POLS 250 - Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship

Credits: 5
Immigration, refugee, and citizenship policies are hot button topics across the world. This class introduces students to key debates, research, and theories around these issues. We will explore why people immigrate, immigration and asylum policies, anti-immigrant sentiment and groups, undocumented immigration and border security, migrant inclusion and exclusion, and the complexities around defining citizenship and belonging in host societies.

Enrollment Requirement: Eligible for ENGL& 101 or instructor consent.

Satisfies Requirement: Social Science
Course Fee: $2.00

Course Outcomes:
Students who successfully complete this class will be able to:

Identify and apply key concepts, theories, and approaches to studying immigration, asylum, and citizenship.
Identify the fundamental features of key debates concerning immigration, asylum, and citizenship in the US and across the world.
Explain and analyze the factors that shape immigration, asylum, and citizenship policies and their outcomes.
Articulate domestic and international dynamics and debates around immigration, asylum, and citizenship.
Identify the causes and outcomes of displacement and global refugee movement.
Articulate how states and societies define membership and belonging.

Program Outcomes
Demonstrate knowledge of politics and government in the United States and/or across the world.

College-wide Outcomes

Critical Thinking - Critical thinking finds expression in all disciplines and everyday life. It is characterized by an ability to reflect upon thinking patterns, including the role of emotions on thoughts, and to rigorously assess the quality of thought through its work products. Critical thinkers routinely evaluate thinking processes and alter them, as necessary, to facilitate an improvement in their thinking and potentially foster certain dispositions or intellectual traits over time.
Responsibility - Responsibility encompasses those behaviors and dispositions necessary for students to be effective members of a community. This outcome is designed to help students recognize the value of a commitment to those responsibilities which will enable them to work successfully individually and with others.
Written Communication - Written Communication encompasses all the abilities necessary for effective expression of thoughts, feelings, and ideas in written form.
Diversity and Equity - In order to advance equity and social justice, students will be able to examine their own and others’ identities, behaviors, and/or cultural perspectives as they connect to power, privilege, and/or resistance.