Immigrants and Immigration in America*
Professor Karen A. Woodrow-Lafield
Fall 2001 (Mississippi State University)
SOCIOLOGY 8990: SPECIAL TOPICS IN SOCIOLOGY
Meets on Mondays from 2:00 to 4:50 pm in Bowen 224
Email: Woodrow_Lafield@Soc.MsState.Edu (currently WoodrowLafield@cs.com)
Home page: http://www2.msstate.edu/~karen/ (currently http://home.comcast.net/~karenwoodrowlafield )
This graduate seminar is designed as an overview to trends and patterns in immigration to and immigrants in America, major impacts for geographic areas, key theoretical works, central research topics, and recent empirical and policy studies. To fully understand immigration in the U.S. context, understanding migration in the world context is necessary. To adequately address sociological research on immigrants and immigration, sociologists may draw from other social sciences, such as anthropology, economics, and political science. To accurately study American society in the 21st century, a keen awareness of the role of immigration in changing America along lines of race and ethnicity and subgroup differences in relating to social institutions is necessary in light of the growing share of Americans of foreign-birth or ancestry.
Isbister, John. 1996. The Immigration Debate. West Hartford: Kumarian Press. (Required) (ISBN 1-56549-054-1) (pbk)
Massey, Douglas, Rafael Alarcon, Jorge Durand, and Humberto Gonzalez. 1987. Return to Aztlan: The Social Process of International Migration from Western Mexico. Berkeley: University of California Press. (Required) (ISBN 0-520-06970-6) (pbk)
Foner, Nancy. 2000. From Ellis Island to JFK. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. (Required) (ISBN 0-300-08226-6) (hbk)
Portes, Alejandro and Ruben Rumbaut. 1996. Immigrant America. Berkeley: University of California Press. (Required) (ISBN ) (pbk)
Reitz, Jeffrey G. 1998. Warmth of the Welcome: The Social Causes of Economic Success for Immigrants in Different Naions and Cities. Boulder: Westview Press. (Required) (ISBN 0-8133-6802-2) (pbk)
Waldinger, Roger and Mehdi Bozorgmehr (eds.). 1996. Ethnic Los Angeles. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. (Required) (ISBN 0-87154-901-5) (hbk)
Portes, Alejandro (ed.). 1995. The Economic Sociology of Immigration. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. (Required) (ISBN 0-87154-682-5) (hbk)
Hirschman, Charles, Philip Kasinitz, and Josh DeWind (eds.). 1999. The Handbook of International Migration. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. (Required) (ISBN 0-87154-244-7) (hbk)
Massey, Douglas S., Joaquin Arango, Graeme Hugo, Ali Kouaouci, Adela Pellegrino, and J. Edward Taylor. 1998. Worlds in Motion: Understanding International Migration at the End of the Millennium,” Oxford: Clarendon University Press. (Required) (ISBN 0-19-829442-5) (hbk)
Course requirements:
This course is a seminar and students are expected to contribute to intensive discussions of readings and issues (20 percent of grade). Based on assigned readings, I will require everyone to prepare a question and an associated paragraph to make available to other class members in discussion of that question (10 percent of grade). Several textbooks are assigned for the course, and I may suggest additional readings that students may wish to pursue. The literature on immigrants and immigration is expanding by huge proportions.
A major requirement is a research paper, approximately 15-20 pages in length, to be submitted by December 3, 2001 (50 percent of grade). You should consult with me by September 30 about the topic for this written work. Oral presentations of individual research endeavors will be held on November 19, 2001 (20 percent of grade).
Schedule of Seminars for Special Topics in Sociology, SO 8990, Immigrants in America
The regular day and time for the seminar is Mondays from 2 pm to 4:50 pm.
August 20-24, 2001
No class on August 20 due to the American Sociological Association meeting in Anaheim, California. An alternative session will be scheduled later.
August 27-31, 2001
September 3-7, 2001
September 3 is the Labor Day holiday.
September 10-14, 2001—Regular class
September 17-21, 2001—Regular class
September 24-28, 2001
Class will meet at the alternate day and time (Friday, September 28, 9:00 am). Professor Woodrow-Lafield is an invited external participant in a Census Bureau review of methods for estimating international migration.
October 1-5, 2001—Regular class
October 8-12, 2001—Regular class
October 15-19, 2001
Class will meet either from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm on this date or at the alternate day and time (Friday, October 19, 9:00 am).
October 22-26, 2001—Regular class
October 29-November 2, 2001
Starting time for class to be delayed until 4:00 pm and conclusion at 7:00 pm.
November 5-9, 2001—Regular class
November 12-16, 2001
Subject to everyone’s agreement, class will meet on Monday and at the alternate day and time (Friday, November 16, 9:00 am).
November 19-23, 2001—Regular class
November 26-30, 2001—Regular class
December 3-7, 2001—Regular class
Tentative Order of Readings for Discussion
I. Overview of recent trends in immigration to the U.S., and the debate on immigrant assimilation, impacts of immigration, and immigration policies.
Isbister, John. 1996. The Immigration Debate.
II. Massey, Douglas, Rafael Alarcon, Jorge Durand, and Humberto Gonzalez. 1987. Return to Aztlan: The Social Process of International Migration from Western Mexico.
Massey, Douglas S., Joaquin Arango, Graeme Hugo, Ali Kouaouci, Adela Pellegrino, and J. Edward Taylor. 1998. Chapter 1.
Controlling Immigration: A Global Perspective. 1994. Wayne A. Cornelius, Philip L. Martin, and James F. Hollifield (eds.). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Massey, Douglas. 1998. “March of Folly: U.S. Immigration Policy After NAFTA,” The American Prospect no. 37 (March-April).
U.S. Immigration Policy: Restoring Credibility, 1994. U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform.
III. Recent immigrant experience in the United States.
Portes, Alejandro and Ruben Rumbaut. 1996. Immigrant America.
Hirschman, Charles, Philip Kasinitz, and Josh DeWind (eds.). 1999. The Handbook of International Migration. Chapters 1-6.
IV. Immigrant experiences – Restoring New York City, Changing Los Angeles, and Cross-Nationally.
Foner, Nancy. 2000. From Ellis Island to JFK.
Waldinger, Roger and Mehdi Bozorgmehr (eds.). 1996. Ethnic Los Angeles.
Reitz, Jeffrey G. 1998. Warmth of the Welcome: The Social Causes of Economic Success for Immigrants in Different Nations and Cities.
V. Immigrant Adaptation, Assimilation, and Incorporation--Economic and Demographic Effects of Immigration
Hirschman, Charles, Philip Kasinitz, and Josh DeWind (eds.). 1999. The Handbook of International Migration. Chapters 7-14.
The New Americans: Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration. National Academy Press.
The Immigration Debate. National Academy Press.
Portes, Alejandro (ed.). 1995. The Economic Sociology of Immigration.
VI. American Responses to Immigration
Hirschman, Charles, Philip Kasinitz, and Josh DeWind (eds.). 1999. The Handbook of International Migration. Chapters 15-24.
VII. Toward Greater Understanding of Migration Dynamics
Massey, Douglas S., Joaquin Arango, Graeme Hugo, Ali Kouaouci, Adela Pellegrino, and J. Edward Taylor. 1998. Worlds in Motion: Understanding International Migration at the End of the Millennium.
Selected Internet Resources:
http://www.ins.usdoj.gov U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service: 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999 editions of the Statistical Yearbook of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, The Triennial Comprehensive Report on Immigration (May 1999), definitions, factsheets, more statistics, and other information.
http://travel.state.gov/visa_services/html#iv U.S. Department of State, The Bureau of Consular Affairs, Visa Services, including information about visas for foreign citizens to come to the United States, Visa Bulletins, and results of Diversity Visa Lottery 2002.
http://www.census.gov U.S. Census Bureau, including tabulations by nativity and characteristics of the foreign-born population from March Current Population Surveys in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000 (with a PowerPoint presentation for March 2000 populations), foreign-born population characteristics from various 1990 and 2000 Census reports, and historical statistics on the foreign-born population
http://www.usgao.gov The U.S. General Accounting Office has produced several reports related to migration and immigration statistics.
http://www.utexas.edu/lbj/uscir/binpapers The Mexico-United States Binational Migration Study, including three volumes of thematic chapters and background papers by U.S. and Mexican migration researchers.
http://www.ameristat.org the AmeriStat website, under direction of William Frey, including data summaries in graphics and text on the demographic characteristics of the U.S. population.
http://lexis.pop.upenn.edu/mexmig The Mexican Migration Project website, under direction of Jorge Durand and Douglas S. Massey, including full documentation of studies of 38 separate Mexican communities since 1982 and supplemental surveys of out-migrants in the United States.
http://www.cis.org Center for Immigration Studies, Washington, D.C.
http://www.cms.org Center for Migration Studies, New York