Final Exam

Final Exam Questions:

1. Using the three articles concerning family reunification in U.S. immigration policy, posted on Moodle, to support your answer,

• define the current policy (include numbers) and its history (include dates), 
• describe the impact on immigrants and U.S. society of family-based immigration, 
• consider the arguments against prioritizing family-based immigration and the proposed alternatives, and
• outline problems with the current system and how you would fix them.

2. Using your textbooks to support your answer,

• give a timeline of the history of U.S. refugee policy and the historical circumstances that shaped it.

You may use your books and notes during the exam. The exam is scheduled for Friday, 4/27, 2-4:30, in 9 Cuvilly unless you have made other arrangements in advance with me.

Week 14: Movie and VSI Chapters 5, 6 & 7 Reading Questions

For Monday's class, please be on time so that we can watch together the documentary, "The Other Side of Immigration." Our second document analysis paper will be a response to the film in 3 or 4 pages, due Wednesday, 4/18, on TurnItIn.com

For Wednesday's class, please review your answers to the questions posted last week for Chapter 5, and read and be prepared to discuss Chapter 6 of American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction.

For Friday's class, please read and be prepared to discuss Chapter 7 of American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction.

Week 13: VSI Chapters 3-5 Reading Questions

For Monday's class, please read Chapter 3 of American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction, and prepare written answers to the following questions:

• Why did World War II cause America to rethink its immigration policies? (45)
• What was the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952? (46)
• What was the refugee situation at the end of World War II? (46) And why did the U.S. feel the need to do something about it? (47)
• What is the Displaced Persons Act of 1948? (47)
• What is presidential parole power, and how did Eisenhower use it? (47)
• How were Cuban and Vietnamese refugees able to integrate so rapidly? (48)
• What led to the overturning of the quota system? (48-49)
• What did the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act do? (51-52)
• What were the unintended consequences of the law? (53)
• What does the book say studies have shown about the link between immigration and crime? (54)
• What caused the huge rise in illegal immigration from Mexico? (56)
• What attitudes changed and what laws were enacted because of the recession of the 1980s? (62)
• What did George W. Bush do? (63)

For Wednesday's class, please read Part II, Chapter 4 of American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction.

• What roles did mass literacy, cheap mass-produced publications, and state postal systems play in 19th and early 20th immigration? What plays those roles now? (66)
• What traits to immigrants have that lend themselves to economic and social integration and why do they have these traits? (67 and 85)
• How many people resided outside their birth countries in 2005? What percentage of the world's population is that? (68)
• Were, besides the United States, are people migrating to, and why? (69)
• What was the historical purpose of international migration between 1820 and 1924? (73)
• Why did peasants and traditional craftsmen end up living the proletarian life of wage earners in the slums of industrial cities? (75-79)
• In the 19th century, what drew immigrants to the United States? (80)
• What altered the character of immigrants after 1890? (81)
• How did Europeans who re-emigrated influence the immigration restriction debate? (83)
• What immigration was happening on the Pacific Coast at this time? (84)
• Is mass immigration chaotic or routine and predictable? (84)

For Friday's class, please read Chapter 5 of American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction.

• What made the third massive wave of immigration to the United States possible? (86)
• List the three factors that have made the United States so attractive. (87)
• Describe the nationalization of immigration. (88-89)
• What is notable able Asian (90) and Hispanic populations (91)?
• What did the 1965 immigration law give high priority to in granting visas? (92)
• How does Mira Flores in the Dominican Republic relate to the Boston area? (92-93)
• How are most of today's immigrants different from those of the past? (93)
• If the popular image of immigrants is blue collar workers, what is the reality by numbers? (94)
• What are problems for those not in the country legally? (96)
• Why are women predominate in modern migration streams? (97) And how have gender roles changed as a consequence? (98-99)
• What has the Philippines done to encourage emigration? (98)
• Why do people immigrate only to take jobs for which they are over qualified (i.e. downward mobility)? (99)