Impacts of Legitimate “Temporary Legality” on Migrant Women’s Lives in the United States and Canada

• In Event: 2384 - Section on International Migration Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 12. Legality and Irregular Migration

Abstract

This paper highlights the significance of legality and citizenship, particularly the types of visa and different level of temporality attached to each visa, as critical factors that produce social inequalities and heterogenous life experiences among documented immigrants through the analysis of the middle-class Korean immigrant women with various legitimate legal statuses in the United States and Canada. Even if all these women are documented, they experience quite varied challenges in their host societies based on the types of visas they hold (e.g., F1 international students, H1 temporary workers, B1/B2 temporary visitors, permanent residents, and American citizens). Different visas also influence the level of integration into the host societies. For example, women with F1 and B1/B2 visas tend to maintain a heightened sense of a foreignness and isolation from the dominant society even after a long period of stay, compared to those who hold green card or citizenship. Although many women with less stable visas attempt to change their legal status to more stable and permanent ones, their hope is often compromised by the political and social environment. My research contributes to expanding the discourse of immigration to the overlooked challenges and inequalities that many documented, middle-class immigrants experience in contemporary American society.

Author

• Se Hwa Lee, State University of New York-Albany