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Worlds in Motion: Migration, Race and Gender
Central Connecticut State University
MW: 4:30-5:45 PM
Maria Sanford 103
Instructor: Fumilayo Showers, PhD
Office: Social Sciences Hall, 317-04
Email fshowers@ccsu.edu
Office Hours:
Tuesdays and Thursdays 3-4pm
Wednesdays 1-4pm and by appointment
Course Description
We live in a world constantly in motion. It is believed that the movement of people across borders is
at the heart contemporary world events, causing two noted scholars of migration to describe this
moment in history as “the age of migration.” Migration has therefore received a lot of scholarly
attention in recent years. This increased interest has led scholars of gender and feminists to argue
that gender should be at the heart of all investigations into migration. Transnational feminists and
critical race theorists have also advised that we pay close attention to the intersections of race, class,
gender, sexual orientation, national origins and citizenship in all matters dealing with migration.
This course will take you on a journey in which you will encounter various aspects of the migration
experience. Some of the topics that we will discuss include labor migration, especially women
migrating as nannies, nurses, domestic workers and sex workers. We will also deal with issues such
as human trafficking, mail order brides and sex tourism. We will address questions that have been
raised by scholars of migration, with a particular emphasis on race and gender as analytical tools to
understand the experiences of migrants. Some of the questions that will be asked in this course are:
What are the contemporary factors that allow for increased migration across borders? What role does
gender play in the decision-making migration process? What is the gendered and racial composition
of migration flows? How is gender reconstituted after migration? What role does the race, class and
gender location of migrants play in terms of their successful integration in host societies?
We will begin this course with a discussion of theories of migration, and then we will foreground
factors relating to the global political economy, work, culture and identity. Although most of our
case studies will be drawn from the immigrant experience in the United States, we will reference
other nations and regions as well.
Course Objectives
This course aims for students to:
1. Understand a myriad of concepts and theories that pertain to the study of international migration
2. Attain a critical understanding of how structural, cultural, historical and political contexts affect
contemporary migration flows
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3. Come to an understanding of the ways in which race, gender and social class, affect the
integration experiences of contemporary immigrants
4. Understand international migration from the lens of the global political economy and unequal
and uneven development between countries in the global north and their counterparts in the
global south
5. Strengthen analytical and critical thinking skills in order evaluate different intellectual positions
and debates in a rigorous way
6. Strengthen writing skills and gain the ability to make and substantiate academic claims
convincingly
Required Texts
1. Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Hochschild. Global Woman: Nannies, Maids &
Sex Workers in the New Economy
2. Articles Posted on Blackboard and denoted by BB on the syllabus
*Please print out Blackboard articles and bring to all class meetings.
Blackboard
For students currently enrolled in the course, Blackboard is where you will find all your information
about the course. Your syllabus, grades, readings and handouts will be posted on blackboard:
https://learn-ccsu.ct.edu/webapps/login/.
Please check your email and the blackboard page for this class frequently, as I will use them to
communicate with you regarding this course. Email is the best way to contact me. Please send me an
email if you need assistance or if you are having any difficulties in this course. I will reply to email
within 24hrs. Also, please stop by during my office hours to discuss your progress in the class.
Class Attendance
Attendance is required at all lectures. Attending a class means staying the whole period unless you
explicitly request to leave early or come late for some legitimate reason. If you are unable to attend class
for a legitimate reason discuss with the Instructor in advance of your absence. I will grant Excused
Absences for any legitimate and documented reason, such as bereavement, illness with doctor’s note,
job interview etc. If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to get the material for that day.
Absence Policy
You are allowed up to TWO Unexcused Absences. You will lose 1/3rd of a letter grade for any absence
after the prescribed TWO.
Lateness Policy
I expect you to attend class on time. If you are more than 10 minutes late for a class, I will mark you as
absent for that day. Excessive lateness will be factored into your participation grade.
Class Participation
This is a seminar class and requires enthusiastic participation. I expect that you should come to class
after completing all required readings Before class. Be prepared to discuss your thoughts, questions and
observations about the readings.
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Part of your class participation grade includes completing Reflection Assignments in response to the
articles assigned for the week. This is to ensure the quality of discussion and to evaluate preparedness
for class. I will assign reflection questions or writing prompts that will ask you to engage closely with
the readings. I will announce these reflection assignments and due dates in class.
Papers, Exams, Presentations, Other Requirements:
Mid-term Take-Home Exam
You will write a take-home mid-term exam in response to questions about the racialized and gendered
aspects of contemporary migration. The completed exam should be 3-4 pages in length. Times New
Roman, 12 point font, 1inch margins. The completed mid-term exam is due on Monday October 14th
Discussion Leader + Migration Story
In this advanced level sociology course, one of my goals is to simulate the atmosphere and expectations
of a seminar in graduate school or a professional conference. To achieve this goal, I intend that each
seminar participant lead class discussion during ONE class section for about 40-45 minutes of class. In
this discussion leader experience:
First, Summarize the 1) main research objectives/ questions/ goals/ 2) Methodologies
3)Findings/Conclusions for each article assigned for the day. By the end of this summary, the class
should have a good sense of what the article is about (Approach this as if you are presenting a summary
to someone who has not read the article)
Next, provide an informed critique of each article – (discuss specifics in each article). State the points
with which you agree or points with which you disagreed. You should list at list TWO points. You can
also pose questions that you have for class discussion or raise any points that you will need clarification
on. Note the similarities (if any) between the articles assigned for the week.
Finally, you should engage the class with a “migration story” – a real life case-study tied to the subject
dealt with in your articles. This migration story should be drawn from news articles; news events, film
clips or other media (please choose a reliable news or media source). It should tie in to the general topic
of your discussion. You are welcome to bring in a news story, share a web page, or show a video clip
that addresses this issue. In your presentation summarize the particular issue. Where did you find this
topic? How was this issue presented in the particular news source? What was the tone of the article or
news report? Were the presenters, critical/sympathetic/supportive of the issue? Discuss the media source
and then finally discuss how your particular topic relates to the readings that you have discussed.
While, this is not a class on current events, I urge you to follow current events as you will find issues
dealing with migration that are pertinent to class discussions.
You will have the opportunity to sign up for your discussion leader experience during the first two
weeks of class.
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Analytical Memos
In this class you will complete a total of four short writing assignments or Reflection Memos. Your task
in these memos is to pick TWO articles from the readings assigned for the weeks prior to the memo’s
due date. After the first memo, you should only use articles assigned SINCE the previous memo. For
these memos, you should:
1. Provide an introductory paragraph that provides an overview of the memo. State which TWO
articles you will be discussing and briefly state what motivated your choice of the two articles.
2. Next you should summarize the central points/arguments made in each article What concepts did
you find particularly insightful? How did those particular concepts help your understanding of
the topic of migration? Relate the topic to the general themes that we have discussed in class.
3. Finally in your conclusion, list at least one connecting thread that you could find between the
two articles discussed.
4. As the memo is short, please do not quote. Paraphrase the authors’ main points.
5. The memos should be 2 pages in length. 12 Times New Roman Font and 1 inch margins and
double spaced.
6. The memos will be graded out of 10 with a score of 10 reserved for exceptional ones.
7. You will lose 1 of the 10 points for each calendar date late
8. Memos will not be accepted by email.
9. You cannot write a memo for the articles you read for your discussion leader experience.
Take Home-Final Exam
The culmination of your work in this class will be in the form of a take home exam, where you will
expand on a specific issue/ or specific immigrant community dealt with in class. Exam should be 4-5
pages in length, Times New Roman, 12 point font, with 1inch margins. Your final is due on Monday
December 16h by 5pm.
GRADING:
Class Attendance
Class Participation
Take Home Mid-Term Exam
Discussion Leader + Migration Case Study
Reflection Memos (4 @5 % each)
Take Home Final Exam
-----TOTAL
10%
10%
20%
20%
20%
20%
100 %
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Grades will be calculated on the following Scale:
Grading:
A = 93-100
C+ = 77-79
A- = 90-92
C = 73-76
B+ = 87-89
C- = 70-72
B = 83-86
D+ = 67-69
B- = 80-82
D = 60-66
Below 60 = F
All grades on all assignments are final. Unless there has been a mistake in calculating the grade, please
do not ask to have the grade changed. I also do not give extra credit to raise a final course grade at the
end of the semester. If there are extraordinary circumstances that affect your ability to do the course
work, please see me.
Academic Integrity
“At Central Connecticut State University we value personal integrity as fundamental to our interactions
with each other. We believe that one of the purposes of a University education is for students learn to
think critically, to develop evaluative skills, and to express their own opinions and voices. We place
special weight on academic honesty in all of our intellectual pursuits because it is a value that is
fundamental to academic life and scholarly practice. All members of the University community are
obligated to uphold high standards of academic honesty in their scholarship and learning. Therefore, we
expect students to take personal responsibility for their intellectual work and to respect and acknowledge
the ideas of others. Academic honesty means doing one's own work and giving proper credit to others
whose work and thought one may draw upon. It is the responsibility of each student to become familiar
with what constitutes academic dishonesty and plagiarism and to avoid all forms of cheating and
plagiarism.” This course will be conducted according to the College's policies on academic dishonesty.
The complete policy can be found at:
http://web.ccsu.edu/academicintegrity/UndergradAcadMisconductPolicy.htm
Special Needs
If there is any student in this class who requires accommodations in the classroom, assistance with
course work outside the classroom, or special test taking procedures, please notify me in cooperation
with the Office of Student Disability Services (SDS). For more information about the Office of Student
Disability Services and the resources that they provide, see their webpage.
http://www.ccsu.edu/page.cfm?p=3639
Topics and Readings
We will adhere to the following schedule. Reading assignments are due on the day noted.
**The Instructor reserves the right to make amendments to this syllabus.
Week 1:
Weds Aug 28th
Class Introduction, Getting to know each other.
Homework: Review Syllabus and Class requirements
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Week 2: Classical Theories of Migration
This week we will discuss the classical theories of international migration. We will answer the question,
why do people move? We will critique the male-centeredness of immigration theories.
Mon Sept 2
Labor Day (No classes)
Weds Sept 4
Stephen Castles and Mark J. Miller Chapter 2 The Age of Migration BB
Homework: Make a note of terms/concepts from this chapter that are
unclear and for which you will need clarification
Week 3: Gendering International Migration Models
We will discuss attempts to write women in to existing theories of migration. We will also analyze some
scholarship that argues that gender should be understood as a core organizing principle for
understanding migration. We will come to an understanding of conceptualizations of gender in
migration theory. We will also begin to look at the methodological questions that arise when gender is
taking into account in migration. How should ethnographers and other researchers study gender in
migration?
Mon Sept 9
“Engendering Migration Studies: The Case of New Immigrants in the United
States” Patricia Pessar BB
“Women and Migration: Incorporating Gender into International Migration
Theory” Monica Boyd and Elizabeth Grieco” (Link to this article to be emailed
to class)
Weds Sept 11
“Queer Sexualities: Sexuality and Gender in Migration Studies” Martin
Manalasan BB
Week 4: Race and Migration – Racial Minorities in Receiving Countries
This week we will address the issue of race and its nexus with migration studies. What role does race
play in contemporary migration flows? What happens within receiving countries when people of
different racial and ethnic identities migrate and settle in their communities. We will briefly look at the
migration policies of select States in Western Europe. We will also look at immigration policy in the
United States? How did these countries deal with the issue of race in the crafting of immigration policy?
Mon Sept 16
Stephen Castles and Mark J. Miller Chapter 11 – The Age of Migration pp,245252; 263-274 BB
Saskia Sassen “America’s Immigration Problem” in Globalization and its
Discontents, (31-53) BB
Weds Sept 18
Film: The New Americans
Analytical Memo 1 Due
Week 5: Feminization of Migration
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Scholars of migration have noted the increasing presence of women in international migration flows,
leading some to talk about a “feminization of migration.” What accounts for the increased migration of
women? What are the gendered dynamics of migration? What is happening at the level of the global
economy to allow for this? We will begin to think about how women are shaping and redefining
contemporary migration. We will begin to pay particular attention to women of color immigrants in the
global economy
Mon Sept 23rd
“Notes on the Incorporation of Third World Women into Wage through
Immigration and Offshore Production.” Saskia Sassen BB
“Global Cities & Survival Circuits” Saskia Sassen Global Woman, pp 254
Weds Sept 25th
“Introduction” Global Woman, pp 1
Week 6: Immigrants in the Global Labor Market
We will continue to look at immigrants in the global labor market, holding on to our gendered lens, and
also keeping race in view. What are the racialized and gendered ideologies at play in the global labor
market that makes certain people from certain regions of the world ideal to fill specific shortages in the
global labor market? We will examine social inequality embedded in economic and political structures.
Mon Sept 30th
Film Maquilapolis
Weds Oct 2nd
“Just Another Job”: The Commodification of Domestic Labor” Global Woman,
pp. 104
Terry Repak “Labor Recruitment and the Lure of the Capital: Central American
Migrants in Washington D.C” BB
Week 7: Immigrant Domestic and Other Care Workers and the Creation of Transnational
Families
We will look at a specific field of study- child care work and we will analyze some of the feminist
theorizing around this field. What happens when women from countries in the Global South leave their
home countries to take care of the childcare responsibility of more class-privileged women in wealthier
countries of the Global North? What happens to the children they leave behind? What about the women
in wealthy nations like the United States, who lease their child care responsibilities to others? What are
the relationships that bind these women together? What is happening at the level of the global economy
that allows for all of this to happen? We will address these questions by drawing from case studies from
Asia and Latin America.
Mon Oct 7th
“Love and Gold” Global Woman pp15.
“The Care Crisis in the Philippines: Children and Transnational Families” Global
Woman pp.39
Weds Oct 9th
Film: “The Learning”
Analytical Memo 2 Due
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Week 8: Immigrants Cleaning and Caring in a Globalized World
We will continue this look at immigrants who provide caring labor. This time we will focus our attention
on healthcare workers, in particular lesser skilled nursing aides and home health aides. We will also look
at other types of work that do not involve personal care. We will focus on maids and janitorial workers.
Mon Oct 14th
Take-Home Mid Term Due
“Maid to Order” Global Woman pp. 85
“America’s Dirty Work: Migrant Maids and Modern-Day Slavery” Global
Woman pp142
Weds Oct 16th
JoAnn McGregor “Joining the BBC (British Bottom Cleaners): Zimbabwean
Migrants and the UK Care Industry.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies,
33:5, 801-824 BB
Week 9: Selling Sex in the Global Economy
This week we look at yet another sector of the global labor market. We will turn our analytical gaze on
the global sex industry. This industry, which involves, pornography, prostitution, sex tourism, mailorder brides etc. has a devastating impact upon women, girls and young boys. We will discuss various
sex economies, the role of governments in sanctioning sex industries and activism around this issue.
Mon Oct 21st
“Because she looks like a child” Global Woman, pp. 207
“Dancing Across Borders: ‘Exotic Dancers’ Trafficking and Canadian
Immigration Policy” BB
Weds Oct 23rd
“Selling Sex for Visas: Sex Tourism as a Stepping Stone to International
Migration” Global Woman,pp.154
“Transgender Sex Workers and Sexual Transmigration between Guadalajara and
San Francisco” Cymene Howe, Susanna Zaraysky and Lois Lorenrzen” BB
Week 10: Gender Identity in the New Destinations
We now shift our focus on the receiving nations and look at gender identities when migrants have
reached their destination. How are gender relations reconstituted upon migration? Is migration
inherently freeing for women? How does patriarchy which gives men more opportunity and access than
women work in the new space? What is the effect of women’s waged labor on gender relations? And
what happens when women earn more than their husbands?
Mon Oct 28thth
“Film on Sex Tourism or Human Trafficking TBD
Weds Nov Oct 30th
“Breadwinner No More” Global Woman...pp.190
Clashing Dreams: Highly Educated Overseas Brides and Low-Wage U.S
Husbands in Global Woman pp.230
Analytical Memo 3 Due
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Week 11: Race, Identity and Assimilation in New Destinations
In the next couple of weeks, we will look at the issue of race in the new destinations in a comparative
perspective. We start by focusing on the United States as we look at Black immigrants and their
children. How do they fare upon migration? Do they assimilate into mainstream US society? Does racial
discrimination affect their outcomes in the United States? How do the experiences of Black immigrants
to the United States challenge current assimilation theories? We then shift our attention to race relations
in Western Europe and compare and contrast the situation in both cases.
Mon Nov 4thth
Alba and Nee “Rethinking Assimilation Theory for a New Era of
Immigration” BB
Weds Nov 6th
Shelly Habecker “Not Black but Habasha: Ethiopian and Eritrean
Immigrants in American Society” BB
Fumilayo Showers “Professional Identities, Boundary Work and Meaning
Making Among West African Immigrant Nurses” BB
Week 12:
Second Generation and Assimilation Paradigm
Following our discussion of Assimilation theory, and the experiences of Black immigrants in the United
States, we now look at racial identities among the second-generation (children born to immigrant
parents). What does assimilation look like for the second generation? Do they assimilate into the
mainstream society or do they become part of an underclass of U-S born racial minorities? What
determines success for the children of Black immigrants? What kinds of identities do they develop? We
look at the second generation in the United States and in France.
Mon Nov 11th
Alba Richard “Bright vs. Blurred Boundaries: Second-generation assimilation and
exclusion in France, Germany and the United States. BB
Weds Nov 14th
Mary Waters “Ethnic and Racial Identities of Second Generation Black Immigrants
in New York City BB
Oluwakemi Balogun “No Necessary Tradeoff: Context, Life course, and Social
Networks in the Identity Formation of Second-Generation in the U.S.A” BB
Week 13: Second Generation and Assimilation Paradigm
Mon Nov 18th
Film: “Bronx Princess”
Weds Nov 20th
“Citizenship and Immigration: Multiculturalism Assimilation and Challenges to
the Nation- State. Bloemraad, Irene, Anna Kortewes and Grocke Yandakul BB
Week 14: Second Generation Cont’d
Mon Nov 25th
Film “Young Muslim and French” and discussion of U.S and French assimilation
models
Thanksgiving Recess Nov 27th – Dec 1st
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Week 15: Transnational Lives
What happens after people migrate? Do they cut all ties to their homelands or do they maintain linkages
along the way? How does globalization allow for contemporary migrants to lead transnational lives?
What is immigrant transnationalism? What happens to citizenship when immigrants are able to maintain
ties to their home countries and multiple allegiances in this globalized world? We will address these
questions focusing on theories of immigrant transnationalism and scholars who have debated the issues
of citizenship in today’s age of migration
Readings:
Mon Dec 1st
“Transnational Migration: Taking Stock and Future Directions.” Peggy Levitt BB
African <> Europe: A double engagement. Grillo, R. and V. Mazzucato BB
Weds Dec 4th
“Transnational Migration Studies: Past Developments and Future Trends”, Levitt,
Peggy and Nadya Jaworsky BB
Week 16:
Mon Dec 9th Last Day of Class
Analytical Memo 4 Due
Take Home final due Monday December 16th by 5pm