and Commuters In Tijuana (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016)
- Ryszard Cholewinski, “Protecting Migrant Workers in a Globalized World,” Migration Policy Institute, March 1, 2005
- Catherine Ceniza Choy, Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003)
- Donna R. Gabaccia, Foreign Relations: American Immigration In Global Perspective (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012)
- Cindy Hahamovitch, No Man’s Land: Jamaican Guestworkers in America and the Global History of Deportable Labor (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011)
- Jim Hightower, “Immigrants Come Here Because Globalization Took Their Jobs Back There,” Alternet, February 6, 2008
- Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Doméstica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring In the Shadows of Affluence (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001)
- Madeline Y. Hsu, “Symbiotic Brain Drains” in The Good Immigrants: How the Yellow Peril Became the Model Minority (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015)
- Luka Klimaviciute, “To Stay or Not To Stay: The Calculus for International STEM Students in the United States,” Migration Policy Institute, January 4, 2017
- Ronald L. Mize and Alicia C.S. Swords, Consuming Mexican Labor: From the Bracero Program to NAFTA (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010)
- Margaret O’Mara, “The Uses of the Foreign Student” Social Science History, Vol. 36, No. 4 (Winter 2012): 583-615
- Vivek Wadhwa, AnnaLee Saxenian, Richard Freeman, and Alex Salkever, Losing the World’s Best and Brightest: America’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Part V (Kansas City: Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, 2009)
Primary Sources
- Thomas Friedman, “Invent, Invent, Invent,” New York Times June 27, 2009
- Sam Dillon, “US Slips in Attracting the World’s Best Students,” New York Times, December 21, 2004
- “Characteristics of H-1B Specialty Skilled Workers, Fiscal Year 2014 Annual Report to Congress,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, February 26, 2015
- Top Ten Immigration Myths and Facts, National Immigration Forum
- Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, Department of Homeland Security
- Guest Workers: New Solution, New Problems? Pew Research Center
- Industries of Unauthorized Immigrant Workers Pew Research Center