How - and through what mechanisms - do anti-immigrant stereotypes emerge? This one semester course designed for M.A. and interested B.A. students will explore the processes of negative attitude formation toward immigrants, emphasizing the emergence, evolution, and replication of anti-immigrant stereotypes. The background factors impacting anti-immigrant attitudes, such as education, social status, social contacts, will also be examined, along with the dominant sociological theories explaining the variation in the attitudes toward immigrants. The course will also cast light on the less known yet puzzling phenomenon of negative anti-immigrant stereotypes in the midst of co-ethnic 'old' immigrants.

The course will be divided into two parts; in the first part we will deal with the main theoretical background and concepts. Students will get acquainted with the main categories and fundamental literature in problematic of the anti-immigrant attitudes. In the second part students will have the opportunity to held discussions about specific case studies, think about historically, politically, and culturally conditioned approaches to immigrants and different perceptions of racial and ethnic differences.

The aim of the course is, in addition to the mentioned acquaintance with the main academic literature also to introduce students to the sociological background for understanding often publicly discussed topics (Migration crisis in Europe, Black life matters movement in U.S.) and to enable them to form and articulate their opinion as a social scientists.