Aliens and Undesirables: The Making of American Immigrants

3 units

What makes the right kind of immigrant? This question has been on the minds of Americans for generations, yet we still are often left without an answer. This course explores that question by proposing another set of questions: what is an immigrant? How are certain people included or excluded from this category?, and why is immigration still a concern in the 21st century? We will explore these questions by examining cultural materials such as film, music, photographs, and ephemera alongside the social, legal, and political discourses which framed immigration throughout the long 20th century. We will learn about refugees from Europe, migrants from Latin America, and those deemed undesirable from around the world as they travelled to our own fine city of Saint Louis. Starting in the late 19th century this course will untangle the legislative, cultural, and political actions that impact the discussions around immigration and migration today. A large component of the course will explore the cultural productions which overlapped with the social and political discourses and ensured the longevity and spread of those ideas far beyond the homes and halls of the powerful and into the streets and theaters of the nation. Examining the cultural artifacts that individuals and groups produced for the public allows us to practice historical thinking, material cultural analysis, and draw connections between different time periods and emergent concerns. Throughout the course students will have the opportunity to examine primary source material alongside selected texts which explore the various immigration issues related to concerns around mobility including race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and progressive and liberal politics. In the end students will walk away from this course with an understanding of the historical forces which have shaped American immigration from the calls of Benjamin Franklin to exclude Germans to the cries of Build the Wall in the 21st century.