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Re: recent tweet by @car1ygoodman and interest from @emayfarris, @irpinaingiro this will be a thread about " #immigration myth(busting)" activities/discussion ideas I have used in my immigration class. #AnthroTwitter #ImmigrationTwitter #TeachingAnthropology #AcademicTwitter 1/?
First I should say that I use these activities in an #interdisciplinary #anthropology and #writing class called "The Immigrant Experience" at @SMU as part of my work as a postdoc with @SMUTowerCenter.
When I came to SMU I took an old course focused on Latinos in the U.S. and morphed it into a Latino immigration-focused course. The course is now entirely built around debunking myths around Latinos, immigration, etc.
The primary assignment in the course is a 12-15 page paper in which students choose three immigration myths and "debunk" them using exclusively course readings (to focus on writing skills development and limit time spent on research). Google doc link in next tweet
The writing assignment can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wRIMk4lHvHeR-dF8Oe6LKgMQ8EB7Xxq2CKahVwHrTes/edit?usp=sharing. A caveat is that the outline portion of the assignment was new this year and I wish I had provided more robust guidelines for what an outline should look like, and given more instruction about how to create one.
The assignment is split into three tiered draft submissions. I pair this assignment with writing instruction and guided discussion activities to help students generate ideas and think through how to use evidence from readings to debunk their chosen myths.
Based on course materials, students address myths related to the social construction of "Latin America," "Latinos" as a racial group, the notion that Latinos are different than past immigrants (ie. don't assimilate), that immigration hurts the economy, immigrant criminality, etc.
They typically address some aspect of #illegality with their final myths, as we don't get to these issues until the last 5 weeks (intentionally, to have a solid rapport and grasp of historical issues before embarking on a discussion of current "hot" topics.
We also do smaller activities in class... One is in-class myth busting activity where I divide students into small groups of 2-3 and assign each group a different myth. They research and report back their findings during an all-class discussion. See here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Pr471Oj0CESJeQJ5-4GdQfln4gpSsB7WBlAF16iJ9ig/edit?usp=sharing
I print these and hand out the slips of paper to each group but you could do this digitally as well. This activity can also be used to foster a conversation about how to find reliable/credible sources and how to use #evidence to prove or disprove an argument.
Lots of my other activities, including the hardship waiver activity I posted about last week, are also designed around the idea of myth busting. The hardship waiver activity reveals that options to legalize, even for undocumented folks with U.S. citizens, are extremely limited.
The idea that immigrants should just "get in line" is debunked in a conversation about the inner-workings of immigration law, which in part revolves around review of this chart https://reason.org/wp-content/uploads/files/a87d1550853898a9b306ef458f116079.pdf and the State Dept visa bulletin https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin/2020/visa-bulletin-for-november-2019.html
In fact a lot of the myth busting that we do is a matter of walking students through what the law actually is, how it works, and how it impacts immigrant experiences. But we also do some historical myth-busting...
by discussing how racist immigration laws (ie. 1924 National Origins Quotas) (and attempts to remedy them, ie. 1965 Hart Cellar) have impacted the capacity of different groups to come to the U.S. - legally or at all. Many of them have no idea we ever had explicitly racist imm law
I'm boarding and this is a long thread so I'll stop now but I'm looking forward to review other responses to @car1ygoodman's thread for more activity ideas!!
I can share the syllabus too I suppose. A version is on my website, http://www.jennifercookanthropology.com
