The framework of transnationalism for the study of the global movement of people has challenged some basic disciplinary assumptions across the social sciences, concerning the relationship between people, culture, territory and nation. Taking up these challenges, this course will critically examine the dichotomies of the economic/political immigrant, push/ pull factors, home/host country, assimilation/alienation, and the rise/demise of the nation-state. Through ethnographic accounts of border-crossings around the world, we will pay particular attention to the everyday experiences of migrants on the one hand, and to the political, cultural and legal discourses that shape and constrain those experiences on the other. We will explore such themes as: constructions of ethnic identity through displacement and diaspora; illegal/irregular migrations and differential access to mobility; the inclusion and exclusions of the nation-state as manifested through immigration policies; borders as markers of the international geopolitical landscape and as metaphors for contested lines of difference between "us" and "them." We will also heed the need to contextualize current understandings of transnationalism by situating them vis a vis prior histories of displacement.