Deeper Sacrifice to Save Face: Expectations for Women in Undocumented and Mixed-status Chinese Immigrant Families

• In Event: 4151 - International Migration Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 min): Table 7: Undocumented Immigration

Abstract

Scholars have long argued that gender plays a significant role in immigration (Dreby 2010; Hondagneu-Sotelo, 1994; Menjivar, Abrego, and Schmanlzabauer 2016). Immigrant women are expected to caretake, work, and send remittances to their families back home (Abrego 2009; Curran and Saguy 2001; Mahler 2003). For many immigrant families, having transnational familial ties helps perpetuate and modify gender norms and expectations for their next generation. However, less work has focused on how documentation status can impact the transnational lived experiences and gendered expectations of women and their families. Following two undocumented and mixed-status Chinese families in New York and their families in China for three years, I find that all the women have and continue to sacrifice their lives for the “face” of the family – and being undocumented makes it harder for women and their next generation to fulfill such expectation.

Author

• Jia-Lin Liu, New York University