by Susan Manuel
Introduction
Fall 2024 promises to be convulsive for the country, with immigration one of the most volcanic issues in the Presidential election. LLI’s 2024 fall session will feature three ways to learn more.
The Immigrant Crisis: Too Hot to Handle
In the seven-week Thursday Zoom class, The Immigration Crisis: Too Hot to Handle, expert presenters will explore federal and state immigration policies and realities from legal, political, economic, and humanitarian perspectives. Attendees will also hear from immigrants living in the Hudson Valley with vastly different experiences. Finally, leaders in the fields of advocacy and assistance will talk about their work with immigrants and how LLI members can get involved.
This course is produced by four members of the LLI Diversity, Equity and Inclusion/Social Justice Team: Susan Manuel, Felice Gelman, Martha Honey and Barbara Danish. Since 2022, the Justice Team has produced several other popular courses, including Indigenous Peoples of the Hudson Valley and Beyond and African Americans in the Hudson Valley.
“Immigration is not only a hot political topic, but it is a natural progression from our other courses which examined neighboring communities from a justice angle,” said producer Martha Honey. ”The Hudson Valley has long welcomed immigrants. But the situation has grown increasingly complex and contentious, so it is worth a deep dive.”
A Nation of Immigrants
Most Americans—those not descended from enslaved or Indigenous people—have immigrant roots. More than 52 million immigrants—defined as residents not born here— live in the United States. Current estimates put the current foreign-born population in the mid- Hudson Valley at about 12 percent. In the past year, however, several upstate New York communities shut their doors to new migrants heading north from the border with Mexico. So how did immigration become so divisive? What should a sane immigration policy be? What are the real economic impacts of immigrants? And how can we help immigrants who have arrived here to thrive and contribute? This course will attempt to answer these questions.
Immigration and the Arts
Another course, We Were All Foreigners: Global Immigration Shown Through Cinema and Poetry, will look at migration around the world through the prism of the arts. This six-week in-person course held on Fridays will be presented by Peter Scheckner, a former professor of literature at Ramapo College.
Around the globe, people are fleeing their homelands to escape a range of disasters—wars, political instability and other forms of violence, as well as climate change, economic deprivation, and social injustice. The course will explore how films and poetry depict the forces that are driving nearly 4 percent of the world’s population —more than 280 million migrants, refugees, displaced persons, and asylum seekers (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs)—from their homes.
European and non-Western countries have produced a huge body of films depicting this crisis. Most are accessible on the major streaming platforms. Similarly, an acclaimed canon of poetry, much by women, is available from around the world, including from Vietnam, Sudan, Iran, and the Caribbean. Each week, the class will explore different films and poetry through class discussions and interactions.
Special Screening of the New Documentary "Borderland"
Finally, as a special on-campus event open to all members, LLI is hosting a screening of the newly released documentary film Borderland: The Line Within on Friday, October 18, 1:00 – 3:30 p.m. in Weis Auditorium in Bertelsmann Campus Center. The 2024 film “is a critique of my country’s inhumane treatment of people arriving in the U.S. It’s about the use of immigration as a gateway to fascist ideology and political power,” wrote director Pamela Yates. She and producer Paco de Onis, who both live in Saugerties, will be present for a Q&A afterwards. The film will be free to LLI members and one guest each, but advance registration is required.
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