40   •    Seeking Common Ground
than arc native women in all of (hose countries, and they are more likely to assume public role» in their ho« countries than ihey did in their countries of origin. The female migrant is an important research topic because immigration and women are highly marketable as well as intel-lectually challenging topics for study. Both issues have iin[H>rtant and far-ranging public policy implications.
NOTES
1.  Nancy Fnnrr. "Sex Rules and Sensibilities: Jamaican Women in New York .m.! London." in Simon and Brettell. International Migration, pp. 135—132. 133.
2.  William Thomas and Florian Znaniccki, I hr Polish Peauint m Europe and Amenta, cd. Kli /arelsky (Urbana: University of Illinois Pre«. I984(.
3.  Julian 1- Simon, The Economú Conwquenees of Immigration 1 anihi idge, Mass.: Basil Bbckwril, 1989).
4.  VmLhkLi Prieto, "Cuban Women in New Jersey." in Simon and Brciiell. International Migration, pp. 95-113, 110.
5.  Sosste Andczian, "Women's Roles in Organizing Symbolic Life: Algerian Female Immigrants in France." in Simon and Hrettell. Inlernalional Migration, pp. 257-258, 265.
6.  Parminder K. Bliacbu, "Work, Dowry and Marriage among Fast African Sikh Women in the United Kingdom," in Simon and Brettell. Inlernalional Migration, pp. 229-2*11. 231.
7.  F. James Davis and Barbara S. Heyl, 'Turkish Women and Guestworker Migration to West Germany." in Simon and Brciiell. International Migration," pp. 178-197.
H. Foncr. "Sex Roles and Sensibilities," pp. 145-146.
'< Rita J. Simon, "Relugee Women and Their Daughters: A Comparison of Soviet, Vietnamese, and Naiive-Born American Families," in Carolyn L. Williams and Joseph Westermeyer, eds.. Refugee Mental Health m Resettlement Countries (Washington: Hemisphere Publishing. 1986). pp. 157-172.
Anthropology and the Study of Immigrant Women
Caroline B. Brettell and Patricia A. deBerjeois
In 1970. the meeting of the American Ethnological Society focused on ihr topic "Migration ami Anthropology."1 In his int rod union to the volume of proceedings. Leonard Kasdan rightly observed that although migration had long been recognized as an important factor of change in a numl>cr ol social science disciplines, anthropology had not defined it as a topic of research with high priority. However, changes in the world in the 1950s and 1960s brought migration onto the center stage of the discipline. In a range uf areas where ethnographers had traditionally worked among native or peasant populations, for example, Africa. Latin America, and Asia, they began (o document the process of outmigration from the villages of the rural countryside to the growing urban centers where new employment op* port unities were expanding rapidly.'' The interest in migrants and immigrants grew in conjunction with the development of both peasant studies and urban anihrn{>ology.
By 1975, two of the volumes that were published in the series that emerged from the Ninth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences treated migration and its relationship to pun esses of urbanization, development, and ethnic group formation. Though the chapters in these volumes deal with a number of issues in a wide variety of migratory contexts, only passing references, if any. are made iti the rote of women in migration. Indeed, there is no entry in either index for "women" or "female." As numerous scholars have pointed out. the assumption was that women, if ihey left their home society at all, did so as passive followers rather than as active initiators.   Furthermore,  the  modernization  theories  thai  were  still
42   •   Seeking Common Ground
prevalent at ihr time stressed emigration or outmigraikm as matters of individual choice rather ihan as household strategics with which women were intimately involved.*
Stimulated, no doubl, by ihc publication in 1974 of Rosaldo and Lam-pherc's path-breaking Women, Culture and Society, a book lhat brought gender as an analyik concept into the mainstream of anthropology, the journal Anthropological Quarterly published a special issue. "Women and Migration." in January of 1976. In each of the papers in the volume, migrain and immigrant women are not only viewed as actors in the migration process but also are set into networks of exchange of people. goods, services, and information. The authors demonstrate that women are as influenced as men by ihe forces of colonialism, socialism, and capitalism.
Uespite Leeds's claim in the closing essay of this special issue thai women were being spuriously reified as a unii of analysis, from this point on a number of anthropologists chose to address the experiences of migrant and immigrant women in a range of receiving societies, including Europe and ihe United Slates.'' Using a variety of research methods (participant observation, ihc collection of life histories and case studies, in-depth interviews, etc.) lo access how ihe women themselves understand iheir lives and the challenges posed by migration, they focused on how ihese experiences might differ from those of men and how geographical mobility, both within and across national boundaries, might alter not only culturally rooted understandings of what ii means to be a woman, but also various other aspects of culture that individuals and families bring with them as ihey migrate or emigrate.
In ihis chapter, we will review the anthropological contribution lo the study of immigrant women, addressing ourselves in particular m research on a range of immigrant populations in ihe United Slates.*1 Taking our lead from some of the analyik models dial have emerged in feminist anthropology, we hrst discuss the work roles of immigrant women, how these inicrscci with domestic and familial roles, and the implkatiom of this intersection for changes in the status of women. From there we move lo a consideration of the signihrance of kinship and other social relationships that are instrumental in the process of adaptation for immigrant women. We ihen deal wilh research lhat broadly treats the question of culture change. After a brief overview of ihc factors thai continue to lie a given migrant population lo its ethnic roots over generations, we turn our attention to the wealth of studies within medkal anthropology lhal have contributed to our understanding of immigrant women in the United States. Finally, we address the impact of the stale on the lives of immigrant women.
Anthropology £ Immigrant Women    *   4'l
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE, PRODUCTION AND REPRODUCTION: BALANCING WORK ROLES AND DOMESTIC ROLES
As a result of their inquiry into the question of whether women are universally subordinate to men. cultural anthropologists have rontrib-uied the dornestic/publk model lo feminist thcorv. Embedded in this model are ihe notions that male activities in ihe public sphere are more highlv valued, thai men have formal authority over women while women exert informal influence and power within the domestic domain, and lhat women's status is lowest where these spheres are highly differentiated and where women arc isolated from one another.7 A parallel model emanating from Marxism analyzes the interrelationship between production and reproduction." Feminist theorists have stressed thai the way in whkh women's reproductive labor intersects wilh their productive labor is crucial lo iheir position in society.
Although these models have been subjected to rigorous critkism for iheir lack of historical or cultural specificity, they have nevertheless influenced anthropologic! study of immigrant women in ihe United Slates" They have led researchers to explore whether wage earning serves lo enhance ihe power and statu* of immigrant women within iheir households and to investigate whether greater sharing of household activities emerges as a result of the work obligations of women. While ihc latter question obviously pertains lo all wage-earning women, the notion is that immigrant women often noi only face a clash of cultures, hul may also lie deprived of the supixtrt networks of kinship and community that existed in the countries dicy left behind.
Chai explicitly applies the conceptual scheme of domes! k/public to an analysis of Korean immigrant women in Hawai'i.'" Middle-class and well-educated, Korean immigrant women were relegated lo the domestic sphere in their home society. In Hawai'i they must adjust to the cconomk demands of immigrant life by taking waged work ouistdc the home. Huslunds offer more help in the household than they did in Korea, but ihis is in (»art a function of age cohorts, and in many cases husbands retain ultimate authority over family decision making. However, some Korean women, according to Chai. begin lo question iheir husbands' righi to dominate them. "Women's wage earning." she concludes, "may lead io a more flexible division of labor, decision making and parental responsibility, as well as lo less sex segregation in social and public places." She also observes lhat as Korean immigrant women tire of ihc menial jobs io whkh they arc relegated in the public domain of the larger society, they revert to working in family-owned businesses and construct their own public domain with its own ladder of achievement
4i   •   Seeking Common Ground
within the Korean ethnic community. Workplace and home are combined and permit these women to spend more time raising successful children who wilt achieve social and political statu» within the majority culture-
The decision to combine work roles with domestic roles, and thereby fuse the reproductive with the productive» has been documented for a number of other immigrant women in North America. Meintel. for example, shows that Portuguese women with young children lend to turn to work as cleaning women or lo home piece work because ihe hours and conditions of work are both more flexible and less stressful." She observes, however, that such an option is possible only if these women are in stable marital relationships with partners who earn a good income. Another option is described by f^imphere for Colombian and Portuguese immigrant families in New England.11 Given the constraints of the local economy, wives and mothers arc forced into the productive sphere of waged work in textile factories. As a result, reproductive labor within the household is reallocated and husltands lake on many household chores thai are normally defined as female tasks. In addition, husbands and wives work different shifts in order to accommodate child care. Nevertheless, some cultural conceptions, such as the belief thai ihc male should remain ihc head of the household, are more resistant to change despile the economic contributions ot women.
A similar disjunction between norms and behavior has been described for Haitian immigrant women in New York. Cultural definitions and cxiMxtatinns for sexual roles have changed less rapidly than the economic gains made by women. Furthermore, the financial independence of women exacerbates antagonism between the sexes. Haitian immigrant women put in a double day. working eight hours on the job and then coming home lo housekeeping, cooking, and child care. If their husbands help, ii is with reluctance because the/ok (home) is the domain of women and it is there that a woman's primary responsibilities are located, The world of men is the /on—the street and beyond."
If Haitian women have not experienced a dramatic reallocation of household tasks as a result of ihe demands made upon them by waged work. Dominican women, who are largely employed in the New York garment industry, have. Pessar describes a detinue move to a more egalitarian division of labor and distribution of authority within the Dominican household. She quotes one Dominican woman who comments that "we are both heads." Dominican immigrant men arc willing lo help out with household chores, especially child care and shopping, though their role decreases as a daughter becomes old enough lo help her mother. The more cooperative domestic arrangements that emerge within many Dominican immigrant households, as well as die fact that migration docs not rupture the s<>< ill sphere in which women are self-actualized, are
Anthropology S Immigrant Women    ■    A'i
the major factors influencing the greater desire of Dominican women, by comparison with men. to remain in the United Slates."1
Within many immigrant Dominican households, income pooling, something thai rarely occurs in ihe Dominican Republic, means lhat no distinction is made between the "essential" earnings of the male and the "supplementary" earnings of the female. However, this is not always the case. For example, Mexičana farm workers differentiate the "important" crops harvested by men from secondary "women's crops." Mexičana women "never express lhat their agricultural work is economically equivalent to men's." Instead when women work with their husbands, they define it as "afudandoU a el."*7 It is in this "helping" context that women's waged work is ideologically acceptable. I "his is particularly the case when the household rather than the individual is defined as the bask productive (as well as reproductive) unit of the immigrant family." Chavira argues that Mexičana women's roles in subsistence as well as their manipulation of the subsidy programs and other bureaucratic resources diat arc made available to them give ihem a position of power within their families.
Pessar cautions us to be aware of variations in household culture and organization lhat will influence individual attitudes toward women's work in the immigrant context, the sharing of domestic responsibilities, and the desire to remain abroad or return m the home country. Some Dominican immigrant men are reluctant to modify their patriarchal attitudes and behavior." 'I"his intransigence is the major cause of marital breakdown. Nevertheless, a significant proportion of Dominican immigrant women feel they are belter off. They perceive waged work positively because it brings both economic and personal benefits. This is a conclusion also reached by Foncr in her work on Jamaican women in New York.'" Independence and financial rout rol arc viewed as definite advantages and are a strong deterrent in return migration.
Although they are dealing with a seasonal Mexican female migrant population. Guendclman and Pcrcz-Itriago document similar positive subjective assessments of life abroad that are rooted in the contrast between family roles in California and those thai |>eriain in Mexico. As one of their informants pul it. "in California my husband was like a Hwnpasa meaning a sensitive, soft, responsive butterfly. Back here in Mexico he ads like a distant macho. Many of the seasonal migrant women express an interest in reluming to the United States in order to resume more cooperative relationships. Yet some, according lo Fernandez-Kelly, arc constrained by die pressures of caring lor many children, especially ifmigration means lacing the vagaries of undocumented illegal stains in the Untied Stales."
The anthropological research on immigrant women that has been stimulated by die analytical oppositions between domestic and pubik
46   '    Seeking Common Ground
arenas or between production and reproduction indicates a set of complex and varied responses to the necessity of balancing work life with home life. In some cases greater equality between men and women is the result and in others tt is not. and the differences musí be explained by a close examination of cultural factors and economic constraints. Mcintcl and associates observe that "when changes in task-sharing and decision-making occur in conjunction with women's wage earning, they are likely to be found in areas which are most directly affected by women's employment: e.g., child care as opposed to housework, and financial decisions as opposed to those concerning freedom of movement and contraception." * It is common for anthropologists to emphasize the disjunction between behavior and norms, a disjunction that seems to have a powerful influence in die pace of change in various spheres of life for immigrant families. Cultural norms that continue to label men as principal providers and women as housekeepers and dependents are powerful deterrents to more egalitarian domestic arrangements. Nevertheless, in some situations immigrant women, like women elsewhere around the world, are able to exercise informal power.
If a number of immigrant women in the United States assess their increased earning capacity, their improved standard uf living, and theii greater opportunities to work and achieve upward mobility positively, they perceive other facets of immigrant life negatively. For many, the most negative results of migration are the temporary or permanent loss of a kinship support system and the al»sence of leisure time. It is thus to the social world of immigrant women Ixith within and beyond the domestic sphere that we now turn.
HUSBANDS, WIVES, AND IMMIGRANT SOCIAL NETWORKS
"Strategy" and "process" have replaced "structure" as underlying concepts within anthropology." Social networks, first examined with seriousness by ethnologists working in urban Africa in the late 1960s and the 1970s, have thus become a key focus of research on social organization. Anthropologists recognize the value of networks to migrants. These networks consist of friends or relatives of the migrant who are already in the destination area or those who arc return migrants.** They serve as communication links between the sending and receiving communities. This seems especially important in international migration where the distances involved make adequate information harder to obtain.
There are two general types of networks. One serves the purpose of chain migration, where individuals channel their efforts to reunite extended family groups." The other type is community based and operates
Anthropology 6 Immigrant Women   •   47
to support newcomers as they adjust to the demands of their new environments.*7 Immigrant women are frequently lound at the center of these networks. They both initiate and maintain them. They are the "nodes" that connect people, and generally ihev do íl SO subtly and unobtrusively that the significance of their actions is sometimes little recognized even by themselves.7*
Though deeply embedded in migration processes around die world. kin-based migration networks that foster chain migration have proliferated as a result of the United States Immigration Act of 19h\r>. which had as its aim the reuniting of families. The new law made it possible for individuals to "call over" other family members one at a lime. Chavez, for example, writes of an unmarried El Salvador woman who first called her niece and two years later her mother and her nephew.79
There are two distinct problems wiüi the reunification |>olicy. It lakes a long lime to bring over an entire family, and in many cases the definition of family that the law proscrilxs is not broad enough to fit the concept of family held by certain ethnic groups. As a result, complex strategics to bypass the laws and restrictions lhal perpetuate family separation have been devised and carried out.1" In many cases diese include marriages of convenience or the adoption of children. Often ihc migrations can only be managed in stages, wiih the newcomer firsi going to Canada or Mexico or to U.S. cities other than their final destination. Women have an active pari in the decision process thai determines the order of migration of absent members, and they hold down join (hat fund the moves. Stafford tells us that women continue to play an important role in Haitian chain migration schemes, helping themselves and others through the difficult adjustment process.51
Community-based networks take shape in both sending and receiving aieas. Mexican men from the Nayarii region who leave their wives behind make sure lhal a network of wife heh>ers fusually drawn from among t he husband's kin) is in place to help with short-term loans, repairs to the household, bills, the care and sale of animals, the purchasing of materials and other tasks normally carried oul by the husband. When a man returns, part of what he has earned will be spent on gifts for members of this help network. This cements the obligation. However, as lime passes and the woman becomes more self-sufficient, she relies less and less on these help networks. She becomes a mujet fuertr and gains esteem and social prestige while her husband is absent.
A substantial number of Dominican immigrant women arc single parents who want to provide a better life for their children than is possible in their home countries. They must make use of networks at both ends of their migration trail. If i hey have young children who must be cared for, they may choose to leave them behind with their maternal grandmother. Once in this country, women usually live in extended family
48   •   Seeking Common Ground
groupings thai are composed of blood or mariial kin who provide one another with financial and emotional support. Forming networks within their own groups, these women belie the stereotype of the passive Latin woman. They arc not patiently waiting to be helped by husbands or brothers but arc assuming active leadership roles, taking charge of their own lives and helping kinswomen do the same."
Korean immigrant women in Hawai'i also spend a period of cores-idence with kin and, contrary to tradition, it is usually the relatives of the wife rather than those of the husband.** Laotian women, accustomed to carrying out daily tasks on a communal basis, form networks with kin and nonkin living nearby to help them cope with the loss of the support systems they had in Laos." These networks are cooperative in nature and without accurate record keeping succeed in remaining balanced. Whether employed outside the home or not, the women share in caring for each other's children. Tlrey plan and carry out food shopping and preparation together. They provide for each other's social needs and serve as channels of community information.
Women have social license not available to men to share their personal concerns and worries with each other. These discussions take place informativ as women gather at social and religious functions, or around a common worktable on the job. While outsiders may view these as gossip sessions, they actually serve as occasions for passing on valuable information and widening the range of an individual's contacts. O'Connor. for example, writes about the fcmalc-ccnicred networks that emerge among Mexican immigrants, many of them undocumented, in Santa Barbara as a result of their labor force participation in local nurseries." Based on the idea of tonfianm that is traditionally charactcristK of kin and fictive kin relations in Mexico, these networks within the workplace provide the framework within which immigrant women seek help from formal agencies or mobilize themselves for social action. According to O'Connor,   this   represents a dramatic rhange   from   Mexico,   where
"women   rarely work outside the subsistence economy.__have   little
knowledge of formal political or legal entities beyond local municipal affair.... and participate in the social networks of their husbands and fathers |rather than] instigate network relationships of their own."'1
While ihc bulk of research on the networks of migrant and immigrant women deals with the larger kin group or the workplace, some studies consider how the role changes experienced by male and female immigrants are related to changing patterns in their social relationships. According to a theory proposed by Bott. couples share a social network and perceive each other as companions in direct proportion to how they normally divide conjugal tasks. If conjugal roles are separate, so also are social and kin networks. When roles overlap or become cooperative in nature, social and kin networks do also." An instance that might lend
Anthropology & Immigrant Women    •    49
support to this theory ran be seen in the experience of Korean women in Hawai'i.
In Korea the lives of men and women run on separate but parallel (racks. Labor is strictly divided, with men performing economically related tasks outside the home and women responsible for motherhood and other tasks inside the home. Each has distinct networks with which they interact and socialize on a daily basis. In Hawai'i women must hold jobs outside the home and many couples have made adjustments in the ways domestic duties are assigned. Men and women both are separated fiom their customary social and support ties and need to rely on each other. They spend more time together both in domestic tasks and in social activities. A majority ol women, though by no means all, report enhanced marital relationships.M
A similar situation is reported by Lamphere. Silva, and Sousa in their work on Portuguese immigrants in New England. The realignments in household division of labor resulting from women's work outside the home have drawn nuclear families closer, while tics to extended families and friends become less important.*0 Conversely, Bloch argues that the economic pursuits of Polish immigrants divide family members, sending each «iff in a different direction every day. The family unit becomes fractionalizcd as its members develop distinct sets of friends and a variety of interests, returning home at night too tired to reconnect with each other. Polish women express feelings of isolation, feel that they are overworked, and fear that they have lost touch with their children. They seem at a particular disadvantage compared to women of other ethnic groups because they are unable to draw support from friends and kin. Bloch reports that they operate on a basis of suspicion and competitiveness with both family and nonfamily members. Where oilier groups see increased opportunity for all flowing from information exchange and cooperative efforts, the Poles sec in these behaviors only the possibility of losses of personal advantages. They therefore arc fearful and secretive in their dealings with those from whom others draw support."
A different outcome is experienced by middle-class Cuban women. These women view the role of wife as primary. Children are valued and loved, but the focal point of a Cuban woman's life is her husband and her relationship to him. In the United States. Cuban women arc entering the work force in increasing numbers, and operating within it competently and aggressively, bin they have not let this influence (heir interactions with husbands inside the home. What they have done, however, is to take on an additional rote, one that was carried out by a man's mistress in Cuba, where showing off a beautiful mistress gave status to a man and did not dishonor his wife. Since United States customs do not provide the same approbation for such behavior, the Cuban wife fills it and thereby earns her husband the status he would otherwise be
50   ■   Seeking Common Ground
clení«!. Women who in Cuba were able 10 become slightly plump must die! in I he United Stale» 10 maintain the image of youth and beamy necessary to fulfill this role."
A nth Topological research has demonstrated that the balance contained within male-female relationships is upset by the migratory experience. Boih men and women must adjust to the demands of changing roles inside and outside the home. Relationships with children change also. In some cases prolonged separation of children from parents becomes necessary, and in others parents find that the demands of operating and financing households in the United States leaves little time and/or energy for the sort of interaction with children that would have taken place in their home communities. New social networks may be forged or old ones sustained. These networks may or may not be shared by husband and wife. The networks of immigrant women are crucial for disseminating information not only about employment opportunities, but also ab« mi various institutions of the host society. One of these institutions is the health care system, and it is to these issues that we now turn.
HEALTH. ILLNESS, AND THE IMMIGRANT WOMAN
The study of how cultures change is fundamental to anthropology, and a number of processes by which this occurs have been delineated. Culture change is clearly of central importance in the study of immigrants, although research in this area often analyzes a group or population according to their participation in traditional practices, (xmsidercd arc things such as the meanings involved in continuing to serve symbolic foods and whether or not these foods are prepared with traditional ingredients or with the use of substitutes that maintain the symbolic value but may lose authentic taste quality. Native language use and the efforts thai arc made to teach the original language to succeeding generations provide another arena for assessing change. language is often ai the core of expressions of ethnic identity." Of interest also are the methods used to hand down traditional songs and dances.** Studies measure the number of ethnically based voluntary associations that are active within the community and the rate of participation in them by its members. Religious practices conducted in the ethnic vernacular and social activities that bring together the ethnic group arc yet another indicator of cultural cohesion.*" Many of these studies are not primarily focused on women, but they deal with domains of family life that are centered around women. Thus the way that immigrant women respond to cultural difference is of utmost importance to any understanding of how immigrant families adapt to a new way of life. One female-centered domain where both cultural differences and adaptation are significant is that of family health.
Anthropology S Immigrant Women    •    51
Major contributions to the study of health issues among immigrants have been made by medical anthropologists. Medical anthropology emerged as a subHeld of the discipline in the mid-l*NiOs, although the issues that scholars in this field address (ethnomedicine. cultural conceptions of disease, human reproduction, etc.) have a longer history within anthropology, many of them subsumed within ethnographic studies of religion, research on culture and personality, or investigations of international public health systems.10 In directing their attention to the adaptation of immigrants in the United States, medical anthropologists have demonstrated that the health of migrants is worse than that of nonmigranls.* and thai many stiller from significant stress disorders that are not necessarily alleviated over lime. Clearly the impact of migration on health issues has a gender component. Research on gender and health can be subdivided into three areas: studies of the relationship between cthnonicdical and biomedical orientations toward sickness and healing, studies of mental health and stress, and studies of the use of the health care system.
Indigenous Health Beliefs and U.S. Health Care
Immigrants and refugees, even those who have been in the United Slates for some time, either continue folk healing methods or juxtapose their own medical belief* and practices with those Of the United States.*'' Scholars who have conducted research in this area emphasize that health care professionals must adopt a transcullural perspective.
Bell and Whilcford show thai Tai Dai women hold different concepts of illness causality than do Euro-Americans.*" They emphasize food, temperature changes, and supernatural forces to a greater degree. Sa-moan migrants in l.os Angeles letain a belief in the concept of aitu, the ghost spirit who punishes the living by bringing on a variety of phvs-iological and mental illnesses.7,1 For Samoan immigrant women. Af Vn aitu is a culturally appropriate and patterned way to cope with anxiety and stress. DeSantis shows that while Cuban immigrant women in Florida have a biomedical orientation to illness and health care that is similar to that of Western health care professionals (illnesses and their associated symptoms are identified by their biomedical names). Haitian women arc more cthnomedically oriented and tend to "give folk interpretations of biomedical explanations regarding pathophysiological processes." She associates these differences with (1) the educational and health care systems in the countries of origin. (2) the socioeconomic and political situation that affects immigrants in the localized receiving community. (3) household structure and function, and (4) beliefs about child behavior (the study focused on children's illnesses).*1
Many immigrant and refugee women combine orientations and there-
82
52    •    Seeking Common Ground
fore remedies. Thus, the Cuban women discussed by Kirby use prescription tranquilizers in conjunction with herbal teas and other home remedies in their search tor a cure lor "twrvios."" Cohen claims that Latina women frequently seek consultations with native pharmacists from ihcir home country to supplement the care that they receive from the U.S. system.s' Sargent. Marcucci. and Ellison show th;it Khmer women increasingly seek prenatal care at U.S. hospitals and clinics and tend to deliver their babies in hospitals. However, they also continue to follow traditional postpartum protective measures and to consult the indigenous midwife (chmop).**
Scholars in a number of disciplines have studied fertility patterns among immigrant women, mostly demonstrating a decline after migration.™ Anthropologists have tended to focus on die cultural factors that influence attitudes toward childbirth, pregnancy, and other female health issues.'7 Morse and Park document cultural variations in perceptions of the pain that is associated with childbirth and explain them according to whether ot not childbirth is viewed as natural or noi.w In another article on the Khmer community in Dallas, Sargent and Marcucci demonstrate how pregnancy is culturally and socially constructed. The Khmer, like many other cultural groups, believe in humoral concepts and use them to diagnose pregnancy, treat symptoms, and control diet during pregnancy.*9 Similar humorally based attitudes are described for Indochincse women in California- They influence their preference for formula over breast milk."' Korean immigrant women in Honolulu have ■rouble communicating their anxieties about naeng, a folk illness rooted in ideas about a cold womb, to clinicians. Frequently, humoral and cosmopolitan lore are synthesized as an explanation for personal affliction.1" Finally. Engle. Scrimshaw, and Smidt have worked on sex differences in attitudes toward newborns among Mexican immigrants in the Los Angeles area. Although they discovered an absence of preference among mothers (especially by comparison with fathers), lliey also suggest that "the more acculiurated women express less positive attitudes toward their newborns." and (he relationship was slightly stronger for girls than boys-Mental Health and Stres*
A certain amount of stress is associated with the experience of immigration. A number of scholars, both sociologists and anthropologists, have examined variation* in mental healüi by gender." Fricdcnbcrg and associates show thai Argentine immigrant women in New York are more demoralized across socioeconomic strata than are males, especially those who are nonworking or without household help to assist in child care.** In a study of Hmong refugees in Minnesota. Westermeyer and associates
Anthropology £ Immigrant Women   •   53
show that men experience greater stress during the initial phase of migration because of a loss in power and status and an inability to cope adequately with the public domain. However, as their employment situation and linguistic capabilities improve, then symptoms decrease. By contrast, women in the initial phase experience less psychological distress than men because they continue in their traditional domestic totes and do noi have to deal with the obligations of financial support. The exceptions are women who become employed: "They reported more Phobic Anxiety symptoms.. .due to the new and relatively nomraditional roles as wage workers outside the Hmong community."** However, mental illness and stress increase for women over lime, particularly as they become concerned about the Americanization of their children. Women heading their uw it household experience constant stress, a fact also noted by Cohen lor single Latina immigrant women who have settled on tin-East Coast of the United Stales.
Vega and associates also focus on the initial migration phase, and argue that depression symptom levels of Mexican immigrants are higher among those who have been in the United States for less than five years.*1 They find a [fosiiive correlation between depression and disrupted marital status, serious life events, poor physical health, and being a single head of household. Depression is negatively correlated with educational and income levels, and there seems to be no relationship according lo the number of children. They argue that for women in particular "family structure and normaiivc expectations are unstable and deeply conflicted. .. .The effort to maintain traditional cultural role expectations within the context of a highly urbanized and affluent social system could be expected to increase stress and economic marginal it v.'*" When migrant women maintain contact wilh llieir support network of kin in Mexico, they are much better adjusted."'
The conflicts between motherhood and breadwinner roles create significant stress for a number of immigrant women in the United States. Among I -urn American women in San Francisco, illness, whether mental or physical, validates a claim to maternal identity.,u Korean women in Hawai'i complain of a variety of health disorders from insomnia to chest pain, to loss of appetite and frigidity. Chai suggests tlial many of these complaints are psychosomatic and are an informal strategy used by these women to legitimize and reaffirm llieir roles as good wives and mm hers in a situation where their inadequate English, limited knowledge of American culture, employment in degrading jobs, and the double burden of waged and domestic work leads to declining authority over their children.'
Finally. Kirby describes the solace from stress that Cuban women in South Florida find in increased use ol minor prescription tranquilizers. This stress is a result of the conflict between the ideal sex roles defined
54   -   Seeking Common Ground
by Cuban culture and the economic realities of immigrant life—particularly the need to take on waged employment and to juggle work, child care, and other household responsibilities.™ Tranquilizers alleviate ailments associated with :..■■',,■■—-a mental health ailment described bv other scholars of immigrant women in North America," one that is commonly attributed 10 poor working conditions, low wages, and gender relations.34 Use of : i .■ i n 1111 !i -1-1 ■ in Kirby's view, "may be indicative of an adaptive strategy for dealing with culture change, and not merely as an example ol illicit drug abuse."
Access to and Use of the Health Care System
A number of anthropologists have focused on the access to and use of the health care system by various immigrant and refugee groups in the United States. For many, contact with the system is minimal. In a study of Laotian Tai Dam female refugees in Iowa, Bell and Whiteford show: (I) that two thirds of Tai Dam women do not use and have never used birth control because of insufficient knowledge and cultural norms. (2) that language creates problems of communication with doctors. (3> thai a quarter of Tai Dam women arc not covered by insurance, and (4) thai close to a quarter have never seen a dentist and almost half do not have a personal physician. Mexican immigrant women tend to under-utilizc health facilities even for prenatal care." Illegal status and both the lack of insurance and fear associated with it provides one explanation. Work factors may also be important. Fifty-five percent of a sample of Mexican immigrant women in one study had at least one illness episode during their stay in the United States, and more working than non-working women reported illness.™ This may not l>e ihe result of the harsh conditions of work per sc but of the increased access to medical care through work, which may influence the reporting of illness.
Other research shows that women immigrants seek medical attention and assistance as a way to alleviate tension and stress—being sick is a culturally appropriate means of gaining sympathy and support. For 1-iliii American immigrant women in San Francisco, "illness may provide ibe opportunity for involvement in one of the few truly recreational activities available to women—going to the doctor."7" When immigrant women do seek access to the U.S. health care system, it is largely through their own social networks.**
Chavira characterizes their role as "subsidy providers" as one of the more important among Mexičana migrants in the inidwestcrn United States. "Women always carry, handle, and store all the family's documents and handle all bureaucratic matters affecting the family. In these ways, women arc responsible for the family's health and other business. They function, as well, as cultural brokers as they introduce the family
Anthropology £ Immigrant Women   •   55
to the medical bureaucratic culture."*1 By becoming the health experts. women gain prestige and authority in vital decisions about geographical movement.
Through their dealings with the health rare system, immigrant women come into contact with one aspect of stale bureaucracy. In the hnal section of ihis chapter wc explore other aspects of Ulis interaction as well as the significance of social class.
IMMIGRANT WOMEN, SOCIAL CLASS, AND THE STATE
The political economic perspective has attuned anthropologists to ihe way in which global processes and class relations influence everyday lives. Within feminist anthropology this has resulted in a rich bodv of data on the impact of national and international development projects on women and in an exploration tit how the social position of women is affected by the social, economic, and political policies of states. Rest-arch has emphasized not only how national immigration policies influence the demography of international female migration, but also their insertion in the receiving society. A model t lull addresses a threefold oppression or a "triple invisibility" according to gender, class, and ethnicity has emerged from these concerns."'' One scholar has described a fourth oppression stemming from internalized self-percept ions whereby an exploited position is accepted as normal and natural.81
Class is ex|>erienced in the context of a transnational division of labor ih.it is in mm linked to local and generally segmented occupational structures that funnel immigrant women into a few sectors of the economy, the garment industry and domestic service in particular."' Sala, for example, argues that the job market explains why Hispanic immigrant women outnumber men in ihe New York area."5 A decline in these jobs in recent years has forced them lo srramlHc to find other ways to support themselves. Alternatively, Fernandez-Kelly and Garcia show how local and federal agencies, operating within the framework of capitalist government policies, contribute to the growth of an informal or underground economy that employs numerous Hispanic women in Los Angela and Miami.""
While ihese macro political and economic concerns have occupied ihe attention of some anthropologists, others have focused more closely on internalized perceptions of class and particularly the experience of downward mobility that is voiced by immigrant women who defined themselves as middle class prior to their arrival in the United States. Brazilian women in New York who were used to employing servants arc now employed as servants. They cope with this change in social position by defining their situation as short-term and temporary.*7 Haitian women
5o    *   Seeking Common Ground
win» held piulrsMon.il or while-collar positions in their home country express enormous resentment ahoui their loss in social status and the fact that their education and skills are not valued in a predominantly Kngiish-spcaking society. One Haitian woman who found herself working in a leather goods factory in the United States commented. "The job
I do is for an animal. It's the same day after day___I used to be a
schoolteacher in Haiti. Now I'm doing a job that doesn't even require me to think.""* High status middle-class Korean women who were not employed ouiside the home prior to emigration generally work at menial jobs that arc not commensurate with their education once ilicy arrive in the United States." They are forced to take on these jobs because of the discrimination faced by their husbands. Professionals, managers, and white collar workers in Korea, these men find themselves working as janitors, gardeners, painters, and dishwashers in the United States- The same is true among Soviet Jews and Vietnamese refugees.""
Interestingly, it is the studies of middle-class female immigrants that show waged work failing to enhance women's status. The major motive for international migration among Colombians is the proletarianization of the middle class; they face increasing unemployment and poverty in their own country. ' Perhaps because they had waged employment in their home country. Colombian immigrant women do not gain self-esteem and autonomy in relation to their spouses because of their earnings. In the "least attractive categories in the labor market""! the United States, they are insecure about their position as workers and earn less than their husliands.*1 According to Boone. Cuban women in Washington, D.C.. do not value labor in and of itself because it is an extension of their domestic roles and is expected of them.** Alternatively, another study argues that Cuban mores restricted women's activities to the home and lhai women gained prestige and high standing by remaining within the domestic domain.41 This status is lost as a result of the necessity of employment in the United Slates. The meaning of this loss of status is perhaps best expressed in a statement made by a Cuban respondent in a study conducted in Hudson County. New Jersey. "I used to work as a doctor's secretary in Cuba. I could dress well and it was a respectable
job. Here I have to do factory work___Instead of improving myself in
coming to the United States. I feel like I'm going backwards every day.'*"1 The coniradictions in the research on Cuban immigrant women's attitudes toward work emphasize most blatandy the need to be precise about the social class background of immigrants."* This is nowhere more apparent than in a comparison between Cuban entrepreneurs in Miami and pruletarianized Mexican women in Los Angeles. In one case, home work becomes a strategy to maximize earnings and reconcile the cultural and economic demands placed upon women; in the other it is an avenue to increasing vulnerability.**
While social class is significant, anthropologists are quick to emphasize
Anthropology 6 Immigrant Women    •    Vt
that the exploitation and discrimination that immigrant women experience may result more from their foreigne&s and/or femaleness. Foner note« a number of factors lhal dividr Jamaican women from nlher immigrant or working-class women and. conversely, unites them with Jamaican men in a common cause. Among Dominican women, "the identification and satisfaction with improvements in life-style dampen the collective sentiments and solidarity that are potentially nurtured and ignited in the workplace."w These women view themselves as middle class and measure themselves against where they were when they left their home country. Their orientation, according to Pessar, is individualistic rather than collective, and as a result they shun unions, legislative processes, and collective community action.
Pessars observations draw attention to the pitfalls of ascribing our own concepts of liberation and oppression to immigrant women, who either feel the inevitability of their situation or have a different set of standards by which to evaluate their success. Both these factors explain their comparatively low level of political consciousness. Although there are a few exceptions, generally where anthropologists and other social scientists have even acknowledged the stirrings of group-based political expression, they describe it as incipient or weak.'"" The fact that community and social organizations tend to be male oriented explains, in Gordon's view, the low level of collective action among Caribbean immigrant women."" Their social world is the interpersonal world of kin and neighbors. Another factor is the basic division in the working class along ethnic lines. Lamphcre describes some of this resentment between older (Italian, Irish. French-Canadian) and newer (Portuguese. Latin American) female immigrant factory workers in a New England apparel plant. Much of it centers on accusations of "rate busting." The perception is that new' immigrants work too fast and the piece rate is lowered such that all workers have to increase their output to make the same pay. Despite these divisions and tensions, a culture of resistance that crosses ethnic tines can develop, according to t.amphcre, when unions base their organizational activities on the inlormal networks that arc established among women who bring their social and familial rotes to the workplace. This humanized work culture may not emerge in every situation, but where it does it can provide a powerful base lor collective action by immigrant women.1"1 (certainly more research is necessary to unravel the possibilities for political consciousness among immigrant women more generally.
CONCLUSION
Anthropology in a diverse and holistic discipline thai encompasses within it a wide variety of theoretical perspectives and an unlimited
58   •   Seeking Common Ground
number of research problems that are both interesting and important. I'his breadth is reflected in (he scholarship on immigrant women in the United States. While much of this research is carried out at the micro community level, unlay it is rarely without some recognition of the significance of macro economic and political forces. While feminist models have suggested new questions to address, die emphasis within anthro-[Ktlogy on the insider's interpretation of events lias meant that universal dichotomies are not applied categorically. What is perhaps less apparent in studies of immigrant women, though fundamental to the anthropological imagination, is the comparative perspective. Ethnologists have tended to focus on single cultural groups and as a result lose the context within which to delineate how culture as opposed to some other factor, such as class, influences the lives and experiences of immigrant women. However, from the perspective of anthropology, social classes also have culture. 11 is the concept of culture that leads us to appreciate the multiple voices of immigrant women.
NOTES
1.   Robert F. Spencer, ed.. Migration and Anthropology (Seattle: University of Washington Pre», 1070).
2.   Douglas S. Bimerwotih. "A Study of ihe Urbanization Process Among Mixtet Migrants from Tilantcgo in Mexico City," America Indigena 22. 3 (1962): 257-274; Abncr Cohen. The Migratory Process: Settlers and Strängen," in Abncr ("hen. ed.. Customs and Politic* in Urban Africa: A Study of llama Migrants m Yoruba 7Vmii« (laindon: Koudedgc and Kcgan Paul. 1969), pp. 29—50; Edwin Fames, "Some Aspects of Urban Migration tímu a Village in North Central India." Eastern Anthropology 8, 1 (1954): IS-2ft; William Mangin, ed.. Peasant* in Ctím: Readings in the Anthi apology of Urbanization (Boston: Houghton Mil lim, 1969).
3.   Brian DuToii and Helen I. Safa. .Migration and Urbanization: Modeli and Adaptiv* Strategie* (The Hague: Mou ion. 1975) and Migration and Development: Implications for Ethnic Identit) and Pottiuat Conflict fl"he Hague: Mouton. 1975).
4.   For examples of studies that use ihe household as die major unit of analysis, secjanct E. Benson, "Households. Migration and Community Context." Urban Anthropology 19. I (1990): 9-29; Elizabeth K_ Briody. "Patterns of Household Migration inio South Texas." International Migration Review 21. 1 (1987): '27—47; Ina Diner man, "Pattern* of Adaptation among Households of VS.-Bound Migrants from Michoacan Mexko," International Migration Review 12 (1978): 485-501; Patricia Pessar, The Role of Households in International Migration and the Case of U.S.-Bound Migration from the Dominican Republic," International Migration Review 16. 2 (1982): 342-364; Charles Wood. "Structural Change and Household Strategies: A Conceptual Framework for the Study of Rural Migration," Hunan Organization 40, 4 (1981): 338-343-
5.   Anthony Leeds. "Women in the Migratory Process: A Reductionist Outlook." Anthropological Quarterly 49. 1 (1976): 69-76; ParmindcrK.Bhachu.7awr
Anthropology & Immigrant Women    *    W
Migrants (London: Tavistock, 1985); Brcllell, lv> Haue Already Cried Many Trarv. Hans C. Buechler and Judith Maria Buerhler, Carmen: The Autobiography of a Spanish Galician Woman (Cambridge, Mass.: Schenkman. 1981); Nancy Foncr, Jamaica Farewell: Jamaican Migrant* in London (Berkeley: University of California Press. 1978); Lisa Cilad, Cinger and Salt: Yemeni Jewish Women in an hraeli Town (Boulder: Wesivicw Press. 1989); Charity Goodman. "Immigration and Class Mobility: 1 he ( jsc of Family Reunilicaiion Wives in Fast Germany," Women's Studies 13 (1987); 235-248.
6.   In this chapter we use migrant and immigrant interchangeably, though we are always talking about women who are crossing an international boundary. In general, we arc dealing with the literature on relative newcomers to the United States, but occasionally studies of second- or even third-gene nil ion ethnic group* are included. We have included some research on refugee groups. These populations arc the focus of increasing attention by anthropologists, itui thev otr.cn cxpcriciKC problems similar to those of economic migrants. Finally, where wc thought it relevant, we have made reference to some studies of immigrant women in Canada.
7.   Rosaldo, "Women. Culture and Society," pp. 17-43.
8.  Claude Mcillassoux, Maideni, Mealx and Money (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1981); Gayle Rubin, "The Traffic in Women: Notes on the Political Economy of Sex." in Rayna Reiter, ed.. Toward an Anthropology of Women (New York; Monthly Review Press. 1975), pp. 157-210.
9.   Felicity Ed holm, Olivia Harris, and Kate Young, "Conceptualizing Women." Critique of Anthropology 3 (1977): 101-130; Olivia Harris. "Households as Natural Units," in Kate Young, Carol WoUcowitz. and Roslyn McCullagh, eds.. Of Marriage and the Market (London: CSE Books. 1981). pp. 49-68; Hcn-lieila I- Wixnv, Feminism and A nlhrnpologv (Minneapolis. University of Minnesota Press. 1988); Susan Carol Rogers. "Women's Plate: A Critical View of Anthro-pol«»gical Theory." Comparative Studie* in Society and HiUary 20 (1978): 123-162: Michelle Zimhalist Rosaldo, "The Use and Abuse of Anthropology: Reflections on Feminism and Crow-Cultural Undemanding,"SIGNS4, 3 (1980): 497-51»; Sylvia Junku Yanagisaku and Jane Oillicr. Ceruter and Kmthip: Toward a Unified Analysa (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Pre**, 1987).
10.  Chai. "Adaptive Strategies of Recent Korean Immigrant Women in Hawaii." and "Freed from the Elders but Locked into labor."
11.  Chai. "Freed from die Elders but Locked into Labor." p 229.
12.   Dcirdre Mcinrcl. 'The New Double Workday of Immigrant Worker* in Quebec." Women Studies IS (1987): 273-293.
13.   Lampherc. "From Working Daughter* m Working Mothers"; "Working Mothers and Family Strategics: Portuguese and Colombian Women in a New England Community." in Simon and Bret tell, hitemational Migration, pp. 266-283; Lamphcre, From Working Daughters to Working Mothers.
14.  Stafford, "Haitian Immigrant Women," p. 186.
15.   Pessar. "The Role of Households in International Migration"; Pessar. Tlie Linkage between the I lousehold and Workplace Experience". Pessar, "The Role of Gender in Dominican Settlement in the United Stares." in Nash and Safa. Women and Change, pp. 274—294: Pessar. "The Dominicans"; Pessar, "Tlie Constraints on and Release of Female Lahoi Powei."
60   •   Seeking Common Ground
16. Pessar. "The Role of Gender in Dominican Settlement," p. 276.
17 This concept of helping—women help men outside the home and men help women within it—has been described for other immigrant group». See Goody. "Introduction to Female Migrants and the Work Force": Alicia Chavira. Tienes Que Ser Valtcnte: Mexican Migrants in a Midwestern Farm labor (amp," in Melville. Mexuam at Work, pp. 64-73, here. p. 69.
IS. Briody. "Patterns of Household Migration."
19.   Pessar, "The Dominicans." p. 123.
20.   Foner, "Sex Roles and Sensibilities."
21.   Gucndcltnan and Peiez-ltriago, "Double Lives." p. 268.
22.   Fernande/-Kellv, "Mexican Border Industrialization."
23.   Mciniel. "Migration, Wage Labor and Domestic Relationships: Immigrant Women in Montreal."" Anlhropologua 26, 2 (1984): 135-169. here. p. 162.
24- Shcrrv B. Ortncr, Theory in Anthropology since the Sixties." Comparative Studiti m Society and Union 26. I (1984): 126-166.
25.   Gonzalez. "Multiple Migratory Experiences": Daniel O. Price and Melanie M. Sikes. Rural-Urban Migralion Research in Ike Untied Stalet. Center of 1'opulatiun Research Monograph (Washington. D.C.: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. 1975).
26.   Nancy B. Graves and Theodore Graves. "Adaptive Strategies in Urban Migralion." Annual Review of Anthropology 3 (1974): 117-151.
27.  Janet E. Benson, "Households, Migration and Continuum Context," Urban Anthropology 19 (1990): 9-29; Steven J. Gold. "Differential Adjustment among New Immigrant Family Members," journal of Contemporary Ethnography 17 (li»fty>: 408-434.
28.  Smith, "Networks and Migration Resettlement": Cohen, "The Female Factor in Resettlement"; Stafford. "Haitian Immigrant Women"; Sylvia Junko Vanagisako. "Women-Centered Kin Networks in Urban Bilateral Kinship." American FthnalapM 4 (1977): 207-226.
29.  Chavez. "Coresidencc and Resistance."
30.  Stephen M. Fjellman and Hugh Gladwin. "Haitian Family Patterns of Migralion to South Florida," Human Organization 44, 4 (1985): 301-312; Vivian Garrison and Carol 1. Weiss. "Dominican Family Networks and United Slates Immigration Polity: A Case Study,*' Internalianal Migralion Review 13 (1979): 264-283
31.  Stafford. "Haitian Immigrant Women."
32.   Ahem. Bryan, and Baca, "Migration and La Mujer Fuertc."
33.  Cohen, The Female Factor in Rcseidement."
34.  Chai, "Adaptive Strategies of Recent Korean Immigrant Women in Hawaii." and "Freed from ihe Elders but Locked into Labor."
35.   Muir. The Strongest Part of the Family.
36.  O'Connor. "Women's Networks."' p. 82.
37.   Ibid.. p. 85. See also Lamphere. "Bringing the Family lo Work." and Zavclla. "Abnormal Intimacy," for additional discussions of how networks affect women's consciousness among migrant and immigrant populations.
38.   FJUaheih Bon, Family anil Smial Xrtuwk (NewYork: Free Press. 1971).
39.  Chai. "Adaptive Strategies of Recent Korean Immigrant Women in Hawaii." and "Freed from the Elders but Locked into Labor."