America’s Immigration Dilemma: Past and Present in Perspective

This set of four lectures will examine one of the most fraught topics in American politics today: immigration. Despite the US’s long history of acceptance and openness to foreign immigration, since 2000, concerns have spiked about the number and ethnicity of those being admitted. Throughout US history, immigration policy has evolved and reacted to often dramatic shifts in American society. In this set of lectures, particular attention will be given to immigration laws in the 1920s, Lyndon Johnson’s landmark Immigration Act of 1965, and recent developments in problems and policies along the US’s borders.