Race & Immigration: Critical Perspectives and Future Directions

April 7-8, 2016


Race has played a pivotal role in U.S. immigration history. While in earlier eras the racial classification and in/exclusion of immigrants were explicitly formalized through law, after the Civil Rights movement, the place of race in formal reception and in public attitudes often have taken veiled expressions. At the same time, immigrants’ own self identities and classifications of various immigrant groups have shifted over time. Yet, despite the dramatic political, cultural, and demographic changes in contemporary immigration, the perception and reception of immigrants continue to be strongly influenced by race, and new forms of racial classification and in/exclusion have emerged, with important far-reaching implications for the integration of immigrants in the U.S. and in other receiving contexts throughout the globe.

The inaugural Symposium of the KU Center for Migration Research seeks to critically examine the continued significance of race in immigration across time and place. A historical-comparative perspective will guide conversations on past and current intersections of immigration and race and on directions for future scholarship. The Symposium reception will start on Thursday, April 7 at 6:30pm in Spooner Hall, followed at 7:30pm by a keynote address by Professor Rogelio Saenz with a response by Professor David Roediger. The symposium will continue on Friday, April 8th, from 8:45am in the Malott Room in the KU Union.

Participation in the symposium is free and open to the public, and includes lunch for registered participants on Friday.