LGLS 123B: IMMIGRATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS
T/Th 6:30-8:00
Brown 316
Spring 2014
Instructor: Doug Smith
Office: Brown 320 Office Hours:, 5-6, Fridays 11-12 or by arrangement
dlsmith@brandeis.edu
dsmith@tm.edu
ext. 61235
phone 781-593-2468 (h)
781-254-8056 (c)
Note: This syllabus is tentative and subject to change based on class
discussions in the first week. A final syllabus to follow, but students are advised
to bring their ideas and suggestions and critical efforts to the first week’s classes
Learning objectives: This course provides an introduction to immigration systems
and practices worldwide, the international treaties and institutions affecting migration
and the history of immigration policy and rhetoric in the United States. Participants will
also engage with current immigration controversies and proposals and develop critical
skills in assessing policy proposals and rhetoric. Through practical exercises and
projects in which students will learn advocacy skills applicable to many policy areas and
develop an understanding of how the interactions of institutions, roles, stories, rules,
norms and customs contribute to the creation of migration systems in the world today.
Materials:
Roger Daniels, Guarding the golden door (2004).
All other materials to be distributed through the course web site, including international
treaties and documents --such as the International Convention on the Treatment of
Refugees, the Protocol Concerning the Treatment of Refugees--United States statutes
and regulations implementing international obligations, reported cases, articles and
reports of the lived experience of migrants (see representative reading list below).
Methods: The course would be taught through a mix of lecture, discussion, student
presentations and participatory exercises. Participatory exercises could be organized
around a single, semester-long problem set incorporating materials for interviewing an
immigrant and retelling her story, presenting claims to a government agency, followed
by a hearing before an immigration judge, an appeal to a Board of Immigration Appeals,
and advocacy letter to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and a private bill
proposal to Congress or testimony on an immigration policy proposal.
Course Progression:
Unit One: Structures of Immigration
1. Migration in Global Perspective
Schattle, pp. 1- 26 (Handout)
Benhabib, The morality of migration (on Latte);
Portes, Immigration theory for a new century (on Latte);
Massey, Theories of migration (on Latte).
2. Types of Immigration Regimes
Daniels, pp. 3-58;
on Latte:
“Brief Overview of US Immigration Policy”

Burlingame Treaty

Chinese Exclusion Act

Emergency Quota Act of 1921

Immigration Act of 1924
3. United States Immigration History and Policies Part
Daniels, 57-112; 261-268

McCarren-Walter Act

Truman's Veto Statement on McCarren-Walter Act

1965 Immigration Act

Convention on Treatment of Refugees

1990 Immigration Act

DHS DACA Memo 2012
Student Presentations
Unit Two: Immigration In the United States Today: Discourse and Policies
4. The Rhetoric of Immigration and Human Rights.
Daniels, 113-144; 219-260
Schattle, 101-134 (Handout)
Schlag (on Latte)
Waston (on Latte)
5. Immigration Law and Policy in the U.S. Today, including aspects of family,
employment/economic, ethnic and humanitarian policies.
6. Economics of Immigration, including employment, crime, public assistance,
social security, and diversity issues.
On Latte:
Card
Borjas
Bacon
Unit Three: Case Study: Refugees and Humanitarian-Based Immigration Systems
7. Particular emphasis on humanitarian basis of immigration: asylum, Torture
Convention, Temporary Protected Status and other visa categories based in
human rights.
On Latte:
Schlag
Johnson






Senator Kennedy on History of Refugee Act
Jessica Gonzales (Lenahan) case Materials
Case Study: Italy’s black markets
Reading: Watts, Calavita (on Latte)
Case Study: Statutory bars to admissibility based on criminal conviction.
Immigration, crime and enforcement
Secure Communities and 287(g) programs
8. Particular controversies on the intersection of immigration and human rights, for
example, gender based asylum claims such as those based on domestic
violence.
Unit Exercise: mock hearing, immigration court trial, Board of Immigration Board
Appeals Brief (as a group project) or Advocacy letter to UNHCR.
Unit 4: Immigration Policy Debates and Directions for the Future
On Latte:
Tichenor
Trebilcock
9. Particular controversies on the intersection of immigration and human rights:
worker’s rights.
10. Backlash and social movements.
11. Current controversies and proposals for change in immigration policies.
12. Advocacy at the intersection of immigration and human rights: innovations and
assessment.
13. Student presentations.
Readings: TBA
Unit Exercise: or private bill to Congress.
Mock Congressional hearing.
Assessment: In addition to class participation, which will include two presentations and
several exercises, there will be two very short quizzes, one or two short papers arising
out of participation in class exercises and/or class presentation, and one longer
research paper with the possibility of transforming it into a group project depending on
student interest and subject-matter compatibility. A take home final examination would
assess learning through application of course themes.
Class Participation: 15%
Presentations/ class exercises: 10%
Quiz 1:
10%
Two short papers: 30%
One research paper and/or final exam: 35%(75%)
Representative Readings (Note as source for research ideas and optional readings)
Watson Bread and Roses: Mills, migrants and the struggle for the American dream
(2006) and Not fit for our society: Nativism and immigration (2010), and:
Card, D. 1990. "The Impact of the Mariel Boatlift on the Miami LaborMarket." Industrial & Labor Relations Review 43:245-257
Alba, R. and V. Nee. 1997. "Rethinking Assimilation Theory for a New
Era of Immigration." International Migration Review 31:826-874.
Allen, J. P. and E. Turner. 1996. "Spatial Patterns of Immigrant
Assimilation." Professional Geographer 48:140-155.
Turner. 1999. "The Latino Mortality Paradox: A Test of The "Salmon
Bias" And Healthy Migrant Hypotheses." American Journal of Public
Health 89:1543-48
George J. Borjas, Economic Theory and International Migration
International Migration Review, Vol. 23, No. 3, Special Silver Anniversary Issue:
International Migration an Assessment for the 90's. (Autumn, 1989), pp. 457-485.
Timothy Hatton and Jeffrey G. Williamson, Global Migration and the World Economy:
Two Centuries of Policy and Performance. Cambridge, MIT Press, 2005, pp. 51-62.
Borjas, George J. 1999. “Immigration and the Welfare State.” Pp. 105-26 in
Heaven’s Door: Immigration Policy and the American Economy. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
Espenshade, Thomas and Gregory A. Huber. 1999. “Fiscal Impacts of Immigrants
and the Shrinking Welfare State.” Pp. 360-370 in The Handbook of International
Migration edited by Charles Hirschman et al. New York, NY: Russell Sage
Foundation.
Singer, Audrey. 2004. “Welfare Reform and Immigrants: A Policy Review.” Pp.
21-34 in Immigrants, Welfare Reform, and the Poverty of Policy, edited by Philip
Kretsedemas and Ana Aparicio. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Nevins (2002) “The Ideological Roots of the ‘Illegal’: The ‘Other’ as Threat and the Rise
of the Boundary as the Symbol of Protection.” Chapter 5 in Operation Gatekeeper. New
York: Routledge.
Feagin (1997) “Old Poison in New Bottles: The Deep Roots of Modern Nativism.”
Chapter 2 in Immigrants Out!, edited by Juan F. Perea. New York: New York University
Press.
Chavez, L.R. (1997) “Immigration Reform and Nativism: The Nationalist Response to
the Transnationalist Challenge.”
Arizona v United States, No. 1-182 (Supreme Court 2012).
Chamber of Commerce v Whiting, 563 US ___ (2011).
Hoffman Plastic Compounds v NLRB, 535 US 137 (2002).
8 U.S.C. 1304.
International materials would include International Convention on the Treatment of
Refugees, the Protocol Concerning the Treatment of Refugees as well as the ICCPR,
some ILO documents and some of the UNHCR comments and some United States
statutes and regulations implementing international obligations. Matthew Price’s
Rethinking Asylum (2009).
Matthew Gibney, “Liberal Democratic States and Responsibilities to Refugees,”
American Political Science Review, 93: 169-181).
Irene Bloemraad, Becoming a Citizen: Incorporating Immigrants and Refugees in the
United States and Canada, Berkeley: UC Press, 2006, Chapters 1 & 3.
Zucker, Norman L. and Naomi Flink Zucker. 1992. “From Immigration to Refugee
Redefinition: A History of Refugee and Asylum Policy in the United States.”
Journal of Policy History 4(1): 54-70.
Suhrke, Astri and Aristide R. Zolberg. 1999. “Issues in Contemporary Refugee
Policies.” Pp. 143-180 in Migration and Refugee Policies: An Overview, edited by
Ann Bernstein and Myron Weiner. New York, NY: Pinter.
Barnett, Don. 2002. “The Coming Conflict Over Asylum: Does America Need a
New Asylum Policy?” Washington, DC: Center for Immigration Studies.
Zucker, Norman L. 1983. “Refugee Resettlement in the United States: Policy and
Problems.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
467:172-186.
Wright, Robert G. 1981. “Voluntary Agencies and the Resettlement of Refugees.”
International Migration Review 15(1/2): 157-174.
UNHCR Guidelines on International Protection of Gender Related Persecution within
the Context of the 1956 Convention and the 1967 Protocol Regarding the Status of
Refugees. UN Doc. HCR/GIP/02/08.
UNHCR Guidelines Regarding the Protection of Refugee Women, UN Doc. ES/SCP/67.
Declaration of the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
In Re R-A, 23 I & N Dec. 694 (2005).
Matter of Kasinga, (BIA 1996).
INS v Cardoza Consecu, 480 US 421 (1987).
INS v Aguirre-Aguirre, 526 US 415 (1992).
INS v Elias Zaccarius, 502 US 478 (1982).
Ministry of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs v Khesan, 76 ALRJ 667 (Australia
2002).
8 U.S.C. 1101.
Tichenor, Daniel J. 2002. “The Politics of Immigration Control: Understanding the
Rise and Fall of Policy Regimes.” Pp. 16-45 in Dividing Lines: The Politics of
Immigration Control in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, and:
Carens, Joseph H. 1998. “Aliens and Citizens: The Case for Open Borders.” Pp.
365-387 in The Immigration Reader: America in a Multidisciplinary Perspective,
edited by David Jacobson. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
Walzer, Michael. 1998. “Membership.” Pp. 341-364 in The Immigration Reader:
America in a Multidisciplinary Perspective.
Zolberg, "Matters of State: Theorizing Immigration Policy," in C. Hirschman, et. al., The
Handbook of International Migration, New York: Russell Sage, 2000;
Wayne Cornelius and Takeyuki Tsuda, “Controlling Immigration: The Limits of
Government Intervention,” in Cornelius, Tsuda, Martin, and Hollifield, eds., Controlling
Immigration: A Global Perspective, Stanford U Press, 2004: pp. 3-20
Mae Ngai, Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America,
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004, Chapters 1 & 7.
Miriam Feldblum, “Managing Migration: New Trends in Citizenship and Nationality
Policy,” Chapter 15 in Aleinikoff and Klusmeyer, eds. From Migrants to Citizens,
Washington: Carnegie Endowment: 2000.
William Rogers Brubaker (1989) “Membership Without Citizenship: The Economic and
Social Rights of Noncitizens” in William Rogers Brubaker ed. Immigration and the
Politics of Citizenship in Europe and North America (New York: University Press of
America) pp. 145-163.
Peter Andreas, Border Games, Cornell, 2000, chapters 1, 7.
Wayne A. Cornelius, Death at the Border: Efficacy and Unintended Consequences of
US Immigration Control Policy, Population and Development Review, Vol. 27, No. 4.
(Dec., 2001), pp. 661-685.
Audrey Singer; Douglas S. Massey The Social Process of Undocumented Border
Crossing among Mexican Migrants, International Migration Review, Vol. 32, No. 3.
(Autumn, 1998), pp. 561-592.
Ellermann, Antje. 2005. "Coercive Capacity and the Politics of Implementation:
Deportation in Germany and the United States" Comparative Political Studies, 38(10),
1219-1244
Dale, Michael D. (2006) “Pineros left without legal help.” in Smith, “Life Course,
Generation, and Social Location as Factors Shaping Second-Generation Transnational
Life.” Chapter 5
Kanstroom (1997) “Dangerous Undertones of the New Nativism: Peter Brimelow and
the Decline of the West.” Chapter 16 in Immigrants Out!
Massey et al. (2003) “Repair Manual: U.S. Immigration Policies for a New Century.” In
Beyond Smoke and Mirrors. Russell Sage Foundation.
Nevin, Joseph. (2002) “Conclusion: Searching for Security in an Age of Intensifying
Globalization.”Chapter 8 in Operation Gatekeeper. New York: Routledge.
Tichenor, Daniel J. 2002. “The Rebirth of American Immigration: The Rights
Revolution, New Restrictionism, and Policy Deadlock.” Pp. 219-241 in Dividing
Lines: The Politics of Immigration Control in America.
Skerry, Peter. 2004. “‘This Was Our Riot, Too’: The Political Assimilation of
Today’s Immigrants.” Pp. 221-232 in Reinventing the Melting Pot: The New
Immigrants and What It Means To Be American, edited by Tamar Jacoby. New
York, NY: Basic Books.
Cuddy, 2002. “Caught in the Backlash: Stories from Northern California.” Handout, also
Available online at http://www.aclunc.org/911/backlash.pdf
Important not for students with disabilities If you are a student with a documented disability on
record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this
class, please see me immediately.
Academic Integrity:
You are expected to be familiar with and to follow the University’s policies on academic integrity
(see http://www.brandeis.edu/studentlife/sdc/ai ). Faculty may refer any suspected instances of
alleged dishonesty to the Office of Student Development and Conduct. Instances of academic
dishonesty may result in sanctions including but not limited to, failing grades being issued,
educational programs, and other consequences.