IHRC launches updated #ImmigrationSyllabus

The Immigration History Research Center launched an updated #ImmigrationSyllabus, a website and educational resource to help the general public understand the deep historical roots of today’s immigration debates. The #ImmigrationSyllabus was created by immigration historians affiliated with the Immigration History Research Center and the Immigration and Ethnic History Society. 

The original #ImmigrationSyllabus was created in response to the 2016 presidential election and the nativist rhetoric, harmful stereotypes, and disinformation about immigrants and immigration that became prevalent.

In 2026, the heightened anti-immigrant discourse has been matched with extreme and harmful immigration policies, such as the surge we experienced here in Minneapolis. The Immigration History Research Center felt it important to update this resource and convened a new team of scholars, consulted with the original authors of the syllabus, and created a revised and updated #ImmigrationSyllabus. Our goal was to incorporate new scholarship and resources that have emerged since the original’s publication and to highlight works in United States migration history that speak to the exigencies of the current moment. 

“We are witnessing a surge of immigration enforcement, detention, and deportation as well as restrictions on legal immigration,” said Michele Waslin, interim director of the Immigration History Research Center. “Today it is more important than ever to put federal immigration actions on immigration – and the resistance to them –  into historical context. This is just the latest iteration of centuries-long conversations about who is allowed into the country and what it means to be an American. By understanding how we got to this point in our immigration history, we can have a more thoughtful and informed national conversation.” 

The revised and updated #ImmigrationSyllabus follows a loosely chronological overview of US immigration history, but with thematic emphases on issues like deportation and detention that transcend time periods. Each week of the syllabus provides a selection of relevant scholarship, as well as a list of resources that may be useful in a classroom or workshop setting. The #ImmigrationSyllabus helps answer important questions such as:

• Who has come to the United States and why? Who has been excluded?
• Why has immigration always been such a hotly debated topic?
• When and why did the U.S. start banning and deporting immigrants?
• What were the consequences of those policies?
• How have immigrants integrated into the fabric of American life?
• What lessons might we learn as we move forward?