Everywhere immigrants have enriched and strengthened
the fabric of American life.
-John F. Kennedy
Goal: To use a historical perspective on immigration to more accurately comprehend current immigration issues
Objectives:
- Students will review their knowledge of human history to find evidence that humans have long been a migrating species, consistently changing locations to increase their chances of survival.
- Students will discuss migration/immigration/emigration as global phenomena and recognize that the trends have occured at various rates throughout human history
- Students will become familiar with major "waves" of immigration to this country and identify push/pull factors influencing immigrants' decisions to come to the U.S.
- Students will begin to identify factors influencing government policies to promote or reject immigration at different points in history.
Materials:
Student notebooks/journals
Worksheet 2.1: Immigration to the United States
Handout 2.1: Number of Immigrant Arrivals by Decade
Handout 2.2: Immigration and World Events Timeline
Handout 2.3: Historical Data on Immigration to the United States
Handout 2.4: Immigration to the United States by Region of Origin
Handout 2.5: Chronology: Changes in U.S. in Immigration and Naturalization Laws
Handout 2.6: Minnesota's Immigrant Populations: Past and Present
Books or other resources about immigrants, post-it notes in different colors, or large squares of construction paper, crayons or markers, atlases or world maps
Time Frame: Four to five class periods
Age Level: Middle school to adult
Vocabulary: emigrate, immigrate, migrate, push factor, pull factor
Relevant Subject Areas and Connection to Minnesota High School Standards:
- Social Studies: Themes of United States History
- History: History Through Culture, Recorders of History
- Mathematics: Economic Systems
- Science: Environmental Systems