GLBL 010. Global Migration: A Critical Survey

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 million international migrants, and 123 million forcibly displaced individuals (WHO, 2022). This course offers a panoramic survey of seminal literature on the causes and consequences of migration from the perspective of both receiving and 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 migration transforms receiving and sending societies economically, culturally, and politically, and how citizens and states respond to migrants and refugees.

In examining these questions, we will draw from a wide range of source materials, including cutting-edge scholarship in history, political science, economics, and sociology, as well as podcasts and film. We will cover the full richness of migration across world, engaging with case studies from the United States, Latin America, Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, 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 understand the multicausal nature of migration, and to appreciate the connections between migration and contemporary debates on globalization, identity politics, economic development, and democratic citizenship.
Social Sciences.
1 credit.
Catalog chapter: Global Studies
Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/global-studies

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