Note: this Literature Seminar only spans one semester: students may take the course in either the first or the second semester
Contemporary migration and the political debates around this theme can profit greatly from a historical perspective by means of balanced and structured comparisons in time and place.
European migration history clearly differs from that of the US and other parts of the world. However, many theories on migration and ethnicity have been developed in an American context. In this course we will direct our attention towards theories that can explain migration history and its consequences in a European context. In earlier decades migration was mostly explained from an economic perspective. Recently more attention has been paid to individual and family choices, agency, and networks. It has also been acknowledged that migration and integration are strongly gendered phenomena. The course will include a discussion of these more recent theoretical views. In this introductory course we will focus on the history of European migration. We begin with migration in the Early Modern Period and continue our study to the present day. Students will study the causes and consequences of migration. The course not only deals with migration itself, but also with the integration of immigrants in the host societies. Furthermore, it also considers the effects of migration on the sending societies.
Time Table
Semester I and II, see timetables.
Method of Instruction
Literature seminar; attendance is compulsory (see the rules and regulations of the Department of History, art. 2).
Course objectives
After completing this course the student has a good overview of the most important (interdisciplinary) theoretical and conceptual approaches off the (global) history of migration and integration. And also of processes of in- and exclusion. Furthermore the student is able to make structured comparisons between various countries and different historical periods. The student learns how to reconstruct and analyse developments over time. Finally the student is able to express him/herself in writing in a systematic, coherent and meaningful way, combining secondary literature on specific cases and theoretical frameworks.
Required reading
Patrick Manning, Migration in world history (New York Routledge 2005)
Richard D. Alba and Victor Nee, Remaking the American mainstream: assimilation and contemporary migration (Cambridge Mass, Harvard University Press 2003)
Discussion Dossier Adam McKeown: International Review of Social History (IRSH), 2007, no. 1: contributions by Leo Lucassen, Leslie Page Moch, Prabhu Mohapatra, David Feldman, Ulbe Bosma, Sucheta Mazumdar and Adam McKeown
Leo Lucassen, The immigrant threat: the integration of old and new migrants in western Europe since 1850 (Urbana, University of Illinois Press 2005)
Isabel Hoving, Hester Dibbits and Marlou Schrover, Veranderingen van het alledaagse: 1950-2000 (Den Haag, SDU 2005) or Donna Gabaccia, We are what we eat. Ethnic food and the making of the Americans (Cambridge Mass 1998)
Students will write a final essay for the last meeting on a topic of choice (for which they will find extra literature).
The final essay will include references to the literature read for the first part of the course. The final essay can be in English or Dutch, has to be 8000 words and has to include references (De Buck style). The dead line for the final essays is December 22 2008 17.00 (via the mail and in paper).
Examination
Reading literature, participation discussions (30 %) final paper (70 %).
Information
With the coordinator: Prof. dr. L.A.C.J. Lucassen
Enrolment
For the Spring Semester, please use this form to apply.