International Affairs

Assignment #2 — Due on March 2, 2021Please submit a short paper on the subject of your in-class presentation on February
23, concerning one of the assigned groups of refugees/migrants that we study this semester:

- Central Americans in the US since the 1980s
- Syrians inside the EU (or Turkey and Jordan) since 2014
- Palestinians internally displaced under Israeli occupation since 1948
- Yemenis in the Middle East since 2015

Your paper should reflect the issue you presented to class about the refugee/migrant experience, but you are expected to add issues covered by students who presented in the same group. The paper’s aim is to analyze more comprehensively the experience of your refugee group, i.e. Central Americans, Syrians, Palestinians, or Yemenis, by explaining 1) why they became refugees; 2) what motivates their human rights claims
(political, economic, social, cultural, etc.); and 3) how best to fulfill their needs. In order to receive a passing grade, the short paper should be a minimum 3 double spaced pages with a total of at least 4 different research sources on your Works Cited page. Remember to use the MLA or APA method of citing sources, as explained in class by reference librarian Susan Montgomery on February 9. There is no maximum page limit, and in order to earn a top A grade, your paper should be at least 4 pages long and have at least 2 citations per page with a minimum total of 6 cited sources in the entire paper.

Please use scholarly sources of information, preferably from academic books and journals available on the Olin Library databases, JSTOR and ProQuest. At least two-thirds of your sources should be academic, not media sources, i.e. newspaper, television, weblogs, etc.
NOTE: If you were absent from the WebEx meeting on February 23, you still need to submit a short paper on the subject you were assigned, reflecting issues that you would have presented in class. For students who attended the WebEx meeting and presented on their assigned subject,
your paper can go beyond the issues presented in class, but they must include the same issues. 

Final Research Paper — Due on May 2, 2021

The topic of the final research paper is for students to choose, but it must, first, involve critical thinking about global human migration and/or contemporary concerns of political refugees around the world, and second, meet the professor’s approval by March 9. An outline of the paper with bibliographic sources is due on March 23. The final paper is due by the end of Sunday, May 2 (minimum 8 double-spaced pages).
The final paper should use standard 11 point font with 1-inch margins. Students should cite research sources using the MLA (or APA) method with a Works Cited page at the end of the paper. Papers earning a high grade will utilize at least 6 different outside sources in the body of the essay, including at least 1 book and 2 academic journal articles. A paper with only 6 sources must be very high quality to earn a top grade, thus
if you seek a top grade, then you should try to have 8-10 different sources, perhaps 2 books, and 3-4 academic journal articles. The more diverse sources used in research, the better. External sources should be cited on average 2 or 3 times per page. It is not necessary to use a title page, but a Works Cited page is required. Both a title page and Works Cited page do not count toward the minimum 8 pages. Students should cite
research sources using the MLA (or APA) method. A guide with more detailed descriptions of the paper will be provided later in the semester.

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