Social Justice Series: A History of Immigration and Racism

For 30 years, Carina Bandhauer, Ph.D. has been steadfastly committed to achieving social justice through education and awareness, and that passion was clearly evident in her presentation for Canterbury’s Social Justice Series. Speaking with students in the D’Amour Center for Faith, Service & Justice, Carina discussed how the history of migration, colonization, and the slave trade gave rise to racism and anti-immigrant sentiments.

 As Chair and Professor of Sociology at Western Connecticut State University, Carina specializes in the sociology of immigration. In 2020, she co-founded the Racial Justice Coalition at WestConn and today serves as its Co-Chair. She also has ongoing partnerships with humanitarian groups in El Salvador, where she has worked with rural communities since 1993. She served as creative consultant for the production of the film El Pueblo Unido, which documented her work in El Salvador and premiered at the Montreal Film Festival in 2004. 

Carina began by asking students to share common stereotypes about undocumented immigrants, compiling their responses on a dry-erase board. She then challenged them to create a second list of opposite traits. “You end up with something revealing that helps us zero in on where the racism begins to show up,” she explained. Many people focus only on the first list, which is often built on assumptions and untruths, while the second list helps expose what is frequently stigmatized and racialized.

Next, Carina presented a historical timeline tracing the roots and evolution of racism. “When thinking about race and racism, ask yourself, ‘What time is it?’—not the time of day but from a long historical perspective,” she explained. “Most people associate racism with black-white racism or, more specifically, with slavery. You should study that history, but if slavery is where your understanding of racism stops, you do not have a contemporary understanding of it."

The timeline Carina presented highlighted the transatlantic slave trade and the expansion of capitalism in the Americas. “In the first 150 years of slavery, about 200,000 people were brought from Africa,” she explained. “That number grew to three million in the next century and ballooned to six million in the final 150 years.” Over time, slavery became more than a source of free labor—it evolved into a highly profitable industry. 

She explained that the concept of race in the U.S. took shape during the slave trade, which began the process of racializing different groups, and racism spiked after slavery was abolished. “As an example, in 1865, the Klu Klux Klan formed for the first time,” Carina said. “There had been no need for them to exist prior to that. And, interestingly, the term racism did not appear in dictionaries until about 1920.” 

Carina also highlighted colonization as a key part of the timeline—not just in Africa but in the Americas, where millions of Indigenous people were killed. The U.S. later extended its influence into Latin America and the Caribbean through invasions and violent coups, displacing entire communities. “When people are forced off their land and can no longer grow crops or earn a living wage, they move out of desperation,” she explained. “Immigrants come here seeking jobs and a chance at the same economic opportunities others pursue.”

The presentation left an indelible impression on students in attendance. “It was eye-opening to learn how racism has influenced immigration from the 1960s to today, shaping economic and social systems,” said Elizabeth Carlson ’25. “One point that stood out to me was how racism continues to worsen and remains deeply tied to global economics. It was a valuable discussion we all should learn from.”

Carina closed with a thought-provoking message: “I work with many immigrant rights groups and recently attended a listening session led by a lawyer. She said the way we treat immigrants is a litmus test for how we are doing as a world, and I believe she was dead-on accurate about that. Take the most vulnerable people; how are we treating them?” That is indeed something we must all work to improve.

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