A Continent on the Move: Immigration in Contemporary Europe

Why do people migrate? How do host states and societies react to an increasingly multicultural and diverse foreign population? What impacts the political, economic and socio-cultural incorporation of Europe's immigrants? This course explores the central debates in immigration studies through a survey of contemporary Western Europe, with cases comprising immigrant populations in both traditional immigrant receivers (e.g., Moroccans in France or Turks in Germany) and "new" immigration countries (e.g. Africans and Latin Americans in Spain or Poles and Nigerians in Ireland). Middle Eastern refugees in Europe will be discussed throughout the semester. Particular emphasis is placed on how the relationship between the immigrant and the receiving state transforms both.