Topics in Global Community Engagement

Migrants and Refugees

This course provides students with an interdisciplinary set of tools to understand the global refugee and migration crisis and its impact on the global workforce. The growing movement of peoples across national boundaries in search of employment, better wages, and higher standards of living, and away from persecution and violence, has transformed the majority of Western countries into multiracial and multi-ethnic societies. This transformation affects everything from high-level policy debates and reforms to daily professional and personal interactions among people. This course explores the stories and circumstances of migration, and how all migrants face similar challenges to survival. The conditions from which they leave their homes and countries, however, are varied, rendering them refugees, asylum seekers, climate-displacees, internally displaced peoples (IDPs), victims of famine, war and persecution, or returnees. Students will apply relevant concepts to their own personal and professional experiences to gain a better understanding of how the global refugee and migration crisis impacts their communities and work at the local level, and how their work constitutes an important part of global society.