GLBL 016. Migration in a Globalized World

Migration is one of the most contentious issues of our time. Today, there are over 1 billion migrants globally, representing about 1 in 8 people on the planet. This includes over 763 million internal migrants, 304 international migrants, and 120 million forcibly displaced individuals. This course will consider the causes and consequences of these movements from the perspective of both receiving as well as sending societies. In doing so, we will strive to understand how migration both shapes and is shaped by a complex interplay of institutional, political, economic and cultural factors. Specifically, we will examine how migrants have been conceptualized and portrayed in existing academic and media discourse, why people move and what informs these decisions, how immigration transforms receiving societies economically, culturally, and politically, how states and societies respond to immigration, and what the economic and political consequences of emigration are for places of origin. We will cover the full richness of migration across the world, engaging with case studies from the United States, Latin America, Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Our examination of migration will span various scales, from the macro-level of nation-states to the micro-scale of communities, households, and the individual. The primary goal of this course is for students to develop an in-depth understanding of the multicausal nature of migration and to appreciate the connections between migration and contemporary debates on globalization, identities, economic development, and democracy.
1 credit.
Eligible for ESCH
Fall 2025. Dhar
Spring 2026. Dhar
Fall 2026. Dhar
Catalog chapter: Global Studies
Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/global-studies

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