Full Description
The popular debate around contemporary U.S. immigration tends to conjure images of men waiting on the side of the road for construction jobs, working in kitchens or delis, driving taxis, and sending money to their wives and families in their home countries, while women are often left out of these pictures. Immigration and Women is a national portrait of immigrant women who live in the United States today, featuring the voices of these women as they describe their contributions to work, culture, and activism.
Through an examination of U.S. Census data and interviews with women across nationalities, we hear the poignant, humorous, hopeful, and defiant words of these women as they describe the often confusing terrain where they are starting new lives, creating architecture firms, building urban high-rises, caring for children, cleaning offices, producing creative works, and organizing for social change. Highlighting the gendered quality of the immigration process, Immigration and Women interrogates how human agency and societal structures interact within the intersecting social locations of gender and migration. The authors recommend changes for public policy to address the constraints these women face, insisting that new policy must be attentive to the diverse profile of today's immigrating woman: she is both potentially vulnerable to exploitative conditions and forging new avenues of societal leadership.
To learn more about the book, check out the companion site: http://immigratingwomen.wordpress.com/!
Contents
Acknowledgments 1 "We Can't Go Back": Immigrant Women, Intersections, and AgencyPart I: Who They Are 2 "Your Story Drops on You": Who Are These Women? Part II: How They Come 3 "I Had to Start Over": Entering through the Front Door 4 "I Had to Leave My Country One Day": Entering through the Back DoorPart III: What They Do 5 "I Am Not Only a Domestic Worker; I Am a Woman": Immigrant Women and Domestic Service 6 "Mighty Oaks": The Entrepreneurs 7 "There Is Still Work to Do": Immigrant Women in Gender-Atypical Occupations 8 "Always in Life, We Are Ripping": Culture Work Part IV: Where They Are Going 9 "Misbehaving Women": The Agency of Activism 10 "Making History": Drawing Conclusions, Looking Forward Appendix A: Notes on Research Methods Appendix B: List of Interviewed Women Appendix C: Timeline: U.S. Immigration Policy and Women, 1875-2009 Notes Bibliography Index About the Authors
