You may not know a lot about every part of the world you'll be studying this semester. Here are some sources to get a quick summary of a country's or region's history and culture.
There are lots of news stories, scholarly articles, blogs, and policy reports about migration around the world. Here are two about the broad regions of South America and Latin America that might be helpful.
Depending on your topic, you might need to find out what is happening right now in the country of your text. Newspapers are a great way to do this.
Migration Policy Institute - The MPI is a nonpartisan thinktank that looks at global migration issues. SO much data!
Migration Data Portal - A site that brings together migration data and statistics from multiple sources.
UN Global Migration Database - The United Nations keeps excellent data on all the migrations around the world. Check out the Data and the Publications tabs.
OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) -- The OECD collects and analyses data and makes recommendations to improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. Two ways to search - search this Migration topic page or go to the Countries tab and select your country of destination.
The World Bank - The World Bank looks at global migration, especially with respect to remittance payments (sending money home.)
United Nations Statistics Division -- The UN collects statistics for every nation. This page brings together all their migration statistics.
UNESCO -- UNESCO is the United Nation's Education, Scientific, and Cultural group. The webpage is also available in Spanish if you click at the top left. Search your country under the "Countries" dropdown menu or check out the section on International Migration.
Latinobarometro -- Based in Chile, this company does annual public opinion polls of 18 Latin American countries. In Spanish!