INT2050 - Mobile Worlds: Migrants, Refugees and the Politics of Belonging

Leader: Penny Graham

Offered

Sunway First semester 2008 (Day)

Synopsis

Why do politicians and citizens seem so threatened by refugees, asylum seekers and labour immigrants? Is it because such people-out-of-place challenge the system of nation-states? Mobile Worlds explores socially and culturally diverse forms of migrant experience, from among those know as gypsies, nomads, refugees, asylum seekers, illegal immigrants, illegal aliens, guest workers, labour migrants, circular migrants, astronauts, settlers, diasporas and transnational communities around the globe. The aim is to understand the implications of human movement for emerging trends that will characterise life in the 21st century.

Objectives

On successfully completing this subject, students should be able to appreciate the diverse forms of migrant experience in the contemporary world; identify ways in which refugees, asylum seekers, labour migrants and transnational communities pose a variety of challenges to the international order of nation-states; and critically analyse selected social categories through which 'people who move' are perceived and represented.

Assessment

Tutorial oral presentation (500 words): 10%
Web site or film documentary analysis (1000 words): 25%
Essay (2000 words): 40%
Class test (1000 words): 25%
Third year students will be required to provide a critical evaluation of website or documentary material, while second year students need only analyse the argument made by a particular site or film.

Contact hours

1 hour lecture and 1 hour tutorial per week

Prerequisites

INT1010 and INT1020 or SCY1100 and SCY1200 or ANY1010 and ANY1020 or permission if the unit coordinator

Prohibitions

INT3050