This tutorial, of interest to students of race and ethnicity, and American immigration history, will examine the development of American immigration policy as representative of the tension in American society between ideals of cultural pluralism and the desire for homogeneity. While landmark immigration bills will anchor the course chronologically, emphasis will be placed on the analysis of rhetoric found in debates on immigration, in publications produced by anti- and pro-immigration forces, and the sociopolitical circumstances which informed the discourse of exclusion. Thematically, this tutorial seeks to address the following questions: how is the idea of an "American" encoded in American immigration policy; how are concerns about race, class, and gender delineated in immigration laws and writings on exclusion; and, how can official documents and public debates be read as texts which contribute to the popular constructions of our perceptions of the nature of American society? The tutorial will begin with a study of American nativism and the development of an organized opposition to immigrants and foreign labor and nativism's relation to American racial thought. Next we will examine the anti-Asian movement, focusing specifically on numerous immigration bills that excluded Asians from the United States. We will then consider the effects of the 1965 Immigration Act, which liberalized American immigration policy by striking down national quotas, and the recent backlash against immigrants. Finally, we will consider trends in American society that have given rise to the advocacy of "multiculturalism" as well as its opposition. Each student in the tutorial will write and present orally an essay (7-10 pages) every other week on the readings for the week. Students not presenting an essay will be responsible for offering a critique of the work of their colleague. Students will be evaluated on their written work, their oral presentations of that work, their analyses of their colleague's work, and on a final, comprehensive essay that will address the themes addressed in the tutorial. Enrollment limited to 10. Group A
WONG