Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Fall 2023 - GEOG 382 D100

World on the Move (4)

Class Number: 3654

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Sep 6 – Dec 5, 2023: Mon, 12:30–2:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

    Oct 10, 2023: Tue, 12:30–2:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Exam Times + Location:

    Dec 8, 2023
    Fri, 11:59–11:59 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    At least 45 units, including GEOG 100.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

The world is on the move. Migrants seeking better opportunities cross paths with refugees fleeing persecution. Some are helped and welcomed, many encounter barriers and threats, while identities, including class, race, gender, sexuality, mediate their prospects. This course's geographic perspective clarifies these complexities by combining conceptual analyses with contemporary cases.

COURSE DETAILS:

This course offers a critical overview of contemporary international migration, movement, and mobility of people. As the global migration and movement of people stirs up different concerns and controversies over borders, belonging, and boundaries, the course provides students with a set of critical tools and approaches to understand the complexities of contemporary global migration. We will move from examining the global forces, factors, and forms of migration, to immigration in Canada, to (im)migrant life in the city, to the role (im)migrants play in local social movements. In particular, we will think through ways that migration and movement can be understood from the settler colonial relations and place we are situated in – the unceded and ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh Nations.

Using anti-racist and anti-colonial frameworks to understand contemporary migration issues, we will examine how global migration works within the context of colonial and capitalist nation-building projects.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

Through lectures, key readings, documentaries, and in-class discussions students will build an understanding of contemporary patterns of migration (i.e. labour migration, forced migration, climate change migration, refugee movement, etc.) as they relate to global capitalism and different forms of colonialism. In particular, the objectives for student learning in the course are:

  • To build a nuanced understanding of how (im)migration works in and shapes the nation-building settler colonial project of Canada.
  • To develop a critical understanding of the factors of global migration on its impacts on peoples and communities.
  • To apply course concepts to ongoing crises of social injustice as well as to their own lives, histories and relations.
  • To help develop students’ abilities to critically analyze contemporary global issues and their relationship to questions of (im)migration.
  • To develop and hone research, writing and discussion skills.

Grading

  • Personal Story Maps 20%
  • Participation 20%
  • Reading Presentations 15%
  • In-class Course Engagement Activities 20%
  • Opinion Editorial Assignment 25%

Materials

REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

SFU’s Academic Integrity website http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating. Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the university community. Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the university. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the university. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the semester are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.