http://hdl.handle.net/10027/8814 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:07:31 GMT 2013-06-19T11:07:31Z http://hdl.handle.net/10027/9771 Constructing Dependence: Visa Regimes and Gendered Migration in Families of Indian Professional Workers In my dissertation, I examine how visa policies of United States affect Indian transnational “high-skilled” migrants and their families in the United States. I specifically focus on two family forms: a) male-led migrant families or families of Indian high-tech workers; b) female-led migrant families or families of Indian nurses. The “high-skilled” workers migrate for employment on skilled workers visas (H1-B) and their spouses migrate on dependent visas (H-4). The dependent or the H-4 visa, restricts the spouses of skilled workers to find legal employment in the United States or possess any kind of U.S government issued identification in the United States as long as they hold dependent visas. Using extensive qualitative methods - in-depth interviews with 85 family members and 15 immigration experts, observations in the migrant Indian communities and archival data, I argue that the visa regimes governs more than just mobility of the transnational subject. Visa policies reconfigure identities and notions of the self for visa holders and impose constraints on relationships, family, belonging and migration. The visas shape family structures and familial relationship for high-tech workers by reinforcing a patriarchal family form with the man as the breadwinner and the woman as the homemaker. This benefits the private sector labor market at the cost of the well-being of migrant families. Furthermore, when women are the breadwinners, my analysis shows the power of gender as a structure as men try and reclaim power by overt expressions of masculinity and women concede to the patriarchal arrangement by performing subordinate femininities. These findings show how the apparently gender-neutral visa policies of United States take on heavily gendered meanings when translated into everyday interactions in families bound by such policies. By identifying the multi-layered gendered and racialized hidden underpinnings of visa laws, I empirically show that visa structures of the state create a web of dependence for migrant subjects. Thu, 21 Feb 2013 06:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10027/9771 2013-02-21T06:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10027/9725 Social Structure of the Chinese Academic Labor Market in a Changing Environment The Chinese economy and labor market are under fundamental change, with its transitional economy and the globalization of labor market interacting each other and reshaping the institutional environment and structure of the Chinese academia. This research utilized a mixed method study to address the effect of China social relations and guanxi. It investigated the network configuration which assisted the domestic trained Chinese scholars and the overseas educated returnees in developing the optimal career trajectories. The finding of the research showed that the cohesive and strong network of domestic scholars showed higher odds of being promoted, while large and open networks are more conducive to overseas returnees in exploiting their international collaboration, but such effect diminished at the later and more advanced promotion for overseas returnees. To promote the sense of belonging, overseas returned Ph.D. are necessary to construct cohesive and strong relationship, which coincide with the meaning of guanxi network in order to better survive in the Chinese academia and society once they rooted back in China. The research also found out that with more developed market in China, guanxi is still productive in bridging hiring universities and individual scholars with trust flowing through the social relations among them. It is not only the structure of the labor market induces individuals to use social network and relations for job promotions, but the social relations themselves are also part of the fundamental structure and institution of the labor market where the market dynamics are embedded in. Thu, 21 Feb 2013 06:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10027/9725 2013-02-21T06:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10027/9626 Are Black Immigrants A Model Minority: Race, Ethnicity and Social Mobility in the United States Social science research has consistently documented that Afro Caribbeans outperform African Americans in terms of labor market outcomes and socioeconomic status. Explanations for these disparities have typically focused on the human capital and cultural differences between the two groups. Unfortunately, these explanations do not consider how racial dynamics might shape these disparities. Thus, the primary goal of this dissertation is to systematically investigate the roles of human capital, culture and racial dynamics in influencing socioeconomic disparities between African Americans and Afro Caribbeans in the United States. In order to do this, I draw upon data from the National Survey of American Life, which includes a representative sample of whites (N=1,006), African Americans (N=3,570) and the first national oversample of Afro Caribbeans (N=1,623). First, I assess the role of immigrant selectivity. Next, I examine the degree to which black ethnic disparities are a result of Afro Caribbeans having higher levels of model minority cultural attitudes and behaviors than African Americans. Finally, I explore the role of US race relations. I find that attributes associated with immigrant selectivity and attitudes and behaviors associated with being a model minority explain as much as 20 percent of the black ethnic disparities. Unexpectedly, controlling for these factors often results in an increase in black ethnic disparities. Finally, I find that as much as 54 percent of the disparity is due to the labor market rewarding these two groups differently for having the same levels of the attributes under study. I offer, the differential racialization thesis as a possible motive or explanation for this differential treatment. Specifically I argue that despite having the same racial phenotype, African Americans and Afro Caribbeans are racialized differently in the US. Accordingly, employers are less critical and more accepting of Afro Caribbeans than they are of African Americans. I conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings for our understanding of race, ethnicity and social mobility. Fri, 14 Dec 2012 06:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10027/9626 2012-12-14T06:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10027/9097 Gender Players and Gender Prisoners: When Intersex Activism, Medical Authority, and Terminology Collide Between October of 2008 and April of 2011, over three-hundred hours of ethnographic observations in the public meeting spaces of intersex organizational meetings were recorded in addition to sixty-five in-depth interviews with intersex activists, the parents of intersex children, and medical professionals who are experts on such conditions. Data suggest the intersex rights movement has drastically shifted their mobilization strategy from a confrontational approach by protesting outside of medical association meetings in an effort to end the surgical modification of intersex children’s genitalia to a more a collaborative model where they work side by side with medical professionals. The abandonment of intersex terminology altogether in favor of disorder of sex development language (DSD, for short) introduced by medical professionals in the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics shows just how far the social movement has come. However, I have found that not all individuals impacted by intersexuality and/or involved in intersex advocacy embrace this nomenclature shift. The difference between those who embrace the newly re-medicalized terminology and those who reject it are as complex as intersexuality itself yet relate to their understanding of gender. This difference has left the movement divided with those collaboratively working within the medical institution gaining necessary institutional support from medical professionals while strengthening familial relationships, but such comes at a cost of increased sense of shame, secrecy, worry, and frustration about being differently bodied. I label these individuals “gender prisoners” because their emotional health and well-being is constrained by their conceptualization of gender. Those who reject the medicalized DSD terminology find it more difficult to access medical and familial support, yet they are more comfortable in their bodies with very little concern about their “abnormality.” I label these individuals “gender players” because they “play” on the periphery of the gender structure by using social constructionist arguments about gender to embrace their “abnormality” in empowering ways. Mon, 10 Dec 2012 06:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10027/9097 2012-12-10T06:00:00Z