And this report tells us why. Some interesting tidbits via New America Media,
The result shows that women immigrants' main challenges are helping their children succeed and keeping their families together. The obstacles are formidable. 79% of Latin Americans, 73% of Vietnamese, 70% of Korean and 63% of Chinese acknowledged speaking little or no English. They also confront anti-immigrant discrimination, lack of health care and low-paying employment.Bendixen said that this is something that shakes the perception that immigration is always about economics and dollars. In fact, many of the women start out in low-paying jobs even though they may have held professional positions in their home countries. In the United States they might work as a hotel maid, waitress, house cleaner and textile worker.
These results indicate that women may be putting devotion to the well-being of their families ahead of personal job status and pride in choosing to emigrate.
Also, on the racist assumption that women immigrants are somehow submissive, not only to the men in their families but also in the work environment,
Among other findings the poll showed that their roles change within their households. The overwhelming majority--Latin American (81%), Chinese (71%), Vietnamese (68%), African (66%) and Arabic (53%)--said they had become more assertive at home and in public after coming to the United States."We cannot assume that they are submissive back in their countries. They come from smaller towns where you are very close to your family, they want to make sure everyone is okay. And when they get here, they also want to make sure they have a better living. Sometimes they face domestic violence, but that also happens here in the United States," said Silvia Henriquez, Executive Director for the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health.
Thanks to Neela for the link.
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Just because a woman moves to the United States, does not mean that she turns into an American. Immigrants don't shed the identity of their other culture or the ways of behavior that they learned while being raised.
A cherished value in the US is individualism. Listen to the language used in everyday speech: "individual rights" and "self-worth." In other cultures, more value is placed on group identity: family, clan and cohort. What is good for the group takes precedent over what is good for the individual.
Perhaps American selfishness doesn't translate. Is it such a terrible thing for immigrant women to put their family first? I say, kudos to them! "Pride" translates into providing their children with opportunities that they might not have had otherwise.
I don't like to read phrases like "anti-immigrant discrimination." Words like this are thrown around too often. I know that it's difficult to come to a new country and try to find your way. I lived in the South Pacific for 2 years. I didn't know how to ride the bus, I had to learn left-hand driving, I had to learn a new system of money. I wouldn't have survived unless my National friends patiently explained details of everyday life to me. In the US, there are advocates and family members to help new immigrants. Is it "anti-immigrant discrimination" or that new immigrants are learning a new system?
I've read stories about mail order brides who end up in abusive marriages away from their friends and families. This is a sad and unfortunate part of human nature: taking advantage of others. Women come here hoping for a better life and end up in the hands of an a**hole.
it may not 'always' be about dollars but it's still the quickest and surest way to raise your standard of life if you are not living in a developed country.
I am curious, however, what is the dominant narrative to which you refer?
Why is this filed under "motherhood"? Some assumption that brown women are more likely to have children?
The result shows that women immigrants' main challenges are helping their children succeed and keeping their families together.
Did anyone else notice the only comment on the original article?
"Women from non Western nations represent a clear threat to American feminism and are a worthy gift to American men who are lucky enough to meet them. Its even better for such men to visit and hopefully move to their home countries. Paradise. Absolute Paradise. Yes, my brothers, you do not have to live anywhere near or ever hear from or about feminists ever again. If you so choose."
The bigger than anti-feminist a man is, the smaller his penis tends to me. That's how doctors measure it anyway. No for realz.
Sorry, tends to *be.
Oh, dear sweet Jesus.
I don't know who "we" is in "Women immigrants aren't who we think they are." This is exactly my experience of the immigrants I know: hard-working, concerned about their families, involved with their children's schooling, etc.
What is it that "we think they are"? I'm missing something here.
This article seems to be a big "Uh, YEAH, is this news?" to me. It's somehow surprising that women who immigrate to the U.S. end up in the lowest of the low-paying jobs? That they struggle to keep body and soul together?
Agreed. The narrative of immigrants taking much lower status jobs than they previously held is the usual narrative for both men and women, so far as I know (specifically to improve their surroundings & give their children a better environment, or because they failed to anticipate their credentials wouldn't get accepted). With respect to In fact, many of the women start out in low-paying jobs even though they may have held professional positions in their home countries., you could replace "women" with "people" and I'd guess it's still true.
Of course, I live in a city that's half foreign born (49.97% in 2007), so my exposure to immigrants may be much higher than the average.
I'm also wondering about the assumption that "we" excludes "immigrant women." No immigrant women read this blog?
Yeah, that was my first thought. The assumption definitely made me uncomfortable.
Why is it racist to assume that women for developing countries are likely to be submissive?
Because it is a cliche' not based in fact, a huge generalization that lumps together millions of women with vastly different cultures without bothering to take the time to actually look at them and see who they really are.
Any sweeping generalization about an entire nation of people, let alone something as huge as all "developing countries" is racist.
It's not a fact that women in developed, liberal countries *tend* to be less repressed than women from other countries?
Do you mean repressed or oppressed? And either way that does not equal submissive.
If you want to assert that women in developing countries are more submissive than ones in developed countries, I'd like to see a citation and I would like to know how they measured that. Otherwise, yes, I still maintain that it is a racist stereotype.
If women in developing countries tend to be "submissive", it has everything to do with legal protections which probably don't exist for them.
What's the point in standing up to your husband who beats you if the legal authorities not only don't care, they actually don't see what the problem is?
I come from an immigrant family and an immigrant community, specifically from the Middle East (Iraq/Syria/Iran/Turkey). If there is one take away I learned from my particular experience, it is that our women are much stronger than our men (exceptions, of course, to this rule), but their countries did not provide an escape from oppression, legally. So they have become resigned in their submission.
Unfortunately, some of them pass it on to their daughters, so they may be proper "marriage material" for the young men in our culture.
And the fathers pass it onto their sons, so they may treat their future wives the way they saw their mothers treated.
But in reality - the women are the ones holding these families together. They work harder in every aspect. And they take more abuse, emotionally. All the while, they have to pretend their husband is the "greater one" for their own safety and stability of the family unit. It's quite infuriating.
I have cousins who are floored when I break up with a guy, wondering why I would ever let one go (it's my chance to get married!!), I have aunts who literally want to send me back to the Middle East to "pick a husband" (since that's what their sons do for wives), and actually, when they come to the US, they get more conservative, fearing that "American moral degradation" will "corrupt our youth".
These immigrants are no different, ultimately, in their desires to be treated like decent human beings. The problem is, however, much deeper than our stereotyping of them - they are surrounded by their communities at least through the first generation born here and carry cultural baggage with them. And while I am all for cultural diversity, not all aspects of cultures are good, because let's face it: most tend to be oppressive to women, whether "foreign" or American born.