SOCI250

Every year between 2.5 and 4 million people cross international borders without authorization. Escaping war and civil conflict, political instability, ethnic violence, environmental disasters, and poverty, they search for a new home, and a chance to work with a livable pay. They are caught between borders in a borderless world. International Migration and Human Rights is a course about their lives, the causes of their displacements, and their treatment by others. International Migration and Human Rights shifts the focus of the study of the national interest of receiving and sending states to the human rights of the migrants. It helps the students to go beyond the popular nationalist narrative advocated by the media and politicians, to conduct a critical analysis of leading migration issues of our time. Evaluating the effects of globalization on migration, the increase in the number of people in need of protection, and the border policies of the United States and other affluent nations, the course calls for a reevaluation and reform of the existing international refugee and migration regimes.