Professor Caroline Brettell
As millions of immigrants continue to come to the United States each year, public debate rages on about who belongs in America. For nearly 40 years, anthropologist Caroline Brettell has studied the movement of populations and its impact on the adopted countries.
Current research, conducted with SMU departmental colleague Faith Nibbs, focuses on the tensions between some suburbanites and foreign-born newcomers to their communities.
“For many whites, American identity is wrapped up with being suburban and middle class, and when they see immigrants changing their communities and potentially threatening their class status, they react with anti-immigrant legislation,” says Brettell, the Dedman Family Distinguished Professor of Anthropology.
Because of that, Brettell and Nibbs argue for greater attention to class and culture in the study of contemporary immigration into the United States. The anthropologists base their conclusion on a close analysis of Farmers Branch, Texas, which made news in 2006 as the first U.S. city to adopt an ordinance requiring apartment managers to document tenants as legal residents. The research has been accepted for publication in the journal International Migration.
Considered a leading cultural anthropologist on immigration issues, Brettell provided expertise about “birthright citizenship” for an article in The New York Times’ Upfront magazine in September.
A Canadian by birth, she was naturalized in 1993 to enjoy the full rights of U.S. citizenship. She joined the Department of Anthropology in Dedman College in 1988 and served as interim dean of the College in 2006-08.