News & Events

News

At Odds Over Immigrant Assimilation (pdf)

At the U.S. Border, the Desert Takes a Rising Toll (pdf)

100 Years in the Back Door, Out the Front (pdf)

The Rio Grande Rises (pdf)

Pr. William Immigration, Housing Ills Seen as Linked (pdf)

Division Problem: The GOP's Ruinous Immigration Stance (pdf)

News Archives

A news report on the recent mining catastrophe in Utah revealing that half the trapped miners are Mexicans: From the Daily Yonder -- The Shared (but little reported) Tragedy of Mexican Miners in Utah:

http://www.dailyyonder.com/shared-tragedy-mexican-miners-utah

White House Report Lauds Immigrants' Positive Effects (PDF)

June 20, 2007, by Robert Pear

WASHINGTON, June 19. Hoping to influence Congressional debate, the White House issued a report on Tuesday
saying, "Immigration has a positive effect on the American economy as a whole and on the income of native-born American workers."

Good Life of Boomers Tied to Better Life for Immigrants (PDF)

May 15, 2007

Article from the Wall Street Journal

Campus Events

"Immigrant Healthcare Justice" (Tuesday, October 30)
(Social Justice in American Medicine)
8-9 pm, DeBartolo 117

Fr. Kevin Minder, S.T.D, is the founder and executive director of the Center for Immigrant Healthcare Justice, in St. Louis. He earned a doctorate (Magna cum Laude) in Sacred Theology in June of 2004 from the Pontifical University of St.Thomas in Rome, Italy. His dissertation, "The Right to Healthcare and the Denial of Medicaid Benefits to Legal Immigrants," became the impetus for his creation of a center that advocates for greater access to the healthcare system for all immigrants in our society.

Conference (Friday, September 28)
"Cosmopolitanism: Gender, Race, Class and the Quest for Global Justice (Gender Studies)"
For more details: www.nd.edu/~gender
Courses related to the Cosmopolitanism conference.

Films

Notre Dame’s Immigration-Related Film Series
The University is sponsoring film series related to immigration that are open to the public. Many more immigration-related films and other events are being planned for beyond the Forum and into 2008. Subscribe to get updates on what’s new.

Film (Wednesday, September 19)

“H-2 Worker”
Migration and Border Studies, Institute for Latino Studies
Film series sponsored by ILS
Stephanie Black, Director, 1990
7:00 p.m., DeBartolo 126
H-2 is the immigration category for America’s guest workers. This poignant film exposes the harsh exploitation of men who came from Jamaica and other West Indies nations to work on the sugar cane fields of Belle Glade, Florida. The filmmaker traces the history of sugar cane labor in Florida, which began with the immoral re-enslavement of African Americans in the 1940’s. The media and legislative scrutiny of the industry’s scandalous treatment of United States citizens spurred the search for an alternative source of unfree labor: guest workers from the Caribbean.
Director Black elicits honest discussions from executives in the sugar cane industry, U.S. Department of Labor officials, Prime Minister and, of course, the workers themselves. The letters exchanged between the men and their female relatives back home in the Caribbean are moving documentation of the human costs of migration. The soundtrack features reggae and dub poetry hits by Bob Marley, Mutabaruka and others.

Awards:

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary, 1990, Sundance Film Festival and
Best Cinematography, 1990 Sundance Film Festival

Film (Thursday, September 20)

“The Namesake”
Immigration: A Notre Dame Perspective
Directed by Mira Nair, 2007
7:00 p.m. & 10:00 p.m., DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts (DPAC)

Based on the bestselling book by Jhumpa Lahiri, the film follows two generations of the Ganguli family. After wedding via an arranged marriage, Ashima (Tabu) moves with Ashoke (Irrfan Khan) from her native Calcutta to New York.

Film (Wednesday, September 26)

“Life and Debt”
Migration and Border Studies, Institute for Latino Studies
Film series sponsored by ILS
7:00 p.m., DeBartolo 126
Stephanie Black, Director, 2001

In “Life and Debt,” Stephanie Black explores and explains the reasons why Jamaicans are making the diffeicult decision to leave their beloved homes and emigrate to North America and England. Utilizing excerpts from “A Small Place” by Jamaica Kincaid, Life & Debt is a woven tapestry of sequences focusing on the stories of individual Jamaicans whose strategies for survival and parameters of day-to-day existence are determined by the U.S. and other foreign economic agendas. By combining traditional documentary telling with a stylized narrative framework, the complexity of international lending, structural adjustment policies and free trade will be understood in the context of the day-to-day realities of the people whose lives they impact.

The soundtrack features reggae and dub poetry hits by Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Mutabaruka and others. Narrated by Jamaica Kinkaid.

Awards:
2004 Festival International Du Film Insulaire, Ole De Groix, Special Jury Prize
2004 Paris Human Rights Film Festival, Special Jury Prize
Life And Debt was awarded Best Documentary at the Jamaican Film Festival.
“Best Film of the Festival,” Independent Feature Project/West Los Angeles Film Festival.

Film (Thursday, September 27)

“El Norte”
Immigration: A Notre Dame Perspective

1983, Director Gregory Nava
is scheduled to be present
7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts (DPAC)

Two young Mayan Indians, a brother and sister, travel from their remote Guatemalan village to the “promised land” of the north—Los Angeles.

October

Film (Wednesday, October 3)

“Snakeheads: The Chinese Mafia and the New Slave Trade
Migration and Border Studies, Institute for Latino Studies
Film series sponsored by ILS
Directors: Ying Chan, Peter Kwong, Jon Alpert, 1994
7:00 p.m., DeBartolo 126

Filmed in China and New York, Snakeheads explores the complicated issues of illegal immigration and sweatshop labor framed against a background of competing global economic forces. Every year millions of impoverished Chinese men and women risk their small fortunes and their lives to place themselves at the mercy of the Chinese Mafia in order to find work in the United States. The squalid conditions under which they live once they arrive, poses thoughtful questions on the economic forces and social policies working to create such conditions. Despite the risks, there is an endless pool of Chinese who dream of making the voyage to the land they call “The Golden Mountain.” “Snakeheads” sheds an uncompromising light on this modern day slave trade and asks, “What solutions does the U.S., China or the international community have to offer?”

Film (Wednesday, October 10)

“My American Girls: A Dominican Story”
Migration and Border Studies, Institute for Latino Studies
Film series sponsored by ILS
Directed by Aaron Matthews, 2001
7:00 –9:00 p.m., DeBartolo 126

“My American Girls: A Dominican Story” captures the joys and struggles over a year in the lives of the Ortiz family, first generation immigrants from the Dominican Republic. Matthews’ film captures the rewards — and costs — of conducting transnational lives that straddle national borders. From hard-working immigrant parents in New York, who imagine retiring to their rural homeland, to American-born daughters, caught between their parent’s values and their own, the film encompasses the contradictions of contemporary transnational and immigrant lives.
Award for Best Documentary, San Francisco Latino Film Festival, 2001

Debate (Thursday, October 11)
7:00 p.m., Dooley Room, La Fortune Student Center

Student—Faculty Debate on Immigration
(Student Government)

Gallery Reception (Thursday, October 11)

“Images of Immigrant Communities: A Photographic Exhibition on Migration”
(Institute for Latino Studies)
4:30 — 6:00 p.m., Galería América, McKenna Hall

Gallery Exhibition (October 11 to October 24)

“Images of Immigrant Communities: A Photographic Exhibition on Migration”
Featured Artists: Students from the Notre Dame Community
(Institute for Latino Studies)
Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Galería América, McKenna Hall

Film (Sunday, October 14)

Pre-conference film series: “Immigration in Ireland”
4: 00 p.m., DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts

Conference (October 14-17)

“Race and Immigration in the New Ireland”
7:15 pm, Washington Hall
The Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies: http://www.nd.edu/%7Eirishstu/ri.htm
For more info and schedule: http://irishstudies.nd.edu/ri.htm
Register: https://marketplace.nd.edu/cce/

Keynote Address (Sunday, October 14)

Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland
(Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, Center for Social Concerns)
7:15 p.m., Washington Hall

Film (Sunday, October 14)

Immigration: A Notre Dame Perspective
“In America”
Directed by Jim Sheridan, 2003
4:00 p.m., DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts (DPAC)

Through the wide-open eyes of two young heroines, Sheridan transforms a devastating human tragedy into a riveting, humor-tinged story about memory, secrets, love, loss, coming together and starting over.

Film (Wednesday, October 17)

“The Sixth Section”
Migration and Border Studies, Institute for Latino Studies
7:00 p.m., Hesburgh Center Auditorium

Film Festival

Francisco Vittoria Film Festival
(Legal Aid Clinic)

Gallery Exhibition (October 25 to January 10)

“Día de los Muertos: Images from a Mexican Tradition”
(Institute for Latino Studies)
Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Galería América, McKenna Hall

Workshop (Tuesday, October 30)

“Day of the Dead Celebration” Workshop
Chavez Family Weavers
(Institute for Latino Studies, Snite Museum of Art)
5:30 – 8:00 p.m., Institute for Latino Studies Annex, 1024 Notre Dame Ave.

Poetry Reading (Tuesday, October 30)

“Chloe’s Cabaret: Poetry, Music, Conversation & Coffee”
Gabriel Gómez & Valerie Martínez, Featured Poets
(Institute for Latino Studies, DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts Creative Writing Program)
7:00 – 9:00 p.m., Regis Philbin Studio Theatre, DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts (DPAC)

November

Day of the Dead Celebration (Thursday, November 1)
Ramiro Rodríguez, Featured Artist
(Institute for Latino Studies, Snite Museum of Art)
7:00 p.m., Snite Museum of Art

Gallery Reception (Thursday, November 8)

“Día de los Muertos: Images from a Mexican Tradition”
(Institute for Latino Studies)
5:00 — 7:00 p.m., Galería América, McKenna Hall

Gallery Exhibition (October 25 to January 10)

“Día de los Muertos: Images from a Mexican Tradition”
(Institute for Latino Studies)
Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Galería América, McKenna Hall

Trafficking Panel Event (Mid-November)

"Bought and Sold: Human Trafficking & Bonded Labor in the U.S."
7:00 — 8:30 p.m., Law School Courtroom

"Each year 800,000 to 900,000 human beings are bought, sold, or forced across the world's borders." These words from President Bush to the U.N. General Assembly in 2003 drew urgent attention to a current humanitarian crisis of epic proportions -- human trafficking and bonded labor. Human trafficking stretches across the world and includes our own neighborhoods.

Speakers:
Speakers on this panel will include Bridgette Carr, Associate Clinical Professor of Law at Notre Dame, who works with the Notre Dame Legal Aid Clinic and is hired to work on immigration and human trafficking. Carr has experience in human trafficking cases in Michigan. Other speakers invited to speak will include testimony from a survivor of human trafficking, an immigration official, and a Notre Dame student who came to learn about the situation of human trafficking during an international summer service learning internship through the Center for Social Concerns.

Sponsors:
Sponsors include the Center for Social Concerns, Center for Civil and Human Rights and the Notre Dame Legal Aid Clinic at the University of Notre Dame Law School, and the Family Justice Center of St. Joseph County.

Of Note:
An NBC documentary of this will be released shortly.

December

Gallery Exhibition (October 25 to January 10)

“Día de los Muertos: Images from a Mexican Tradition”
(Institute for Latino Studies)
Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Galería América, McKenna Hall

January

Film (January 17)

Immigration: A Notre Dame Perspective
“Golden Door”
Directed by Emanuele Crialese, 2007
7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts (DPAC)

One man, driven by fantastic dreams and confronted with shocking realities, makes an epic odyssey in search of a brand new world.

Gallery Exhibition (October 25 to January 10)

“Día de los Muertos: Images from a Mexican Tradition”
(Institute for Latino Studies)
Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Galería América, McKenna Hall

February

Lecture (Monday, February 4)
Michael Olivas
(Co-sponsor: Institute for Latino Studies)

Film (Thursday, February 14)
Immigration: A Notre Dame Perspective
“9 Star Hotel”
Directed by Ido Haar, 2007
7:00 pm and 10:00 pm, DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts (DPAC)

This Israeli documentary explores the grueling daily routines of Palestinian construction workers who cross the border before the sun rises each morning in order to make enough to survive.

March

Lecture (Friday, March 14)
“Ten Years Hence” Series
Lecture on immigration
George Borjas, Kennedy School at Harvard University
(Mendoza College of Business)

Lecture (Wednesday, March 26)
Opening the Floodgates: Why America Needs to Rethink its Borders and Immigration Laws
"A Public Policy Agenda and a New Vision for the Future." Series
Kevin R. Johnson, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law and Chicana/o Studies at the University of California at Davis
Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 4:00 pm in room 210 McKenna Hall