LABR 614 - Labor and Immigration (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None
This course explores the dynamics of immigration to the U.S., past and present, with a particular focus on its implications for the labor movement. The course covers a range of topics that are vital to understanding the impact of immigration on labor, such as: the “push” and “pull” factors that shape migration flows; the characteristics of the distinctive waves of migration to the U.S. over the past two centuries; the varying skill levels and world views of immigrants from different parts of the world; the historical and contemporary tensions between immigrants and U.S.-born workers; the role of immigrant social networks in chain migration and in immigrant labor organizing; changing notions of citizenship and the emergence of “illegal” immigration; the changing gender composition of the immigrant workforce; changing employer policies toward immigrant labor; the development of the modern immigrant rights movement; and the politics of the current immigration reform debate. Students will explore the ways in which the labor movement has responded to immigration in the past and currently, and examine the conditions under which efforts to organize immigrant workers have been successful and those under which they have failed. The growth of worker centers as alternative models for immigrant organizing will also be examined.