Borders Real and Imagined

Ingram Library will be displaying an exhibit titled Borders Real and Imagined: Georgia Immigration Politics in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries to allow the community to listen to professionals discuss local and national immigration issues.  

Borders Real and Imagined will display in the Thomas B. Murphy Reading Room of Ingram Library from Jan. 24 to May 10, 2019, with a panel discussion on Feb. 26. The featured speakers for the panel are Steve Goodson, Professor of History at UWG, J. Salvador Peralta, Associate Professor of Political Science at UWG and Priyanka Bhatt, staff attorney for Project South. After the panel discussion, there will be a tour of the exhibit. 

Steve Goodson will be using his expertise to help provide an overview of the history of immigration in the U.S. and in the hopes of providing context and perspective for those who attend.  

 “The university is a calm and reasonable place to have a conversation about something that is not being treated calmy or reasonably,” said Goodson. “The university is supposed to be a place where people share ideas. We have a lot of people with different areas of expertise who have done high-quality work in it, so students are here to learn.”   

Borders Real and Imagined is addressing something that is heavy on the mind of many Americans. With the government recently shutting down over the issue of immigration it is an excellent time to help those in the community better understand what is happening today and also what has happened in the past. 

“Immigration is such a huge issue right now,” said Goodson. “The government recently shut down over an argument over extending the wall at the Mexican border. So, it is one of the main political issues right now in addition to being a social, cultural and economic issue. All of this heat and anger viciousness on both sides is not new. It has been going on for a couple hundred years now. We romanticize early generations of immigrants but at the time there was a lot of hostility. This is the latest chapter in a long book.” 

The panel will be a good opportunity for locals to expand their knowledge through calm and unbiased discussion, provided by professionals in their respective fields. Those who attend will be provided with historical context on what is happening with immigration in Georgia as well as the nation as a whole. 

“The thing about immigration is if you want to make decisions about it you really need to understand it,” said Goodson. “You don’t need sound bites from politicians. You need to study the history, the context and be informed to make reasonable decisions.”  

It is important for those who do want to understand the situation better to come and be informed. Listening to the opinions of politics does no good as they are only trying to sell their own ideas. Being provided the facts of the situations is the most beneficial way for individuals to build their own thoughts and ideas on the matter.