All Immigration is Local: Exploring the New Geography of Immigration

Heather Smith, Professor of Geography and Director of Urban Studies, UNC Charlotte

Scholarly and popular literature, policy reports and analyses, documentary and fictional film, as well as on-line resources and more than the occasional guest speaker and local field trip will be used to explore the dynamics and experiences of contemporary immigration in the US. With a particular focus on Charlotte-Mecklenburg, this seminar will investigate the framing forces of globalization, the immigrant journey, experiences of arrival and settlement, the spectrum of receptivity, processes of integration and assimilation, trajectories of the one-and-a half and second generations, as well as the challenges and opportunities immigration presents to both newcomer and receiving communities. The goal is to have seminar participants emerge with a deeper and more complex understanding of their own immigrant hi(stories), of the processes and policy contexts that shape the everyday lives of their immigrant students and neighbors and of “The Queen City’s” vanguard position as a 21st Century Immigrant Gateway.

Explore curriculum units developed by Fellows in this seminar here.

Participating Fellows