ILRLR 3020 - Strangers and Citizens: Immigration and Labor in U.S. History

Spring. 3 credits. Letter grades only.

I. DeVault.

Explores immigrant workers’ experiences in the 19th and 20th centuries from different perspectives. Students examine what it meant to the immigrants themselves to arrive as strangers in the United States and the ways in which preexisting American groups defined these immigrants as “strangers.” Similarly, students look at U.S. citizens in their roles as greeters of immigrants, detractors of immigrants, and as models for the aspirations of immigrants. The main examples are taken from the industrial and union realms.