Migration & Culture     Spring 2004    Prof Koptiuch    Arizona State University West    Phoenix, Arizona

Group ProjectsÑCountry Posters

Comparative Guest Worker/Immigration Policy

DUE: April 6 or 7, 2004
Posters will be displayed in UCB La Sala April 6-9
as part of the Migrants, Justice, & the Border events
Research Question: How do US immigration policies, particularly Òguest workerÓ policies, compare with those of other immigrant-receiving countries? The US is considering several proposals for guest worker/temporary worker policies and other changes in immigration policy, including proposals by Arizona legislators.  In order to enhance public understanding of such policies, our country posters will provide a focused, comparative perspective on guest worker/immigration policies in several key immigrant-receiving countries.

Learning Objective: Conduct collaborative research with teammates to address the focused question above.  Use knowledge and understanding developed in our course as conceptual framework for conducting new research.

Goal: Make a course contribution to ÒMigrants, Justice & the BorderÓ Forum at ASU West. Poster presentations identify key immigration policies and patterns, problems and solutions, in immigrant­receiving countries. Together, the posters offer a comparative global understanding.

Research Sources: Web resource page prepared for this project by social science resource librarian Lisa Kammerlocher: http://www.west.asu.edu/library/research/classes/SOC/soc331.html.

Blackboard Communication Resource: You will find a Country Posters button on our Blackboard site. Groups have been set up for each assigned country.  You can post information that you find on your site so that it is accessible to each of your teammates as you collaborate in your research. You can email each other easily from the group site as well.

Requirements: Prepare a group poster presentation addressing the research questions on the other side of this instruction sheet.  Try to find answers for as many of the 20 research topics as possible.  Some data will be easier to find than others.  Some of the questions require your own analysis and interpretation of the data you find. Your research may raise additional questions.

Team Synergy: Each teammate has something special to contributeÑdraw on each otherÕs strengths, create a synergy: the working together of two or more things, people, or organizations, especially when the result is greater than the sum of their individual effects or capability!  Make sure everyone does their part!

Address Your Audience:  Keep in mind that your primary audience will be students, faculty, and community members who will attend the Migrants, Justice & the Border event.  Most of them will know very little about your assigned countries, and even less about their immigration policies and experiences with migrants.  You are the experts!  Teach your audience!

Poster Design: Present your information in simple, brief, and bold, eye-catching design. Concentrate on what is most important to understand our focused theme.  DonÕt overload your poster with details that may be too complex to grasp in poster format.  Make it fun and informative!  Dr K will provide one large poster board for each group.



COUNTRY POSTERS
Working collaboratively, research the following for your assigned country:
(Try to get all data for 1960s to 2000sÑcan we see any patterns?)
    1. Percentage of immigrants (foreign born) in population
    2. What are the top five countries that migrants come from?
    3. In the top immigrant-sending country, to what country do most of its migrants go?
    4. Percentage of immigrants in workforce
    5. Estimated rate of legal/illegal immigration
    6. Per capita income in both sending and receiving countries

    7. Which migrants are most welcome? Why?
    8. Does the country have any immigrant quota system?
    9. How do most immigrants arrive in the country (legal and illegal)?
    10. What ÒbridgesÓ link your assigned country with its top immigrant-sending countries?

    11. Why do migrants in the top immigrant-sending country leave their homeland?


    12. Is there a temporary or guest worker policy?

    13. What are the procedures for obtaining legal migrant status? Legal work status?
    14. Is permanent citizenship possible? How?
    15. Any restrictions on job market for immigrants?
    16. Does immigration help the economy? How?
    17. Relevant immigration laws: citizenship, worker visas, labor laws

    18. What are some of the recent problems/successes/political controversies due to the countryÕs immigration experience? (news reports are a good source for this).
    19. What overall immigration strategy does the country most closely follow, using the classification explained by Stephen Castles & Mark J. Miller in ÒNew Ethnic Minorities and SocietyÓ: exclusion, assimilation, or multicultural
    20. What can the USA learn from the case of your assigned country?

POSTERS SHOULD ALSO INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

RememberÑbe brief, catch the eye and attention of passers-by with casual interest in our subject

  •  MapsÑput the country in global regional context; include immigrant-sending countries
  •  Data charts, graphs Ñe.g. % foreign born; per capita income in both sending and receiving countries
  •  Photos of top immigrant-sending countriesÕ homeland/people
  •  Photos of immigrants in the receiving country if available
  •  Anything else to catch the eye of your viewersÑflags, arrows, circles, highlights, objects

  • IMPORTANT! Include at least one recent news item about immigration issues in your assigned country.  You might want to include several news item headlines (with source & dates) on immigration issues. You may get these from US newspapers.


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