Beyond Borders: Migration and the Next California

For all the political upheaval concerning illegal immigration and border fences, international migration is likely to be a lasting feature of California society and politics. On March 10, 2011, Beyond Borders: Migration and the Next California will bring together scholars, writers, and community organizers into a dialogue about borders, the communities they divide, and the people who cross them. A reception will follow the symposium to celebrate the launch of Boom: A Journal of California. In order to open a conversation about international migration in California, speakers in Beyond Borders will focus on what the U.S.-Mexico border has been in the past, and then think about what it might become in the future. Can we find ways of thinking about border futures in borders past? Kelly Lytle Hernández, author of Migra! The History of the U.S. Border Patrol, will deliver the keynote address: “Amnesty or Abolition? Race, Freedom, and the Future of the Illegal Alien in America.” Responses from Kevin R. Johnson, Dean of the UC Davis School of Law, Rubén Martínez, award-winning journalist, author, and performer, and José Padilla, Executive Director of California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc., will follow. The symposium will also include a roundtable discussion moderated by Louis S. Warren (Professor of History, UC Davis) and Carolyn de la Peña (Professor of American Studies, UC Davis), co-editors of Boom: A Journal of California.

KJ