Immigration and Families
50:070:385:01
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays 11:15-12:10
Cooper Street 202
Professor Cati Coe
405-407 Cooper Street, Room 214
Office hours: Mondays, 1-3pm or by appointment
phone: (856) 225-6455
email: ccoe@camden.rutgers.edu
Course Description
How does migration affect families and family life, for both those who migrate and those who do not? We explore this question with a particular focus on new forms of immigration to the US since 1965, but we will draw on historical studies of immigration to help us make sense of what is currently going on. We will sometimes look at migration to other countries (such as those in the Persian Gulf) for the purposes of contrast.
Three books are available at the campus bookstore. The other readings are on electronic reserve at the library http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/lib_servs/course_reserves.shtml or are links off this syllabus webpage.
Michele Gamburd |
Patricia Pessar |
Nazli Kibria |
Course Schedule
January 23 Introduction
WHY DO PEOPLE MIGRATE?
January 25 The World Connected Economically
Portes, A., & Rumbaut, R. G. (1996). Introduction. In Immigrant America: A Portrait (pp. 1-27). Berkeley: University of California Press. [on reserve]
To do by Friday at the latest:
- Get a NetID if you don't already so that you can access library resources online and from home: http://oit.rutgers.edu/services/account/quick.html
- Update your email address if necessary at https://www.acs.rutgers.edu/studentdir. This is important for receiving course emails. Be sure to keep your registered email address current in order to receive important course information.
- Get a Student Photo ID (available from the Impact Booth in the Campus Center) if you don't have one.
- Go to the bookstore to get the books.
- Print out all the readings on reserve so that you have them for the whole semester.
- Review Rutgers's policy on academic integrity.
January 28 The World Connected Economically
1) Marx, K. (1953). Letter from Karl Marx to S. Meyer and A. Vogt, London, April 9, 1870. In Karl Marx and Frederick Engels on Britain (pp. 504-508). Moscow: Foreign Languages Press. [on reserve]
2) Lappe, F. M., & Collins, J. (1978). Why Can't People Feed Themselves? and Colonial Inheritance. In Food First: Beyond the Myth of Scarcity (pp. 99-117). New York: Ballantine Books. [on reserve]
Film: “Bitter Cane” (1983) by Jacques Arcelin (part 1)
January 30 The World Connected Politically
Sassen, S. (1998). America’s Immigrant ‘Problem.' In Globalization and its Discontents (pp. 31-53). New York: New Press. [on reserve]
Film: “Bitter Cane” (1983) by Jacques Arcelin (part 2)
February 1 The World Connected in the Imagination
Kincaid, J. (1991). On Seeing England for the First Time. Transition 51, 32-40. [on reserve]
February 4
No critical response paper required, but look through these resources online to help you figure out which group to study. Link to:
1) "The Foreign-Born Population: 2000" by the US Census, for top immigrant groups to the US
2) "Recent Trends in Immigration to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Who Came and Where do They Live?" by the Fels Institute (Spring 2004). This is a long report (73 pages) but scan through it to get ideas about which groups to study and where they might be located within Philadelphia. See particularly Figure 9, on page 17, showing the top 16 groups that immigrate to Philadelphia.
Due: Which group are you going to study?
Meet at the Robeson
Library to look at resources for research
February 6 Changes in the US Economy: The Informal Economy
1) Sassen, S. (1998). The Informal Economy: Between New Developments and Old Regulations. In Globalization and its Discontents (pp. 153-172). New York: New Press. [on reserve]
2)
Waldinger, R., & Lichter, M. I. (2003). Introduction. In How the Other Half Works (pp. 3-28). Berkeley: University of California Press. [on reserve]
Sign up for meeting with Professor Coe this week to discuss your migrant group.
February 8 Changes in the US Economy: Women and Work
1) Ehrenreich, B., & Hochschild, A. R. “Introduction” and
2) Hochschild, A. R. (2003). Love and Gold." In Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy (pp. 1-30). New York: Henry Holt and Company. [on reserve]
CASE STUDY: SRI LANKAN WOMEN IN THE GULF
February 11
Gamburd, M. (2000). The Kitchen Spoon’s Handle: Transnationalism and Sri Lankan Migrant Households. Cornell: Cornell University Press, pp. 1-47
Film: “When Mother Comes Home for Christmas” (1995) by Nilita Vachani (part 1)
February 13
Gamburd, The Kitchen Spoon’s Handle, pp. 48-98
Film: "When Mother Comes Home for Christmas" (1995) by Nilita Vachani (part 2)
February 15
Gamburd, The Kitchen Spoon’s Handle, pp. 99-150
Film: “When Mother Comes Home for Christmas ” (1995) by Nilita Vachani (part 3)
February 18
Gamburd, The Kitchen Spoon’s Handle, pp. 151-192
Bibliography due
February 20
Gamburd, The Kitchen Spoon’s Handle, pp. 193-232
HOW DOES IMMIGRATION LAW AND POLICY IN THE US AFFECT FAMILY LIFE?
February 22 Presentation of current immigration law and policy affecting families
Link to: Paral, R. (2005) "No Way In: US Immigration Policy Leaves Few Legal Options for Mexican Workers" American Immigration Law Foundation.
February 25
Kwong, P. (1997). Ineffectual Enforcement of Immigration and Labor Law. In Forbidden Workers: Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American Labor (pp. 161-184). New York: The New Press. [on reserve]
Class Resources: Immigration Law powerpoint
February 27
Bibler-Contin, S. (2000). Papeles, Permisos, and Permanence. In Legalizing Moves: Salvadoran Immigrants’ Struggles for US Residency (pp. 49-77). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. [on reserve]
HOW DO PEOPLE CREATE TRANSNATIONAL TIES?
February 29 Definition of Transnationalism
Foner, N. (2000). Transnational Ties. In From Ellis Island to JFK: New York’s Two Great Waves of Immigration (pp. 169-187). New Haven: Yale University Press. [on reserve]
March 3 Transnationalism Based on Family Metaphors
Glick Schiller, N., & Fouron, G. E. (2001). "The Blood Remains Haitian": Race, Nation, and Belonging in the Transmigrant Experience. In Georges Woke Up Laughing: Long-Distance Nationalism and the Search for Home (pp. 92-129). Durham: Duke University Press. [on reserve]
March 5 and March 7th Case Study: Dominican Families in New York City
No class as Professor Coe will be attending a workshop in Dakar, Senegal but read all of Pessar, P. R. (1996) A Visa for a Dream: Dominicans in the United States. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, pp. xi-xv, 1-92 and write a critical response paper about it.
March 10 Family Traditions formed through Migration: China
Glenn, E. N. (1983). Split Household, Small Producer and Dual Wage Earner: An Analysis of Chinese-American Family Strategies Journal of Marriage and the Family 45, 35-46. [on reserve]
March 12 Family Traditions formed through Migration: Ghana
Coe, C. (2007). The Structuring of Feeling in Ghanaian Transnational Families, manuscript, pp. 1-46. [on reserve]
March 14
1) Kutsche, P. (1998). Map of a Block,
2)
Danielkiewicz, H. (1998). A Changing Block in Standale and
3)
Hill, E. (1998) In the Cracks. In P. Kutsche (Ed.), Field Ethnography: A Manual for Doing Cultural Anthropology. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1998, pp. 14-26. [on reserve] (No critical response paper for these readings, but read them because they will be central to the neighborhood survey assignment)
Neighborhood Survey assignment given
Background paper due
SPRING RECESS
March 24 Political Activism Back Home
Glick Schiller, N., & Fouron, G. E. (2001). The Responsible State: Dialogues of a Transborder Citizenry. In Georges Woke Up Laughing: Long-Distance Nationalism and the Search for Home (pp. 178-207). Durham: Duke University Press. [on reserve]
Film: “The Sixth Section” (2003) by Alex Rivera
March 26 Political Activism in the US
Jones-Correa, M. (1998). Wanting In: Latin American Immigrant Women and the Turn to Electoral Politics. In Between Two Nations: The Political Predicament of Latinos in New York City (pp. 169-188). Ithaca: Cornell University Press. [on reserve]
Film: “Look Forward and Carry on the Past: Stories from Philadelphia’s Chinatown” (2001) by the Philadelphia Folklore Project (part 1)
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PEOPLE ARRIVE IN THE US?
March 28 The Second Generation
Stepick, A., & Stepick, C. D. (2003). Becoming American: Immigration, Identity, Intergenerational Relations and Academic Orientation. In N. Foner (Ed.), American Arrivals (pp. 129-161). Sante Fe: School of American Research. [on reserve]
March 31
Waters, M. C. (1999). Identities of the Second Generation. In Black Identities: West Indian Immigrant Dreams and American Realities (pp. 285-325). New York: Russell Sage Foundation. [on reserve]
April 2
1) Portes, A., & Schauffler, R. (1996). Language Acquisition and Loss among Children of Immigrants. In S. Pedraza and R. G. Rumbaut (Ed.), Origins and Destinies: Immigration, Race, & Ethnicity in America (pp. 432-443). Belmont: Wadsworth. [on reserve]
2) Link to: The Urban Institute (2006). "Children of Immigrants: Facts and Figures."
April 4 Segmented Assimilation
Waters, M. C. (1998). Segregated Neighborhoods and Schools. In Black Identities: West Indian Immigrant Dreams and American Realities (pp. 243-284). New York: Russell Sage Foundation. [on reserve]
Class Resources: Segregation powerpoint
April 7 Encountering the American racial system
1) Ignatiev, N. (1995). White Negroes and Smoked Irish. In How the Irish Became White (pp. 34-59). New York: London, 1995. [on reserve]
2) Laforest, M-H. (2001). Homelands. In E. Danticat (Ed.), The Butterfly’s Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States (pp. 23-30). New York: Soho. [on reserve]
Class Resources: How the Irish Became White powerpoint
April 9
Film: “Farmingville” (2004) by Carlos Sandoval and Catherine Tambini
April 11
Film: “Farmingville” (continued)
April 14
Media assignment given
Due: Neighborhood Survey
April 16
Ignatiev, N. (1995). From Protestant Ascendancy to White Republic. In How the Irish Became White (pp. 148-176). New York: London. [on reserve]
Class resources: How the Irish Became White, part 2 powerpoint
CASE STUDY: VIETNAMESE FAMILIES IN PHILADELPHIA
April 18
Kibria, N. (1995). Family Tightrope: The Changing Lives of Vietnamese Americans Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 1-37.
April 21
Kibria, Family Tightrope, pp. 38-72
April 23
Kibria, Family Tightrope, pp. 73-107
April 25
Kibria, Family Tightrope, pp. 108-143
April 28
Kibria, Family Tightrope, pp. 144-172
Film: “Welcome to America: Arts of Being Khmer in Philadelphia” by the Philadelphia Folklore Project
CULTURAL EXPRESSIONS OF IMMIGRANT TRADITION
April 30
Theophano, J. S. (1991). "I Gave Him a Cake": An Interpretation of Two Italian-American Weddings. In S. Stone and J. A. Cicala (Ed.), Creative Ethnicity (pp. 44-54). Logan: University of Utah Press. [on reserve]
Thursday, May 1, free period, Campus Center
Poster session for the Departments of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice and Psychology
May 2
Prashad, V. (2000). Of Authentic Cultural Lives. In The Karma of Brown Folk (pp. 103-132). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. [on reserve]
Film: “Look Forward and Carry on the Past: Stories from Philadelphia’s Chinatown” (2001) by the Philadelphia Folklore Project (part 2)
May 5
Media assignment due.
