Luin Goldring
- Associate Professor

York University
Department of Sociology / CERLAC
8th Floor York Research Tower
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3
Tel: (416) 736-2100 ext. 60311
Fax: (416) 736-5737
Email: goldring@yorku.ca

SOCI 6614
MIGRATION AND TRANSNATIONALISMS

     Contemporary migrations, particularly cross-border movements, generate a number of challenging theoretical, methodological and policy discussions. These include questions and debates about extraterritorial membership, political community and governance; the potential disjuncture and relationship between nation, location, and spatial-temporal locations and practices; the relationship between im/migrant rights advocacy and state and "popular" anti-immigrant backlash; the production of migrant "illegality;" normative perspectives on settlement and stasis versus mobility; social reproduction and social welfare in transnational spaces; power and regulation in transnational spaces; and so forth. The course includes a brief introduction to theoretical approaches to international migration and im/migrant incorporation. Literature on migrant transnationalism, transnational social spaces and social fields will provide a framework for discussion and analysis. Key dimensions of the social contexts, institutions, networks, identities, practices, politics and policies that contribute to shaping forms of transnational engagement and social fields will be examined as part of a project of developing comparative, cross-disciplinary, and historically and geographically grounded analytical practice.

     The readings are organized around a set of core topics, which may be modified in consultation with participants. In the past, these topics have included: mainstream theories of international migration and incorporation; transnational approaches to migration and incorporation; mobile livelihoods; social, economic and political transnationalism; citizenship practice and politics in transnational contexts; the production of illegality; remittances and development; migrant rights advocacy and movements; "second-generation" transnationalism; implications of social exclusion (e.g. based on racialization, legal status, class) for nation building and transnationalism; and theoretical and methodological issues related to comparative research.

Evaluation and Assignments

14% General participation (and presentations)
16% 8 Commentaries on readings, due by 11 am, Mondays
10% Leading in-class discussions (TBA)
15% Written comments on peer work, TBA
Short Proposal and annotated bibliography for paper (unmarked but required)
Longer proposal (to be peer reviewed; unmarked but required)
45% Paper (proposals required), due April 4