We begin the course by looking at the idea of belonging to place and the rise of the modern nation state. To some, this may seem like a little strange to begin, but I like to begin here because immigration would make little sense if there were no such things as "national boundaries". In other words, one of the central questions of immigration is why and how the movements of people came to be restricted and governed. That the movement of people can be restricted presupposes some form of geographical boundaries. So we begin by looking at how modern states as we understand them came to be-- what factors helped to create them, their relatively young existence, and the things that are important and necessary to their creation.
In considering the rise of the modern nation state, we also consider the rise of citizenship status. Although the concept of belonging and citizenship predate the modern nation-state, it is vitally important to understand how modern citizenship arose (and evolved) and how it defines our modern understandings of belonging. This starting point provides an entry into how to understand how and why people view immigration and immigrants, as augments or threats to nation-states.
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