AMERICAN ROOTS:
IMMIGRATION, RACIALIZATION AND ETHNIC IDENTITY
CES 304/HISTORY 314
Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:35am-11:50am
Office Hours, T TH 12-1pm
Professor José M. Alamillo
Wilson Hall 120
(509) 335-4793
alamillo@wsu.edu
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course provides a historical understanding of immigration, migration, racialization, and ethnic identity in the United States from 1882 to the present. The first part examines the exclusion and restriction eras of U.S. immigration from 1882 to WWII. We will consider how domestic race relations, scientific and popular notions of race, and fears of immigrants played a crucial role in the decision to admit, examine, deny, deport and naturalize certain immigrant groups. Using the case study of Chicago, we will explore how Italian immigrants came to understand themselves as “white” because of their structural location in the multiracial city. Then we will examine the Filipino immigrant experience in the American West focusing on role of U.S. imperialism, anti-miscegenation laws, alien land laws and repatriation and nativist campaigns. The second part examines how World War II forced the United States to reconsider its discriminatory immigration and refugee policies. Motivated by cold war politics, wartime refugees, civil rights movement, and promotion of democracy over totalitarian regimes, the United States eliminated the national origins quotas under the 1965 Immigration Act. In the post 1965 era we will focus on the largest immigrant groups coming from Asian and Latin America and consider how this change in immigrant composition has resulted in racial tension in Miami, Florida in particular and American society in general. Throughout the course we will read student accounts on their family’s immigration and migration experience and its impact on their own ethnic identity.
COURSE GOALS:
1) Introduce students to how U.S. immigration policies and immigrant groups have undergone a process of racialization with implications for American race relations.
2) Help students understand their families’ immigration and ethnic roots.
3) Understand how immigrants and their descendants undergo a process of constructing ethnic and national identities.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
●Attendance
It is to your benefit to come to class regularly. As suggested above you are allowed three absences with no questions asked. If after that you will miss class due to college approved extracurricular activities you should bring copies of a form, signed by the official sponsor of the activity (e.g., coach) noting the dates that you will be absent. If you miss class due to a family emergency, illness, mandated court appearances and the like submit a written explanation of your absence or contact The Office of Student Affairs (Lighty 360, 335-4531).
● Online and In-Class Participation: (20%)
Your participation is important. I expect each student to sign onto to Bridge [www.bridge.wsu.edu] and participate in threaded discussions (see Handout]. In class, I expect you to contribute to class discussions and participate actively in individual and group activities. When speak, ask questions or post, whether in class or online [BRIDGE], please show respect for others’ opinions.
· Roots Paper (40%)
Students will write a 12-15 paper discussing your own family’s ethnic roots. Trace your maternal and/or paternal forbears’ immigrant experience. Paper should use primary sources including personal interviews, photographs, letters, newspapers and other first-hand accounts. Discuss their lives before and during migration, what happened after they settled in a foreign land, and how they reformulated personal and group ethnic identities over time. Each paper is required to incorporate themes, concepts, and topics from the course readings. Move beyond description and discuss what you can learn about your ancestors' changing relations to American society. If it seems appropriate, discuss the influence ethnicity has had on your own life. If you are a first generation immigrant, please focus these questions on your own experience and write a first-person Roots paper. If you are adopted you may choose to write on your adoptive parents or another immigrant family. More specific guidelines will be posted on Bridge.
· Take Home Examinations (40%)
Each student must complete a midterm and final exam to pass the course. All exams will be take home essay exams. There will be no substitute work, alternate exam dates, or make-up exams without documented illness or emergency.
Special Notes:
* The instructor reserves the right to modify and make any changes to the syllabus during the semester.
* Reasonable accommodations are available for students who have a documented disability. Contact the DRC in the Admin. Annex 206 (5-1566).
*Academic Dishonesty includes cheating, plagiarism, and fabrication in the process of completing academic work. If caught students we be punished according to university guidelines: WAC 504-25-015
COURSE OUTLINE:
WEEK I: INTRODUCTION
Tuesday, Jan.11: Introductions
READING SCHEDULE
PART ONE: EXCLUSION, RESTRICTION AND DEPORTATION (1882-WWII)
Thursday, Jan. 13: 1882-1917: Beginnings of Immigration Restriction
READ: Roger Daniels, Guardian the Golden Door, chapter 1
WEEK 2:
Tuesday, Jan. 18: The 1920s: Triumph of the Old Nativism
READ: Roger Daniels, Guardian the Golden Door, chapter 2
Thursday, Jan. 20: Immigration Act of 1924
READ: Mae Ngai, “The Architecture of Race in American Immigration Law:
A Reexamination of the Immigration Act of 1924” [BRIDGE]
VIDEO: “The House We Live In”
WEEK 3:
Tuesday, Jan. 25: No New Deal for Immigration, 1930s
READ: Roger Daniels, Guardian the Golden Door, chapter 3
Thursday, Jan. 27: Reading Roots Papers
Tanya Mlodzinski “Coming to Terms with My Heritage”; Stephanie Courtney “Changing Worlds”; Rachel Koch “The Loss of My Family’s Ethnic Ties”;Josephine Burgos “East Side Story: What West Side Story Left Out” in Becoming American
WEEK 4:
Tuesday, Feb. 1: Italian Immigrants as “White on Arrival”
READ: Thomas Guglielmo, White on Arrival, Introduction
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, “Rethinking Racism: Toward a Structural Interpretation” [BRIDGE]
Thursday, Feb. 3: Italian Immigration and Settlement
READ Thomas Guglielmo, White on Arrival, Chapter 1
Susan Carnicelli “My Austrian-Italian Ethnicity” in Becoming American
WEEK 5:
Tuesday, Feb. 8: Black Migration and Race Riots
READ: Thomas Guglielmo, White on Arrival, Chapters 2 & 3
La Toy Powell, “Where I Stand and Why” in Becoming American
VIDEO: “Goin’ to Chicago”
Thursday, Feb. 10: Organized Crime and Electoral Politics
READ: Thomas Guglielmo, White on Arrival, Chapter 4 & 5
WEEK 6:
Tuesday, Feb 15: Italian-Black Relations and Italian Invasion of Ethiopia
READ Thomas Guglielmo, White on Arrival, Chapter 6 & 7
Thursday Feb. 17: Italians Identifying as “White”
READ Thomas Guglielmo, White on Arrival, Chapter 8 & Conclusion
Peter Bosco “The Experiences of My Parents in Italy and America” in Becoming American
WEEK 7:
Tuesday, Feb. 22: U.S. Imperialism and Filipino Immigration
READ: Carlos Bulosan, America is in the Heart, Part One
Thursday, Feb. 24: Filipino Immigrants in the West
READ: Carlos Bulosan, America is in the Heart, Part Two
VIDEO: “Ten Cents a Dime”
WEEK 8:
Tuesday, March 1: Filipino Immigrants in the West
READ: Carlos Bulosan, America is in the Heart, Part Three
Thursday, March 3: Filipino Immigrants in the West
READ: Carlos Bulosan, America is in the Heart, Part Four
DISTRIBUTE MIDTERM EXAM
PART TWO: CRACKS IN THE GOLDEN DOOR (WWII-Present)
WEEK 9:
Tuesday, March 8: WWII and After: The Barriers Begin to Drop
READ: Roger Daniels Guardian the Golden Door, chapter 4
Lynn Sugamura, “A Challenge of Loyalty” and Cecilia Pineda “My Family History” in Becoming American
MIDTERM EXAM DUE
Thursday, March 10: NO CLASS
WEEK 10: SPRING BREAK (March 14-18)
WEEK 11: Admitting Displaced Persons (1946-1950)
READ Roger Daniels, Guardian the Golden Door, chapter 5
Tuesday, March 22: Cold War and Immigration
READ: Roger Daniels, Guardian the Golden Door, chapter 6
Ann Fenech, “Finding Home” and Lizette “Getting to Know My Parents So That I May Know Who I Am” in Becoming American
Thursday, March 24: Civil Rights and 1965 Immigration Act
READ: Roger Daniels, Guardian the Golden Door, chapter 7
Melissa Algranati, “Being an Other” and “Shana Rivas “ A Bicultural Experience” in Becoming American
WEEK 12:
Tuesday, March 29: Post-1965 Asian and Latino Immigration
READ: Roger Daniels, Guardian the Golden Door, chapter 8 & 9
Soo Kim “The Assimilation Problems of Family in America”; Lizette Aguilar “Getting to Know my Parents So That I May Know Who I am” in Becoming American
Thursday, March 31: Refugees and Human Rights
READ: Roger Daniels Guardian the Golden Door, chapter 10
Anh-Dau Nguyen, “Leaving Home” in Becoming American
VIDEO: “Black and White in Exile”
WEEK 13:
Tuesday, April 5: 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act
READ: Roger Daniels Guardian the Golden Door, chapter 11
Thursday, April 7: 1990s Struggles over Immigration Policy
READ: Roger Daniels Guardian the Golden Door, chapter 12
Jaime Rodriguez, “Should I or Shouldn’t I?” in Becoming American
VIDEO: “Fear and Learning at Hoover Elementary”
WEEK14: Becoming American: It’s Not a One Way Street
Tuesday, April 12
Alex Stepick et al, This Land is Our Land, Chapter 1
Puwat Charukamnoetkanok, “Triple Identity” in Becoming American
VIDEO: Saving Elian
Thursday, April 14: Competing Elites: Cubans, Anglos and Blacks
Alex Stepick et al, This Land is Our Land, Chapter 2
WEEK 15:
Tuesday, April 19: Ethnic Segregation
READ Alex Stepick et al, This Land is Our Land, Chapter 3
Thursday April 21: African Americans and Haitians
READ Alex Stepick et al., This Land is Our Land, Chapter 4
WEEK 16: Making It Work
Tuesday, April 26
READ Alex Stepick et al, This Land is Our Land, Chapter 5
Thursday April 29: ROOTS PAPER DUE
DISTRIBUTE FINAL EXAM
FINAL EXAM DUE