Immigrant Women Workers in the Neoliberal Age

Author: Edited by Nilda Flores-González, Anna Romina Guevarra, Maura Toro-Morn, and Grace Chang
Interdisciplinary perspectives on an underrepresented labor force
Cloth – $125
978-0-252-03757-3
Paper – $30
978-0-252-07911-5
eBook – $19.95
978-0-252-09482-8
Publication Date
Paperback: 07/22/2013
Cloth: 07/22/2013
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About the Book

To date, most research on immigrant women and labor forces has focused on the participation of immigrant women in formal labor markets. In this study, contributors focus on informal economies such as health care, domestic work, street vending, and the garment industry, where displaced and undocumented women are more likely to work. Because such informal labor markets are unregulated, many of these workers face abusive working conditions that are not reported for fear of job loss or deportation. In examining the complex dynamics of how immigrant women navigate political and economic uncertainties, this collection highlights the important role of citizenship status in defining immigrant women's opportunities, wages, and labor conditions.

Contributors are Pallavi Banerjee, Grace Chang, Margaret M. Chin, Jennifer Jihye Chun, Héctor R. Cordero-Guzmán, Emir Estrada, Lucy T. Fisher, Nilda Flores-González, Ruth Gomberg-Munoz, Anna Romina Guevarra, Shobha Hamal Gurung, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, María de la Luz Ibarra, Miliann Kang, George Lipsitz, Lolita Andrada Lledo, Lorena Muñoz, Bandana Purkayastha, M. Victoria Quiroz-Becerra, Mary Romero, Young Shin, Michelle Téllez, and Maura I. Toro-Morn.

About the Author

Nilda Flores-González is an associate professor with a joint appointment in sociology and the Latin American and Latino Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Anna Romina Guevarra is an associate professor of Asian American studies and affiliated faculty in gender & women's studies and sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Maura Toro-Morn is a professor of sociology at Illinois State University. Grace Chang is an associate professor of feminist studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Reviews

"Grounded in rich ethnographic data, each of these informative case studies makes for compelling reading in addressing these workers' current conditions and positions. Highly Recommended."--Choice

"An important volume that highlights the ways in which immigrant women in the US are both adapting to, and fighting to improve, their workplaces."--Labour/Le Travail

"A valuable addition to a growing body of literature that critically examines the experiences of women migrants in the informal economy. What sets this collection of papers apart from other works on immigrant worker women is that in these narratives the women's trials and their triumphs are highlighted. These women are not passive victim in their narratives. Their agency is apparent, and presented clearly to the reader."--Gender & Development

"By including the voices of the women currently doing the majority of reproductive work in the US, Immigrant Women Workers adds an important element to the conversation. Immigrant Women Workers captures many of the issues of perpetual importance to immigrant women workers."--Women's Review of Books

"The editors have succeeded in bringing together a wide range of excellent ethnographic research from scholars from different social science disciplines. What distinguishes this volume from other academic books on the subject is the authors' explicit intention to make manifest their double role as academics and activists. The authors present concrete data and analysis meant to give basis to future strategies to improve the situation of women migrants. . . . The collection provides relevant and timely case study material for teaching and research into the gendered effects of the recent economic crisis and neo-liberal policy-making on the lives of migrants in the USA."--Ethnic and Racial Studies

"This work carries important implications for labor educators and organizers. . . . This book solidly reinforces the concept as Audre Lorde explains, that single issue research and organizing is ineffective because we do not lead single-issue lives."--Labor Studies Journal

Blurbs

"These analytically rich and ethnographically vivid accounts of immigrant women's work will help scholars and activists understand these women's labor conditions and their efforts to gain empowerment and justice. A stimulating and thought-provoking contribution to labor studies, women's studies, and ethnic studies."--Mary Margaret Fonow, coauthor of Making Feminist Politics: Transnational Alliances between Women and Labor