Spring 2010

SOC 321K • Migration and Development

Unique	Days	Time	Location	Instructor
46355	TTh	3:30 PM-5:00 PM	GEA 105	RODRIGUEZ

Course Description

The course is designed to explore and review social, economic, and historical research concerning the relationship between international migration and societal development (with emphasis on economic development) in sending and receiving countries of international migrants. A special focus of the course is the question of to what extent does international migration promote economic development in the countries where migrants originate, given that migrants annually remit billions of dollars to their home countries. Other forms of social and cultural remittances can also promote social development in the sense that these remittances create social change in sending communities. The course will also consider the special case of China in which Chinese participation in the global economy had effected rapid economic development stimulating rural to urban migration of over 100 million peasant workers. Issues concerning gender migrant differentials, migration policy and control, brain drain, global development, and economic restructuring will be reviewed in the course.

Grading Policy

The course will have three exams (short essay and multiple choice questions) and a term paper focusing on some aspect of migration and development for a particular region. Attendance is required.

Texts

Stephen Castles and Raúl Delgado Wise (eds.), Migration and Development: Perspectives from the South, Geneva: International Organization for Migration (IOM), 2008. FREE (on-line) http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite/published_docs/books/MD%20Perspectives%20from%20the%20South.pdf

United Nations, International Migration and Development: Report of the Secretary General, 2006. FREE (on-line) http://www.un.org/esa/population/migration/hld/Text/Report%20of%20the%20SG(June%2006)_English.pdf

Social Science Research Council (SSRC), Seminar on Migration and Development: Reflecting on Thirty Years of Policy on China, New York, NY, 2008. FREE (on-line) http://www.ssrc.org/workspace/images/crm/new_publication_3/{4a20bf6b-0556-de11-afac-001cc477ec70}.pdf

Josh DeWind and Jennifer Holdaway, "Internal and International Migration in Economic Development." New York: Population Division, United Nations, 2005. FREE (on-line) http://www.un.org/esa/population/meetings/fourthcoord2005/P11_SSRC.pdf

Additional free, on-line works will be adopted

back