UIS Speaker Series presents a simulation showing the path to immigrating to the U.S.

Anette Sikka

WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speaker Series will present an immigration simulation led by UIS Assistant Professor of Legal Studies Anette Sikka called “Welcome to America,” exploring the path to immigrating to the U.S.

WHEN: Thursday, March 1, 2018, at 5:30 p.m.

WHERE: Conference Rooms C/D, on the lower level of the UIS Public Affairs Center

DETAILS: Step into the shoes of an individual seeking to immigrate to the U.S. and explore how U.S. immigration works. This simulation gives you a chance to “get in line” to come to the U.S. to work, as a student, or just to visit and see the world's biggest cheeseburger with your friends.

Sikka will touch on how the Diversity Visa (Green Card Lottery) program was actually started to help undocumented Irish people living in the United States become legal, how the U.S. issued green cards to nearly 1 million applicants last year out of the 6 million who applied and how more than half of the people living in the U.S. who are undocumented first entered the U.S. legally.

Sikka completed her J.D. at Dalhousie University in Canada in 2001 and her Ph.D. from the University of Ottawa in 2014. Her research focuses on immigration reform and criminal justice, race/class/gender, security sector reform, and international rule of law programming. Sikka worked for the United Nations in Bosnia and Kosovo from 2001 until 2006 and since 2007 as an international consultant on security sector reform and refugee issues in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

Individuals with disabilities who anticipate the need for accommodations should contact the UIS Speaker Series Office at 217/206-8507 or speakerseries@uis.edu in advance. For a list of other upcoming ECCE Speaker Series events, visit www.uis.edu/speakerseries/.