Immigration

Topics & Concepts: Migration, Immigration, Ellis Island, Angel Island, "Old Immigrants”, “New Immigrants”, Quotas, Pull Factor, Push Factor, Xenophobia, Assimilation, Cultural Resilience, Chinese Exclusion Act, Undocumented, Forced Migration, Refugee, Globalization, Naturalization, Assimilation, NAFTA, 1st Generation, Detention, Amnesty, Citizenship, Repatriation, Visas, The Heritage Foundation, Legalization

Guiding Questions:

• How have immigrants and all people who migrate responded to xenophobia with a mixture of assimilation and cultural resilience?

• How have constructions of whiteness over time affected the experience of immigrants?

• Why and how have people immigrated to the U.S. throughout U.S. history?

• How has xenophobia, assimilation and cultural resilience affected the stories of different immigrant groups?

• How should the U.S. rethink its immigration policy to benefit the country as a whole?

Unit Sequence:

• This unit begins with an attention grabbing "Take a Stand" activity about controversial immigration questions and an introduction to new terms (pull factor, push factor, xenophobia, assimilation, cultural resilience). Their first learning tasks are to interview a family member about their immigration or migration story, create a poster based on this story and present in small groups.

• On the following days, students look at a timeline of immigration focusing on Irish, Chinese, Latin American and Middle Eastern immigrants. They then focus their analysis on cartoons of Chinese and Irish immigrants in the 1800's and explore the construction of whiteness at this time. After completing several compare/contrast activities, students complete a short writing assessment in response to the prompt: How were the experiences of Irish and Chinese immigrants similar or different from each other?

• Beginning at the end of Week 2 and through Week 3, students learn about different immigration histories of the communities in their neighborhoods. They analyze songs about Latino immigration; read articles and watch films clips about the experiences of Yemeni, Pacific Islander and African immigrants; and finally conduct interviews with adult education students taking English on their school campus. Students produce storybooks based on their interviewee's story (later in the school year, students present these books to their interviewees).

• The final assessment for the unit is a Historical Writing Task in response to the following prompt:

As the U.S. once again begins to rethink and overhaul its immigration policy, which option(s) would be most beneficial to the country as a whole?

• • • • Full amnesty for anyone living inside United States borders - Citizenship for everyone!

      • A gradual pathway to citizenship for people employed or attending school in the United States - An easy way to get citizenship for students and workers.

      • Maintaining the status quo (citizenship limited to those born in the United States or naturalized through marriage or visas) - What we have right now.

      • A strict policy requiring repatriation for all undocumented immigrants who would then be required to begin a sanctioned application for legal immigrant status - All undocumented people should be deported and have to re-enter legally.

Notes on Materials Included:

• Included in the folder are a unit calendar, slides for most days of instruction, homework packets for weeks 1, 2 and 4, readings and worksheets for all lessons and the HWT packet.

• Videos for lesson plans are embedded in the slides.

• Slides and Homework titled "Week 9" are for the first week of instruction.

• There is some discrepancy between the unit plan and how the unit was implemented.