Immigration Politics & Policy

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Immigration is an issue of increasing importance in the United States. Few issues have generated as much debate and emotion as the immigration policy. The goal of this course is to provide students with an overview of the critical normative and academic questions in political science regarding immigration in the U.S. What factors have affected contemporary and historical immigration policy in the United States? In particular how have economics, demographics, politics, religion, culture, environmental concerns, and ethnic and nationalist interests impacted the nature of immigration politics and policy? How have groups leveraged political influence for desired immigration policy outcomes? We will study the impact of worldwide immigration and population trends on the formulation of American policy. The emphasis will be on an academic understanding of how immigration policy has been affected by domestic and international demographic and political factors