United States-Latin American Relations

This fall semester in Political Science 239, United States-Latin American Relations, we will explore the complex roots and policy challenges posed by the dramatic surge in unaccompanied Guatemalan, Honduran and Salvadoran children crossing the US border. Our interests are political, historical, legal and human. During the first half of the semester we will focus on understanding the political violence and poverty that leads most of these Central American kids to migrate along with the dangers they encounter en route. We will also seek to contextualize the recent wave of migration by exploring historical patterns of US immigration law and policy, migration from the region to the United States and US policy toward Central America. During the second half of the course we will examine several key contentious issues that pertain to the experience of child migrants, notably border enforcement, development and migration, transnational families, and the Dreamer movement