Somali British poet Warsan Shire?s 2009 poem ?Home? beseeches readers to ?understand/ that no one puts their children in a boat/ unless the water is safer than the land.? The poem went viral in 2015, shared widely by those attempting to counter the virulent anti-migrant rhetoric animating political discourse and elections in the US and around the world. The rise in authoritarianism and racist nationalisms, especially in Europe and in settler states, is evident in policies such as the US ?Remain in Mexico? policy, the EU?s increased externalization of immigration enforcement and policies of deterrence, and Australia?s mandatory offshore detention. But this anti-migrant turn is not new, and this course argues that the criminalization of migration and migrants (and of the mobility of indigenous people across state borders - even when those borders divide their nations) has a long history that is deeply ingrained in our most fundamental understandings of the state, borders, and belonging. In this interdisciplinary course, students will both unpack that history and engage - through literature and film - migrant voices that contest the dehumanization and criminalization of their lives and communities, speaking back not only to the most aggressive forms of xenophobia, but to the more widely held opinion that there are ?good immigrants? and ?bad immigrants.? We will approach these topics through three key concepts: borders, crossings, and detention.
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