Women, Families and International Migration: The Case of Women in Immigrant Families from Punjab

• In Event: 469 - Section on International Migration Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 13. Gender and Migration

Abstract

In this paper, I explore how decisions surrounding immigration impact the way women negotiate their roles within families in individual and relational terms, and its subsequent impact on their patterns of settlement. An understudied immigrant group from the northwestern Indian state of Punjab is the focus of this paper. I look particularly at how the distribution of advantages and disadvantages on immigrant Punjabi women impact their decision to immigrate as well as their lives as immigrants. The methodology is a combination of ethnography and semi-structured interviews conducted with Punjabi immigrant families in the New York tri-state area as well as families with migration aspirations and return migrants who live in the Punjab. The findings advance knowledge in the following areas: a) expand research on this understudied immigrant group from South Asia, b) show the importance of analyzing intra-group differences in order to illuminate the multiple axis of settlement of any one immigrant group, and c) pushes for a theoretical frames that will capture this complex immigrant experiences that considers the intersection of various categories that shape the lives of women in immigrant families.

Author

• Diditi Mitra, Brookdale Community College