Global Migration

Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or consent of instructor  This course examines the historical and contemporary causes and processes of (forced) migration and displacements leading to mass asylum-seeking, refugee camps, and refugee crises. Some of these causes and processes include colonialism; colonial legacies; the formation of modern nation-states; world capitalism and the growing North-South divide; civil wars and regional unrest due to political and religious conflicts; global warming, climate change, and environmental crises; as well as human trafficking and modern slavery. The course employs cases in the Americas, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Moreover, it utilizes anthropological and interdisciplinary conceptual and theoretical frameworks to examine national and international laws, organizations and politics; transnational migratory patterns and practices; the development of diasporas; and the formation of diasporic identity. To better understand contemporary migration processes, it analyzes migrants’ linkages to new lands and old, contributing to globalization and sustainable development.