The Places of Migration in United States History
Migration to the United States gets examined here as a global phenomenon rather than a single national story, tracing movement from the mid-19th century to the present. Case studies anchor the material in specific places: New York's Lower East Side, South Texas, Florida, and San Francisco's Chinatown, each used to show how geography, labor, and policy shaped who arrived and how they were received. The course also looks at how memory, media, and popular culture have constructed American ideas about immigrants over time. Materials come from MIT OpenCourseWare and include readings, assignments, and an optional field trip to New York City tied to the Lower East Side case study. The approach treats the United States as a nation of immigrants within a wider international context, rather than assuming an exceptional or isolated national narrative.