Refugees or Labor Migrants? The Anthropology of South-North Migration

More people from low-income countries are seeking to enter high-income countries. How many are refugees fleeing oppression, and how many are labor migrants seeking to increase their incomes and consumption levels? Do they have a human right to be admitted? Beefed-up border enforcement has led to thousands of deaths in the American Southwest and the Mediterranean, and now anxious voters are electing politicians who promise even harsher crackdowns. Based on ethnographies of international migration streams, this course will explore debates over border enforcement, migrant rights, the deportation industry and the migration industry, low-wage labor markets, and remittance economies, with a focus on Latin American migration to the U.S., African and Mideastern migration to Europe, and South Asian migration to the Middle East (Not open to students who have taken SOAN 1021) Limited places available for students to satisfy the college writing requirement. 3 hrs. lect./disc. (Anthropology)