An economics class looks at the cost and benefits of immigration.


In an effort to understand the complexities of immigration at the U.S.-Mexican border, 18 students traveled from El Paso, Texas, to Tucson, Ariz., in January. Led by Professor Nicole Simpson and her colleague Diana Barnes from Skidmore College, the trip was the culmination of Simpson’s Economics of Immigration course.

Simpson’s goal was to get students to engage with the many sides of immigration across America’s borders. “I wanted them to have a good understanding of the cost and benefits of having a country that has a large immigrant share, but also relies on them, and that there are political tensions,” she says.

Over the nine-day excursion, the group met with various people and organizations involved in the immigration issue. When the students first arrived, they visited Seguimos Adelante, an NGO that assists immigrants released from detention centers. The students then walked across the border to Ciudad Juárez, where they went to a migrant transition facility called Centro de Atencion a Migrantes.

To hear a different perspective, the students talked to border patrol agents the following day. “They framed their perspective as working to make sure the borders are secure,” says Kate Maro ’22.

In the following days, Simpson and her students immersed themselves in the local community. They walked a portion of the migrant trail, a route taken by migrants trying to enter the United States; worked at a soup kitchen; attended immigration hearings at a Federal courthouse; and toured El Paso with muralist Cimi Alvarado (pictured), who talked about what it’s like to live in a border town.

The entire experience was an awakening for the students. “I got an honest, true, and refreshing perspective on immigration, talking to people in academia, activists, attorneys, and journalists who have been involved with immigration for a long time,” Sahil Lalwani ’22 says. “I did not feel like I was crossing the border; it felt like the border had crossed and divided these cities, countries, and the communities.”

Leading up to the trip to Mexico, the students spent the fall preparing in the classroom. Simpson emphasized learning about the actual experiences of migrants. “What are the perils of migrants, why do they put themselves in danger to cross, and what are the circumstances in their home country?” Simpson asked the students. “We tried to personalize and contextualize the data that we study in the class. ”

In September, the class traveled to the Canadian border, where they spoke with Native American groups from the Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne to draw comparisons among the different boundaries they studied.

Back on campus in November, students helped set up a traveling art exhibit, Painting the Border: A Child’s Voice, in the 100 Hamilton residence hall. The exhibition included paintings from children who are stranded in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, as a result of deportations and new measures for asylum legislation.

In addition to teaching students about the border issues in Canada and Mexico, the course enabled students to consider how the border crisis affects Madison County and Colgate. “They were able to connect the things they saw and learned with the experiences of families in upstate New York, where raids from ICE have happened recently,” Simpson says.

Economics of Immigration was a Sophomore Residential Seminar, which offers second-year students the opportunity to be part of an immersive living-learning community based on common interests. Other Sophomore Residential Seminars in January traveled to Uganda and Berlin.