Pramila Jayapal: Why Immigration Policy Is ‘Sexclusionary’ (and How To Fix It)

If you’ve been following the current debate and news coverage, you probably think that immigration reform is mainly about men—the undocumented males scaling border walls, working in agriculture, doing construction work and writing code. And when you do see women, they are normally portrayed either as helpless victims of detention or deportation or as conniving leeches delivering what anti-immigrants call “anchor babies.”

Between this male-centered media narrative, and the fact that the Congress members crafting immigration proposals are almost always men, it’s no surprise that immigration policy is what I’ve dubbed as “sexclusionary.”

From the numbers alone, it’s clear that immigration is a women’s issue. Women and children comprise three-quarters of people migrating to the United States. Yet our current policy excludes them from many of the opportunities and protections of the system, and boxes them into a small number of visa categories.

As bipartisan proposals near completion in both the Senate and House, it’s critical that women across America change the conversation. We must highlight the ways in which immigration policy excludes and limits women and make sure this round of reform prioritizes issues that are essential to women’s equality.

Here are six ways that U.S. immigration policy excludes women—and corresponding ways that immigration reform legislation can be crafted to instead prioritize the needs of women.

1. Recognize the work that women do as real work. Roughly 60 percent of undocumented women work outside of their homes, many in industries where employment is temporary, informal or unverifiable—think domestic caregiving and service work. The remaining 40 percent work at home taking care of their children and families. A plan that attaches citizenship to proof of work would leave out millions of women and devalue the real contributions of their work, whether at home or in the formal or informal economy.

2. And quit trapping skilled workers as dependents on their husbands. Currently, only 27 percent of all principal visa holders—those authorized to work—are women. Since the majority of principal visa holders are men, it follows that two-thirds of dependent visa holders are women. Immigrant women in the dependent visa category are not allowed to work, even though they have the same level of attainment of bachelor’s degrees as native-born women and bring skills with them. As a result, they end up staying home, financially and socially dependent on their husbands. In fact, both the principal and dependent visa categories have significant problems for women. Globally, the employment system prioritizes professions dominated by men—such as technology and agriculture—even though our labor markets have tremendous shortages in professions dominated by women. For example, experts estimate that those who need long-term care will more than double to 27 million people by 2050. Simultaneously, the direct care workforce—both for in-home or domestic care workers—will be the fastest growing occupations in the labor market in the next decade. These industries, along with restaurant and hotel industries, employ majorities of women workers but are never prioritized for employment visas. Moreover, any employment visas also need to ensure protections and rights on the job, so women immigrants can move from employer to employer and feel safe in reporting abusive employers.

3. Don’t make women wait 20 years to unite with their families. Currently, 70 percent of women enter the country through the the family sponsorship channel. As a result, the system’s inefficiencies, outdated regulations and long wait times disproportionately burden women. Today, more than 4 million people sit waiting in the family “backlog”—meaning they have applied legally for their close family members to enter the country, but must wait for excessive periods to be reunited with their families. If you are from Mexico, the Philippines or India, for example, the wait times can be as long as 20 years. Same-gender partners are also excluded from sponsoring family members at all, since federal immigration law does not recognize same-sex couples for the purposes of family sponsorship. Left with no options, many same-sex couples end up living apart, across country borders or becoming undocumented in order to stay together.

4. Make the U.S. once again a safe haven for survivors of violence and trafficking. Human traffickers and smugglers prey on immigrant women desperate to join their families. Women asylum seekers or refugees also often see the U.S. as one of their only options to escape terrible abuse and conditions in their home country. Until 1996, America had a proud history of protecting these women. But everything changed under that Congress. Lawmakers created new barriers for asylum seekers and, in the years since, policy makers have continued making it easier for survivors of gender violence (including rape) to be deported to their countries of persecution or detained for long periods of time. The disregard for important protections for women immigrants was only highlighted by recent ugly squabbles around reauthorization of the Violence against Women Act. The ultimate passage of VAWA—after protracted battle and high-profile failures—was secured only after eliminating a tiny expansion of the number of visas for immigrant women to come forward and report domestic violence without fear of retribution. It is more essential than ever that this round of immigration reform restore the U.S. history of providing a haven for immigrants who are victims of domestic violence, as well as ensuring protections for pregnant women, asylees and refugees, abused women and unaccompanied minors.

5. Protect families and ensure due process. Too many women and children unfairly bear the brunt of detention and deportation. As a Colorlines investigation uncovered, 23 percent of all deportations in a two-year period were issued for parents with U.S. citizen children. The stunning number of deportations taking place each year—over 400,000 in 2012 alone—have left tens of thousands of families destroyed and torn apart by outdated laws that punish aspiring Americans. Women, in particular, as primary caregivers are deeply affected. California Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard has proposed a fix to this, offering a bill that could be integrated into immigration reform legislation. The bill would provide protections for deported parents and for undocumented family members who care for young relatives.

6. Promote the ability for women to fully integrate into society. Approximately 10 million immigrant women speak limited English and need help from the federal government to learn our language and laws and ensure they can contribute their skills fully. English classes that currently exist often exclude women because they are tied to workforce training, take place at community colleges that require a basic level of English to enroll, or are held at times that are impossible for people who are caretakers to leave their homes and family responsibilities. Immigration reform legislation that includes an English language requirement without addressing these issues will leave millions of women at a severe disadvantage for the future. bell hooks described feminism once as “a movement to end sexist oppression.” By this measure, immigration reform offers a powerful moment for women to ensure their voices and priorities are at the forefront. If that happens, U.S. immigration policy can start working for women, rather than against them.

Pramila Jayapal is a distinguished taconic fellow at Center for Community Change and a co-chair of the We Belong Together campaign.
This article originally appeared in COLORLINES on Monday, March 18 2013. http://colorlines.com/archives/author/pramila-jayapal

Veronica Arreola: Who is Writing the Narrative?

The Ms. Foundation for Women is celebrating Women’s History Month with a blog carnival featuring the voices and profiles of women across the country. This Month of Action is generously supported by our friends in Seattle. 

What do you feel is the biggest issue facing women today? 

Connections. The biggest issue facing women today is seeing that all our issues are connected. We can't reduce violence against women until we have full economic justice that would allow a woman to walk away from her abuser without having to choose to live in her car with her children. What kind of choice is that? We can't rally for abortion rights without repealing the Hyde Amendment so low-income women have better access to what is coined "choice." We still need to acknowledge how race and class impact the issues that the feminist movement usually organizes around.

How did you become interested in women’s rights/social justice? 

As long as I can remember, women's history and rights has been an interest of mine. I believe it stems from being a tomboy and coming up against "no girls allowed" rules on the playground, or just looking at the sports teams I followed and realizing that there weren't any women on them. Or looking at presidential history and realizing we aren't there, either. In the fourth grade, I made a zine (This was the mid-80s, so I had no idea that's what I was doing!) of first ladies because I did not feel they were getting as much respect as their husbands. It just grew from there.

How does your work advance equality? 

I am the director of the Center for Research on Women and Gender's Women in Science and Engineering Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The program was established to work on the facts that 1) women do not enter science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) majors at the same rate as men; and 2) nationally, we do not graduate enough of those women. For me, it is always an equity issue. First of all, STEM majors, especially engineering, are consistently some of the top-paying careers. They also have the smallest wage gaps. But we have seen many instances in which the lack of women at the laboratory decision table leads to bad science. For example, air bags were designed for the average man, heart disease was labeled a man's disease for years, and the most outrageous example is that, until the mid-90s, most breast cancer research was done on men because women's reproductive cycles and hormone fluctuations were too messy to deal with. Now that's some equity right there.

What keeps you motivated to keep working for women’s rights/social justice? 

We keep winning! It does not always seem like we win, but we are. There are some serious policy disappointments, like abortion coverage, in Obamacare, but we won on birth control and other preventative measures. I have to keep those wins in mind or else this work would wear me out. Don't get me wrong: I get as outraged as any other angry feminist, but I also take time to celebrate our victories and especially point them out to my students. We have a long way to go, but at the same time, we have a lot of victories to be proud of.

Why are women’s stories, particularly the stories of low-income women and women of color, so often left out of the mainstream conversation? 

We have to look at who is writing the narratives. This is why I think blogging is powerful. Too many times in the corporate press and even in blogging, if low-income women and women of color aren't telling their stories, we will be overlooked. That is why I love the Chicago Abortion Fund's My Voice, My Choice blog. There are some low-income women, all women of color, sharing their stories. I like to talk about them as much as I can so that perhaps their stories will get into the mainstream conversation. And they have! Ebony did a great piece on one of the leadership women.

What are the biggest struggles you’ve faced bringing these issues to light? 

As a Latina, I've been asked to be the emissary to "my people," rather than have a larger discussion as to why Latinas might not be attending this or that event, why Latinas aren't writing about this, etc. So much to unpack there! It's the biggest struggle with being "a movement." We have a lot of parts to this movement and, for the most part, I think we are all working toward the same goal, but in our own way. We don't need to all be working on the same exact issue, but we do need to respect each other's work. If we disagree, do it with respect.

Veronica Arreola is the author of the award-winning blog Viva La Feminista, written at the intersection of motherhood and feminism.

Jeannette King: A Mother's Courage

The Ms. Foundation for Women is celebrating Women’s History Month with a blog carnival featuring the voices and profiles of women across the country. This Month of Action is generously supported by our friends in Seattle.

By Jeannette King

My name is Jeannette King, and I am completing a Master’s in Elementary Education at Goddard College. But I am not the person who got me where I am today. That person is my mother.

Jacqueline Scott King Dawkins is an extraordinary woman whom I am proud to call my mother. She did not walk in rallies for women’s rights; she was too busy being a wife and a mother to three children. My mother gave up her chances to finish her bachelor’s degree many times because she could not find affordable child care for her small children. When she and my father divorced and he stepped out of the picture, she became mother, father and cheerleader to her children. She took jobs in the Catholic and private school systems to cover the cost of our tuitions when money was tight, and she became a permanent fixture in the principal’s office when I was being bullied in the classrooms.

It was not until my mother turned 59 years old that she was able to receive her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. She will graduate this spring with her master’s at 66 years old. I cannot begin to thank her for sacrificing her education to be sure that my sister, brother and I had ours. My sister is working on her second master’s and I am in the middle of my first. We are where we are today because of my mother and her tireless work to keep us educated, well-fed and with a roof over our heads, even in times of trouble. She had no support system. It was just us against the world for as long as I can remember. But we all made it.

Jamie Feldman: Write Like a Man

The Ms. Foundation for Women is celebrating Women’s History Month with a blog carnival featuring the voices and profiles of women across the country. This Month of Action is generously supported by our friends in Seattle.

By Jamie Feldman

When looking at gender representation in the workforce, the focus seems to be on women gaining ground in the sciences, but what does that say about the arts? As a woman who works in literary arts, theater and film, I am frequently reminded that the vast majority of top writers, directors and producers are men. It’s great that we root for female engineers and mathematicians, but why don’t we extend that same enthusiasm toward equality in the arts?

Examine the recent Academy Awards. In the directing and screenwriting categories (15 nominations), only one woman (a co-writer) was nominated. For acting, the awards have been segregated into actor and actress categories. Whether this is a good thing is debatable. Sure, it allows women more visibility in the entertainment industry, but by separating the awards, are we saying that men and women must be judged differently for the same accomplishment? And, if so, what exempts the other categories in which men and women compete (or work together) for the same awards?

VIDA’s annual count of women represented by top literary publications was recently released, with dismal results. Some believe this is because men and women write differently, although as someone with a unisex first name, I can tell you, this is false. I’d be lying if I said my name hasn’t been an advantage.

Once, when I had been “found out” as a woman, I was told my writing had been accepted because I write like a man. It is this type of rhetoric that maintains the unfair advantage and contributes to inequality.

I am a woman and I write like me: an artist, an individual and a human being.

LeAnne Moss: Conversations on Feminism

The Ms. Foundation for Women is celebrating Women’s History Month with a blog carnival featuring the voices and profiles of women across the country. This Month of Action is generously supported by our friends in Seattle.

By LeAnne Moss

Last month was the 50th anniversary of Betty Friedan’s classic, “The Feminist Mystique,” which is often credited with being the catalyst that birthed the women’s movement. Over these five decades, there have been fits and starts in this movement, and a wide range of emotions in what “feminism” is and isn’t.

In the last week, I’ve had some interesting and different conversations about women and feminism.

The first experience wasn’t so much a conversation as an interaction. I was one of 12 women in a two-day workshop on being a powerful woman. At one point, the instructor – a dynamic woman in her mid-50s who had been talking about her experiences as a short woman of color claiming her own power – made an off-the-cuff remark, “I’m not a feminist. You know, I’m not the bra-burning type.”

My voice was one of many challenging her on this view of feminism. I was heartened to see that the younger women in the group, those in their 20s and early 30s, were speaking the loudest. Once the instructor answered affirmatively to their question, “Do you believe women should have equal rights as men?,” we felt better about moving on.

The other conversations had to do with the lack of family-friendly policies and attitudes in a progressive organization, and the pros and cons of “taking back” the word feminism. To the latter point, my colleague and friend in her 50s didn’t think we had to take back the word. That’s beside the point, she argued. “Let’s just do the work, whatever we call it.”

Indeed, whatever we call it, the volumes of research still show that women face structural, behavioral and attitudinal challenges. Fifty years later, we still face challenges that affect not only our lives but those of our children, partners and other family members. We need to keep the conversation going to show how advancing the status and lives of women benefit all of us. And we need to acknowledge that these challenges are not ours alone to face. We have the support to do this work, together.

Erin Matson: Maternity Policies That Suit Women’s Individual Needs

The Ms. Foundation for Women is celebrating Women’s History Month with a blog carnival featuring the voices and profiles of women across the country. This Month of Action is generously supported by our friends in Seattle.

By Erin Matson

We've heard a lot about Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer in the context of being a new mom, little of it flattering. She was bashed for taking a short maternity leave, and now she's bashed for creating a nursery next to her executive suite.

As a feminist, I was flabbergasted by the idea that because she's a woman in the spotlight, she had a duty to society to take a long maternity leave. Simply the idea that any woman's consideration of what's best for her and her family should come second to what society thinks is best for her or society twists on outdated "women are public property" ways of thinking.

I'm also irked we aren't intimately familiar with names of the 95.8 percent of men leading Fortune 500 companies, and the gyms they've built and the cars they've customized and the planes and private retreats set to their exact specifications. With few exceptions, the media refrains from picking apart your big money and big perks if you're a CEO -- and a man. Although I'm willing to bet if a man CEO built a nursery next to his office, he'd be cast as a hero, not a villain.

As a pregnant woman trying to navigate parental leave for the first time, I want to scream: Why do we act like a working woman, or her newborn baby, must disappear?

This isn't about personal preference. It's about policy. The United States is the only industrialized country without mandatory paid parental leave. The Family and Medical Leave Act, which mandates unpaid leave, does not even cover employees of small businesses. Pregnant women, new parents and families are thrown to the wolves.

Working women of all socioeconomic classes are in the workforce. Our children aren't going away. And working fathers need to be included equally in this discussion.

Dara Pearson: Helping Women Live To Their Fullest Potential

The Ms. Foundation for Women is celebrating Women’s History Month with a blog carnival featuring the voices and profiles of women across the country. This Month of Action is generously supported by our friends in Seattle.

By Dara Pearson

I was raised in the Unification Church, a fundamentalist, patriarchal religion in which women had no voice and no power. My parents had an arranged marriage, and my sisters and I were to have the same. I remember being a kid and having a tenacious loyalty to the church because it was everything that I knew. But I also had an ongoing feeling of dread that I held the same fate as my mother, who seemed flatly sad and empty most of the time. Although it was incredibly confusing, I remember promising myself that my future would hold something different, something bigger, although I didn’t know exactly what.

I now work with battered women at a shelter for domestic and sexual violence. In many ways, they are the same women that I grew up with. The church covered up the emotional, physical, financial, sexual and spiritual control of women in much the same way that they covered up tax evasion and an elite financial empire.

In many ways, it feels like home, to witness women on the edges of male dominance and exploitation. But this time, it’s different. I get to be a part of changing that, part of helping women access safety, find their voices, and develop the idea that they can strive for more and live to their fullest potential. And it’s truly rewarding work because each hour of each day is spent looking for ways to improve the quality of life for women and their children, whether it’s through higher education; employment opportunity; sustainable affordable housing; establishing supportive, quality relationships; helping women access reliable child care; or establishing the fundamentals of physical and emotional safety. Sometimes we come full circle to find that the most fulfilling life is about giving what we ourselves have been blessed enough to find.