Immigration, Migration and Movement - An Art Exhibit

The exhibit will be on display from 8 a.m.-5 p.m., February 3-April 20, with an opening reception on Friday, Feb. 3, from 1:30-4:30 p.m. in Social Sciences 109.

Today’s politically charged attention to immigration suggests that it is primarily a matter of protecting borders and controlling the entry of “aliens.”  Other aspects of the concept are typically ignored, including the fact that the history of the human race is in some sense a history of movement—of ideas, resources, goods, and political and economic activities, as well as of populations.  Indeed, it may be that migration and movement lie at the core of what it means to be human.

Taken together, (im)migration and movement underpin global debates about nationhood, citizenship, and belonging; values and social otherness; questions of social justice; individual, national, and cultural identities; and the ways in which people reinvent themselves, their cultures, and their worlds in new contexts. Many things are on the move along with, ahead of, or behind human beings—diseases, information, material objects, and beliefs. Movement often characterizes the dissemination of policies and aspects of governmental functioning. It is necessary for spreading information and evangelical religions. It is an element of cultures formed by waterways and roads.