Lesson Plan: How the U.S. Has Treated Wartime Refugees

Subjects:

U.S. History, Civics/Government or Geography

• This lesson likely fits best in a U.S. History class examining the Vietnam War period or immigration policy connected to any post-war period. The lesson also works well in a Civics/Government course looking at immigration as a policy topic or a Geography class investigating issues of immigration and migration.

Grade Level:

7-12

Lesson Duration:

• 1 class period

Essential Questions:

• How has U.S. immigration policy changed over time?
• What factors have led to policy changes? What effects have come from those changes?
• What obligation does the United States have to refugees fleeing war-torn countries?

Lesson Objectives:

Students will:

• Examine U.S. immigration policy at several points in history.
• Analyze the change in immigration policy over time, and evaluate the effects of policy changes.
• Compare and contrast patterns of immigration and make generalizations from available data.
• Formulate an argument about U.S. immigration policy.

Materials:

• How the U.S. Has Treated Wartime Refugees film (Transcript)
• Student Activity handout
• Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 Article | U.S. House of Representatives: History, Art & Archive
• Refugee Act of 1980  | National Archives
• Foreign-Born Population: A Nation of Overlapping Diasporas | Interactive Map from American Panorama

Procedure:

1. Students will begin by viewing the film “How the U.S. Has Treated Wartime Refugees” and answering the questions provided on the student activity document.
   1. The final question asks for students’ initial impression of how the U.S. deals with refugees from countries affected by war.
   2. As a class, discuss students’ answers to those questions, and pose follow up questions based on students’ previous knowledge of immigration issues or the current unit of study in a U.S. History course. Possible questions may include:
      1. What generalizations can we make about the experiences of refugees from people like Carolee Tran and Nemat Ullah Jaghori?
      2. What actions, either from the refugees themselves or government or non-profit agencies, have helped refugees adjust to living in the United States?
      3. What are some of the competing factors that influence U.S. government policy when it comes to immigration in general, and dealing with refugees specifically?
2. Next, have students examine two short articles, both dealing with significant changes to immigration law. Both the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 and the Refugee Act of 1980 are relevant to the experiences of those featured in the video. Students should answer the questions that accompany those articles.
3. Students will then examine an interactive map, Foreign-Born Population: A Nation of Overlapping Diasporas.
   1. The questions provided ask students to compare and contrast immigration patterns across 150 years. Please feel free to adjust the questions to fit any particular time frame of U.S. history.
   2. The interactive map has quite a few features and enables students to examine local and national trends, along with immigration patterns from particular parts of the world.
4. The closing activity asks students to answer the essential question posed in the film, “What obligation does the U.S. have to refugees whose countries have been torn apart by war?”
   1. This question can be kept broad or further tailored to a specific aspect of the curriculum. Possible alternatives include:
      1. What, if anything, should the United States have done differently with refugees from __? (Jewish refugees from the Holocaust, Vietnam, Bosnia, Rwanda, Central America, Ukraine, etc.)
      2. What changes should be made to U.S. immigration policy and why?

About the Author:

David Olson is the Director of Education for Retro Report. Prior to joining Retro Report, David was an award-winning teacher of U.S. History, A.P. U.S. Government and Politics and Criminal Justice at a public high school in Madison, Wisc.

Standards

Common Core Standards:

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.8: Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the author’s claims.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.9: Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.

C-3 Framework Standards for Social Studies:

• D1.4.9-12. Explain how supporting questions contribute to an inquiry and how, through engaging source work, new compelling and supporting questions emerge. 
• D2.Civ.1.9-12. Distinguish the powers and responsibilities of local, state, tribal, national, and international civic and political institutions.
• D2.Civ.5.9-12. Evaluate citizens’ and institutions’ effectiveness in addressing social and political problems at the local, state, tribal, national, and/or international level.
• D2.Civ.13.9-12. Evaluate public policies in terms of intended and unintended outcomes, and related consequences. 
• D2.Geo.2.9-12. Use maps, satellite images, photographs, and other representations to explain relationships between the locations of places and regions and their political, cultural, and economic dynamics.
• D2.Geo.7.9-12. Analyze the reciprocal nature of how historical events and the spatial diffusion of ideas, technologies, and cultural practices have influenced migration patterns and the distribution of human population.
• D2.Geo.12.9-12. Evaluate the consequences of human-made and natural catastrophes on global trade, politics, and human migration.
• D2.His.1.9-12. Evaluate how historical events and developments were shaped by unique circumstances of time and place as well as broader historical contexts.
• D2.His.2.9-12. Analyze change and continuity in historical eras.
• D2.His.5.9-12. Analyze how historical contexts shaped and continue to shape people’s perspectives.
• D2.His.12.9-12. Use questions generated about multiple historical sources to pursue further inquiry and investigate additional sources.
• D2.His.16.9-12. Integrate evidence from multiple relevant historical sources and interpretations into a reasoned argument about the past.