HENA03626U English - Free topic: American Mosaic: Transnational Narratives and US Immigration Patterns

The United States of America has always been a nation of immigrants, a verity so repeatable and repeated that the statement has become a cliché. The American Dream and Creed are ideas that stem from immigrant hopes, experiences and transnational understandings. In the 21st Century there have been profound changes in immigration patterns and immigrant life which include paradoxes in the ways people migrate, are welcomed or incarcerated, assimilate or remain “foreign,” and reflect the transnational identities attendant to the physical and virtual border crossings of our era. This course seeks to make sense of the complex and controversial issues involved in making a national/transnational/global identity from a diverse group of humans. We will look at place and space and examine sociological political theories to see how host and sender countries together create a people who have been described by immigration scholar Alejandro Portes as an ever young, new, and “permanently unfinished” society. Each student will make a 10-minute PPT presentation on a relevant immigration issue.