Teaching about Latino immigration with a focus on social justice

Abstract

This essay outlines an approach to teaching U.S. immigration policy and Latino immigration to undergraduate students in a systemic and critical manner. The course is designed to build students’ knowledge on the topic through four areas of knowledge encompassing the history of U.S. intervention in the Americas, the economics of migration, state regulatory practices and the legal production of immigrant criminality, and immigrant rights. A focus on social justice leads students to learn not only the social relations of inequality at the heart of Latino immigration but also about the harms inflicted on a vulnerable population. Students’ comprehension of the human suffering through the study of specific cases helps them empathize and develop an understanding of the human and civil rights of migrants.