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ABI - Immigration and multicultural identities in the USA

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ABI - Immigration and multicultural identities in the USA

Mini-description: Explore different migration histories, identities and concepts of belonging in the United States from multiple perspectives. The course avoids a single national story and prepares shared BF/LF learning at upper-secondary level in Baden-Württemberg.

Language level: mainly B2, with selected C1-oriented tasks. English comes first. German support is a rescue option, not a full translation.

Einleitung

The United States has never had just one migration story. Its history includes Indigenous presence and sovereignty, settler colonialism, the forced migration of enslaved Africans, voluntary immigration, border changes, labour migration, refugee migration, exclusion laws, family migration, naturalization and transnational lives.

In this course, you ask: Who moves? Who is forced to move? Who decides who belongs? Who tells the story? You work with images, short official source extracts, statistics and videos instead of long text blocks.

Important learning rule: Do not treat Indigenous peoples as immigrants. Do not describe enslaved people as voluntary immigrants. Distinguish legal citizenship from cultural identity and social belonging.

Media entry: Four frames, no single story

Look first. Do not read a summary yet.

Task: What changes when the story of the USA begins with Indigenous peoples and territories rather than with European arrival?

Task: Which migration vocabulary is inappropriate here? Explain why forced migration, enslavement and dehumanization matter.

Task: Describe only what you can see. Then separate observation from interpretation.

Task: Which symbols of civic belonging can you identify? Which forms of belonging cannot a photograph prove?

Media note: Open each Commons file page to check creator, date, source and licence before re-use.

I-can goals

I can ...	BF focus	LF extension
distinguish migration histories	explain selected examples with a timeline	connect several histories and identify tensions between them
analyse perspective	use a source-purpose-context scaffold	compare framing, selection, silences and power across sources
discuss identity and belonging	apply key concepts to one example	evaluate the usefulness and limits of several concepts
use evidence	support a clear claim with one or two sources	synthesize several sources independently and qualify claims
communicate	give a structured short response	sustain a nuanced argument with counter-perspectives

Vorwissen: 6-minute concept check

Migration: Write one example of voluntary movement and one example of forced movement.
Identity: Note two dimensions that may shape identity without claiming that they determine a person.
Belonging: Complete the sentence in English: "A person may legally belong to a state but..."
Source criticism: Name one reason why a museum photograph, a law and an interview can tell different stories about the same period.

Do not use classmates' family histories as classroom data unless they volunteer them. Personal recordings remain optional and private.

Abi 2027: official check for Baden-Württemberg

Checked: 3 October 2026. For the 2027 English Abitur, the official Facherlass names On the Move: Migration and Cross-Cultural Encounters as a compulsory focus in the Leistungsfach. It also names the USA topic area Politics, culture, society – between tradition and change, including American ideals and realities and current questions of identity and social, cultural and political developments.

For the Basisfach, the official document states that the focus topic and compulsory works are identical to the Leistungsfach, but the topic is to be treated in an appropriate scope and at least part of the compulsory works must be covered with attention to the level difference between BF and LF.

2027 compulsory canon named in the Facherlass: Denis Villeneuve, Arrival; Jhumpa Lahiri, The Third and Final Continent; Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Thing Around Your Neck; Sefi Atta, Green; Andrea Levy, Loose Change; Luis Alberto Urrea, The Southside Raza Image Federation Corps of Discovery; Zadie Smith, The Embassy of Cambodia; Kit de Waal, Exterior Paint; Neel Mukherjee, The Soldier's Tale.

This MOOC does not reproduce complete compulsory texts or unauthorized film sequences. It builds contextual knowledge and analysis skills.

Official sources:

Course differentiation: BF uses selected examples, smaller source sets and more scaffolding. LF adds breadth, text complexity, independent source linking and more work in AFB II/III. The target is B2 with selected C1-oriented learning, not artificial difficulty.

Migration histories in the plural

Lens 1: Indigenous presence, land and settler colonialism

Before the United States existed, many Indigenous nations lived across the continent. A migration unit that starts only with Ellis Island can erase this history.

BF: Explain why Indigenous history and immigration history are related but not identical.

LF: Analyse how starting points shape a national narrative. Which actors become visible or invisible?

Lens 2: Forced migration and slavery

The transatlantic slave trade forcibly transported millions of Africans across the Atlantic. In a US migration course, this history must not be folded into the language of voluntary immigration.

Source question: What can a ship diagram reveal about systems of violence and commodification? What can it not reveal about individual lives?

Lens 3: Ellis Island and mass immigration

Ellis Island operated as a federal immigration station from 1892 to 1954 and processed nearly 12 million immigrants. Restrictive quota laws in the 1920s sharply changed admissions.

National Park Service: Ellis Island immigration history

Single-story check: Ellis Island is important, but it is not a complete symbol for all US migration histories.

Lens 4: Asian exclusion and Angel Island

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 restricted Chinese labour immigration and naturalization. It became a major federal exclusion law based on nationality and race.

National Archives: Chinese Exclusion Act

Angel Island Immigration Station operated from 1910 to 1940. Many Asian migrants experienced interrogation and detention there; Chinese detainees carved and wrote poetry on the walls.

National Park Service: Angel Island Immigration Station

Compare: What changes when Ellis Island and Angel Island are studied together?

Lens 5: Mexican American borderlands and labour migration

Mexican American migration histories cannot be reduced to border crossing alone. The US-Mexico border changed, communities existed across changing political boundaries, and labour systems shaped movement.

The Bracero Program ran from 1942 to 1964 as a bilateral contract-labour program. The Library of Congress documents both its economic role and workers' experiences, including low wages and poor conditions.

Library of Congress: Mexican American Migrations and Communities

Question: How does a border change the meaning of "migrant", "resident" and "belonging"?

Lens 6: 1965 reform, later immigration and naturalization

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 ended the national-origins quota system and introduced a preference system that emphasized family reunification and skills. Its effects contributed to major changes in the origins of later immigration.

U.S. House History: Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965

Key distinction: Naturalization is a legal process. Identity and belonging are broader and may be multiple, contested or situational.

Listening and Viewing

Viewing 1: The danger of a single story

Before viewing: Predict what a "single story" might mean.

During viewing: Note one example, one effect of unequal narrative power and one moment in which a stereotype is complicated.

BF: Explain the core warning in 3–4 sentences.

LF: Apply the concept to a US migration narrative and test where the analogy works and where it has limits.

Viewing 2: The Chinese Exclusion Act

PBS viewing task: Separate fact, historical voice and present-day framing. Create a three-column note sheet.

BF: Select two pieces of evidence.

LF: Analyse how the documentary frames law, race and national belonging.

Viewing 3: Where are you local?

Taiye Selasi challenges the assumption that one nationality fully explains a person's identity.

BF: Give one example of how locality can shape identity.

LF: Assess the usefulness and limits of replacing "Where are you from?" with "Where are you local?"

Viewing 4: Naturalization ceremony as institutional perspective

USCIS viewing task: Identify symbols, repeated values and institutional language. Then ask what the video can show about citizenship and what it cannot establish about personal belonging.

Perspective rule: An official video is evidence of an institution's self-presentation. It is not automatically evidence of every participant's experience.

Reading: source set, not text wall

Choose short sections from the linked sources. Do not copy full pages.

Ellis Island, NPS: Use for federal processing, inspection and chronology.
Angel Island, NPS: Use for detention, Asian migration and exclusion.
Chinese Exclusion Act, National Archives: Use the law and archival context.
Mexican American Migrations, Library of Congress: Use sources about borderlands and communities.
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, House History: Use for reform context.
Census table B05006: Use for current foreign-born data; always note year, population and table definition.

Reading routine: source → date → purpose → claim → evidence → missing perspective.

Context vocabulary and word formation

Try this order before German help: context → word family → visual idea → English explanation → English dictionary → German rescue.

Word family	English explanation	Example frame	German rescue
migrate – migration – migrant – migratory	movement from one place or country to another	"The source describes migration as..."	Migration / wandern
belong – belonging	feeling or being recognized as part of a place or group	"Belonging is shown through..."	Zugehörigkeit
exclude – exclusion – exclusionary	keep a person or group outside access or membership	"The law created exclusion by..."	ausschließen
include – inclusion – inclusive	enable participation or membership	"The institution presents itself as inclusive because..."	einbeziehen
naturalize – naturalization – naturalized	legally become a citizen under a state's rules	"Naturalization changes legal status, but..."	Einbürgerung
citizen – citizenship	legal membership in a state with rights and duties	"Citizenship differs from identity because..."	Staatsbürgerschaft
assimilate – assimilation	adapt toward a dominant cultural pattern	"Assimilation is expected when..."	Assimilation / Angleichung
integrate – integration	participate in institutions while interaction changes individuals and society	"Integration can be discussed at the level of..."	Integration
identify – identity – identification	how people understand themselves and are categorized by others	"The speaker constructs identity through..."	Identität
transnational – transnationalism	maintaining meaningful links across national borders	"A transnational perspective highlights..."	grenzüberschreitend

Dictionary step: Use a reliable monolingual learner's dictionary first, for example Cambridge Dictionary or Oxford Learner's Dictionaries.

Concepts of identity and belonging

These are analytical lenses, not labels you should force onto people.

Concept	Useful question	Caution
melting pot	Is difference imagined as merging into one common culture?	can hide unequal power and pressure to assimilate
salad bowl / mosaic	Are distinct identities imagined as coexisting?	can make cultures look fixed and separate
assimilation	Who is expected to adapt, and to which norm?	do not assume adaptation is one-way or complete
hybridity	How do identities emerge through cultural mixing?	avoid treating people as examples of a theory
transnationalism	Which ties cross national borders?	not every migrant lives transnationally
civic belonging	How do rights, participation and institutions create membership?	legal membership does not fully describe emotional belonging
racialization	How are social groups produced and marked through racial categories?	categories change historically and socially
intersectionality	How can several dimensions of inequality interact?	avoid reducing a person to categories

Visual shortcut: melting → coexistence → mixing → cross-border ties. Use this only as a memory aid, not as a ranking of models.

Analysis toolkit

Use S-P-A-C-E:

Source: What kind of source is it?
Perspective: Who speaks, sees or selects?
Audience and purpose: For whom and why?
Context: Which historical, legal or social conditions matter?
Evidence and exclusions: What supports the claim, and what is absent?

For visual material, add composition, perspective, symbols, captions and selection.

For language, add choice of words, lexical fields, tone, register, syntax, examples and references.

Speaking

90-second visual analysis

Choose one Commons image from this MOOC.

Structure: observation → context → interpretation → limitation.

BF scaffold: "The image shows... In the context of... This may suggest... However, the image cannot tell us..."

LF extension: Link the image to a second source and explain whether the two sources reinforce, complicate or contradict each other.

Source circle

In groups, each learner represents one source, not a social group. Discuss:

Which migration history is visible?
Which form of belonging is emphasized?
Which perspective is missing?
Which claim can your source support, and which claim can it not support?

No one has to disclose personal migration experience.

Writing

Claim – evidence – commentary

Weak: "America is a melting pot."

Better: "The melting-pot metaphor is useful for analysing expectations of cultural convergence, but it can hide unequal pressure to assimilate."

Your task: Write one paragraph that uses a source and then limits its own claim.

BF: one central claim + one source + one counterpoint.

LF: one central claim + two or three sources + source comparison + qualified conclusion.

Comparative writing prompt

Prompt: "Compare how two sources construct belonging in the United States. Analyse both perspective and historical context."

Do not ask an AI system for a replacement essay. If AI tools are permitted by your school, use them only for clearly defined support such as generating vocabulary questions or checking a claim, and verify every factual statement and source yourself. Follow your school's rules for indicating AI use.

Mediation – optional

Use a fictional school exchange scenario.

German input idea: A short school notice explains that a local exhibition discusses Ellis Island, Angel Island and labour migration.

Task in English: Explain to an exchange student why the exhibition deliberately uses several migration histories rather than one national success story.

Use fictional names and data. Do not upload private documents, voice recordings or classmates' work to external services.

Help ladder

Step 1 – Context: Re-read the sentence or image caption.
Step 2 – Word family: Find the base word and related forms.
Step 3 – Visualize: Draw a small concept map or timeline.
Step 4 – Explain in English: Use a simple English definition.
Step 5 – Dictionary: Check a monolingual dictionary.
Step 6 – German rescue: Use a brief German hint only if necessary.

BF support: sentence starters, selected sources, guided comparison grid.

LF support: optional vocabulary bank, but less structural guidance; wider source choice and independent synthesis.

Feedback and error analysis

Use four checks before submission:

Code	Check	Repair question
ARG	argument	Is my claim precise and qualified?
EVID	evidence	Does the evidence actually support the claim?
SRC	source use	Have I identified perspective, date and limits?
LANG	language	Are tense, word choice, register and cohesion appropriate?
REF	reflection	Have I considered another perspective or missing voice?

Peer feedback formula: "Your claim is clear when... One source detail that strengthens it is... One limitation you could add is..."

Transfer

Apply the course to a new source: a museum page, census chart, political speech, oral-history clip or citizenship ceremony.

Transfer question: Does the new source reinforce a familiar national narrative, complicate it, or replace it with a different simplification?

For policy-related material, separate documented facts, source claims and your analysis. Do not infer motives without evidence.

Abi-Check

Mini-task 1 – Comprehension: Outline the source's central argument about belonging without adding your opinion.

Mini-task 2 – Analysis: Analyse how language and source perspective shape the representation of migration.

Mini-task 3 – Comparison: Compare a historical image with a contemporary institutional video.

Mini-task 4 – Evaluation: Assess the usefulness and limits of one concept such as assimilation, hybridity or transnationalism for the sources provided.

Mini-task 5 – Synthesis: Develop a thesis that links migration history, identity and belonging while avoiding a single-story narrative.

BF check: Can you complete the task with one clear line of argument and selected evidence?

LF check: Can you connect multiple materials independently, address tensions and qualify your conclusion?

Follow-up course

Continue with On the Move: Migration and Cross-Cultural Encounters through the compulsory 2027 literary and film canon. Work with legally available editions and school-licensed materials; do not reproduce full texts or unauthorized film sequences.

Possible bridge questions:

How does a fictional narrator construct cultural belonging?
How do displacement, language and memory shape identity?
How does a film create perspective through image, sound and editing?
How can literary migration stories challenge a single national narrative?

Interaktive Aufgaben

Quiz: Teste Dein Wissen

Why is "a single story" risky in the study of migration? (It can reduce complex histories and perspectives to one dominant narrative) (!It proves that historical sources are useless) (!It means every source is equally reliable) (!It requires students to avoid all generalizations)

Which statement best describes Indigenous history in a US migration course? (Indigenous presence and sovereignty must not simply be treated as immigration) (!Indigenous peoples arrived through Ellis Island) (!Indigenous history began with the United States) (!Indigenous identity is identical across all nations)

Which federal law of 1882 restricted Chinese labour immigration? (Chinese Exclusion Act) (!Immigration and Nationality Act) (!Homestead Act) (!Social Security Act)

Which site is especially important for studying Asian immigration and detention on the US Pacific coast? (Angel Island) (!Ellis Island) (!Plymouth Rock) (!Mount Rushmore)

What was the Bracero Program? (A bilateral contract-labour program involving Mexican workers and the United States) (!A citizenship test for European immigrants) (!A school exchange program) (!A refugee program created after 1965)

What major change is associated with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965? (It ended the national-origins quota system) (!It created Ellis Island) (!It introduced the Chinese Exclusion Act) (!It ended all immigration controls)

What is naturalization? (The legal process through which a non-citizen may become a citizen) (!A synonym for cultural identity) (!The forced loss of citizenship) (!The movement from one US state to another)

What does transnationalism highlight? (Meaningful social ties and practices across national borders) (!The idea that every migrant fully assimilates) (!A legal ban on dual identity) (!A fixed national culture)

What makes source analysis stronger? (A claim connected to evidence, perspective and context) (!A claim based only on personal opinion) (!A long quotation without explanation) (!A conclusion that ignores source limitations)

How does the shared BF/LF design differ most clearly? (LF adds greater breadth, depth, complexity and independent source synthesis) (!BF and LF use completely unrelated topics) (!BF never analyses sources) (!LF avoids listening and viewing)

Memory

Ellis Island	Atlantic federal immigration station
Angel Island	Pacific immigration and detention station
Exclusion	Barrier to entry or membership
Naturalization	Legal process of becoming a citizen
Belonging	Social attachment and recognition
Transnationalism	Meaningful ties across borders

Drag and Drop

Ordne die richtigen Begriffe zu.	Thema
Perspective	Who speaks or selects?
Context	Which historical conditions matter?
Evidence	What supports the claim?
Exclusion	What is absent or kept outside?
Belonging	Who is recognized as part of a community?

Kreuzworträtsel

Migration	What word describes movement from one place or country to another?
Belonging	What word describes feeling or being recognized as part of a community?
Exclusion	What word describes keeping people outside access or membership?
Diaspora	What word can describe a dispersed community maintaining links across places?
Citizenship	What word describes legal membership in a state?
Hybridity	What word describes identity formed through cultural mixing?

LearningApps

Lückentext

A migration history should distinguish voluntary movement from

.

Ellis Island is only one part of a wider history of

.

Angel Island is important for studying Asian migration and legal

.

The legal process of becoming a citizen is called

.

A person's legal status does not completely determine their sense of

.

Connections that continue across national borders can be described as

.

Strong source analysis connects evidence with perspective and historical

.

A useful argument should also identify the limits of its own

.

Offene Aufgaben

Leicht

Visual analysis: Choose one Commons image from the course and write a four-sentence observation–context–interpretation–limitation analysis.
Word formation: Build a visual word-family map for migrate, belong, exclude and naturalize, then use four forms in original English sentences.
Source card: Create a small source card for Ellis Island or Angel Island with date, institution, perspective and one limitation.
Speaking practice: Give a 60-second private or live visual explanation; recording is optional and should remain private unless you explicitly choose otherwise.

Standard

Compare Ellis Island and Angel Island: Build a two-source comparison that identifies both shared features and different legal or racialized contexts.
Naturalization and belonging: Analyse the naturalization image or video and explain why citizenship and belonging should not be treated as synonyms.
Mediation: Create a short English explanation of a fictional German museum notice about multiple US migration histories without translating sentence by sentence.
Podcast storyboard: Design a three-minute audio storyboard called "More than one migration story" using only rights-safe sources and no personal data.

Schwer

Source dossier: Build a mini-dossier with one law, one image, one institutional source and one statistical source; write a thesis that connects them without forcing agreement.
Single-story audit: Examine a museum page or textbook passage and identify whose perspectives are centered, marginalized or absent; verify every factual claim.
Oral exam simulation: Prepare a structured comparison of two unfamiliar sources, then respond to follow-up questions that require AFB II/III reasoning.
Micro-exhibition: Curate four rights-safe media items under the title "Belonging in Plural"; write captions that distinguish fact, interpretation and source limitation.

Lernkontrolle

Narrative transfer: A textbook chapter begins with Ellis Island and ends with a citizenship ceremony. Explain which histories this structure highlights and which it risks hiding. Redesign the sequence and justify your choice.
Concept transfer: Apply both assimilation and transnationalism to the same fictional case. Explain what each concept reveals and what each misses.
Source conflict: Two sources describe the same migration policy differently. Develop a method for deciding whether they truly contradict each other or simply answer different questions.
Evidence test: Given a striking photograph and a statistical table, formulate one claim each source can support and one claim it cannot support.
Belonging debate: Distinguish legal citizenship, cultural identity and social belonging in a fictional case in which the three do not align neatly.
AI and source checking: A generated paragraph contains three factual claims about US immigration history. Design a verification workflow using primary or institutional sources before accepting or revising the paragraph.

Lernnachweis

For a successful learning record, show that you can:

distinguish voluntary migration, forced migration, displacement, labour migration and naturalization;
explain why Indigenous presence and enslaved Africans cannot be folded into a simple immigration narrative;
connect Ellis Island, Angel Island, Mexican American borderlands and the 1965 reform to different historical contexts;
analyse source type, perspective, purpose, context, evidence and omissions;
use concepts such as assimilation, hybridity, transnationalism, racialization and belonging carefully rather than as fixed labels;
compare sources and qualify claims;
write and speak in clear, evidence-based English at an appropriate B2 level with selected C1-oriented development;
document sources and distinguish verified facts from interpretation;
reflect on errors and revise language and argument independently;
respect privacy, voluntary participation and school rules for AI use.

OERs zum Thema

For short German rescue context only: Wikipedia: Einwanderung in die Vereinigten Staaten.

Additional open or public institutional resources:

Verknüpfte Lernbereiche

Immigration to the United States

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