4^th Paper Topic

The issue of immigration and assimilation will be one of the most important challenges of the 21^st century. Samuel Huntington’s, Who Are We: The Challenges to American Identity, offers a forceful and often controversial assessment of the normative argument for and empirical extent of assimilation in America. Unfortunately, Who Are We is one of those books that is talked about more than it is actually read by many pundits and critics alike and whose assessment – Racist or Patriot- is all too often shaped more by the reader’s ideological beliefs than a close reading of Huntington’s arguments. Please write a review essay in which you discuss what you believe immigration policy-makers should learn (or not) from Huntington. Where is Huntington right and where is he wrong? What are their implications for immigration and assimilation policy in the 21^st century? Your essay should include some, but certainly not all, of the alternative perspectives we have read in class.

Sources

Huntington, Who Are We? The Challenges to American Identity

Ewa Morawska, Transnationalism

Richard Alba and Victor Nee, Assimilation The New Americans, A Guide to Immigration Since 1965

Passel, Growing Share of Immigrants Choosing Naturalization, http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=74

Jack Citrin, et al. Testing Huntington: Is Hispanic Immigration a Threat to American Identity? Perspectives on Politics (2007), 5:1:31-48

Pew Hispanic Center, Hispanic Attitudes Towards Learning English, http://pewhispanic.org/files/factsheets/20.pdf

Zolberg. Why Islam is like Spanish: Cultural Incorporation in Europe and the United States, Politics & Society, 1999

Etzioni, "Hispanics and Asians: America's Last Hope", in Swain, Debating Immigration

Center for Immigration The French Riots and U.S. Immigration Policy Panel Transcript, http://www.cis.org/articles/2005/frenchriotstranscript.html

Due April 30, 4pm

4-5 pages, stapled.

Final Paper May 5, 4:30 pm