Indian Immigrant Women and Work
In recent years, interest in the large group of skilled immigrants coming from India to the United States has soared. However, this immigration is seen as being overwhelmingly male. Female migrants are depicted either as family migrants following in the path chosen by men, or as victims of desperation, forced into the migrant path due to economic exigencies.
This book investigates the work trajectories and related assimilation experiences of independent Indian women who have chosen their own migratory pathways in the United States. The links between individual experiences and the macro trends of women, work, immigration and feminism are explored. The authors use historical records, previously unpublished gender disaggregate immigration data, and interviews with Indian women who have migrated to the US in every decade since the 1960s to demonstrate that independent migration among Indian women has a long and substantial history. Their status as skilled independent migrants can represent a relatively privileged and empowered choice. However, their working lives intersect with the gender constraints of labor markets in both India and the US. Vijaya and Biswas argue that their experiences of being relatively empowered, yet pushing against gender constraints in two different environments, can provide a unique perspective to the immigrant assimilation narrative and comparative gender dynamics in the global political economy.
Casting light on a hidden, but steady, stream within the large group of skilled immigrants to the United States from India, this book will be of interest to researchers in the fields of political economy, anthropology, and sociology, including migration, race, class, ethnic and gender studies, as well as Asian studies.
Ramya M. Vijaya is a Professor of Economics at Stockton University, New Jersey, US. Besides courses in Economics, she also teaches in the interdisciplinary Global Studies Minor.
Bidisha Biswas is Professor of Political Science at Western Washington University, US. She previously served as a policy adviser on South Asia to the United States Department of State.
Routledge Studies in Asian Diasporas, Migrations and Mobilities
1Migration, Micro-Business and Tourism in Thailand
Highlanders in the city
Alexander Trupp
2Indian Immigrant Women and Work
The American experience
Ramya M. Vijaya and Bidisha Biswas
Indian Immigrant Women and Work
The American experience
Ramya M. Vijaya and Bidisha Biswas
First published 2017
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2017 Ramya M. Vijaya and Bidisha Biswas
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Vijaya, Ramya Mahadevan, 1974 author. | Biswas,
Bidisha, author.
Title: Indian immigrant women and work : the American
experience / Ramya M. Vijaya and Bidisha Biswas.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2016. |
Series: Routledge studies in Asian diasporas, migrations and
mobilities ; 2 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016028560 | ISBN 9781138690196
(hardback) | ISBN 9781315537122 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Foreign workers, East IndianUnited States. |
Women foreign workersUnited States. | Women, East
IndianEmploymentUnited States. | Women immigrants
EmploymentUnited States. | IndiaEmigration and
immigrationEconomic aspects. | United StatesEmigration
and immigrationEconomic aspects.
Classification: LCC HD8081.E3 V55 2016 |
DDC 331.4089/91411073dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016028560
ISBN: 978-1-138-69019-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-53712-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
August 26th, Ottawa International Airport. As I lifted my two very heavy suitcases off the luggage carousel, I was excited about my new life adventure as a graduate student of engineering in Canada. It also meant I was now completely independent and on my own for the very first time in my life no family or friends as safety net, no familiar surroundings or experiences to draw upon. I was a little scared but also very excited. I was looking forward to exploring a new land and culture, making new friends and pursuing professional growth with the help of a full scholarship. Growing up in a middle-class Indian family with parents who pushed both their girls to pursue higher education and independence was a great starting point. As the first member of my extended family to pursue higher education outside India, I was charting a new course and, in the long run, enabling many in my family to experience life in new contexts. As I stepped into this next phase of personal and professional growth, I had many questions and doubts: Will I succeed in this new culture? How will I change as a person? Do I have what it takes to use this springboard and carve a new path forward?
The story of immigration, as well as the challenges that come with it, is a familiar one. Throughout the ages humans have answered their inherent spirit of curiosity and adventure to push their comfort boundaries and explore new worlds, all with the aim of improving their quality of life. While immigrants, and women in particular, face multiple hurdles and pressures community, social, financial, educational and cultural it is their positive spirit, innovativeness and resourcefulness that have furthered the exchange of ideas and acceptance in new cultures.
In an innovative study, Ramya Vijaya and Bidisha Biswas explore the implications of these barriers on immigrant women from their native land of India and the progress they have made in their adopted country, the United States of America. During their research, Ramya and Bidisha found causes to celebrate victories great and small from Anandibai Joshi being the first Indian woman to receive a medical degree anywhere in the world to Ayesha being the first woman in her ultra-traditional family to embark on her independent journey and seek a new life in the United States. These uplifting, heart-warming stories document how each woman in her own way has broadened the viewpoints of people in her home and adopted countries. At the same time, the authors carefully illustrate structural and societal challenges that many women immigrants face as they carve out their professional paths. A key takeaway is that progress is not instantaneous or dramatic but rather happens over long periods of time. Shifts in mindset, acceptance and opportunities are often achieved through a series of small and subtle changes (micro-negotiations), each building on the previous one.