A Land of Refuge or Refusal? US Refugee Experience

To understand the present refugee crisis, students analyze key ideas in an academic article that provides historical background on the refugee experience in the United States, including examples of welcoming and exclusionary responses, as well as the impacts of these disparate reactions. After analyzing the author’s claims and evidence, students then apply one of those claims to the current refugee crisis in order to answer the question: how is America a land of refuge, refusal, or both?