First Published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book represents a first effort to systematically describe the experience of immigrant women in the U.S. labor market over the past thirty years. It may come as a surprise that the United States is currently home to more immigrant women than immigrant men. However, until this study was conducted, the attention of analysts and policymakers has focused solely on the labor performance of immigrant men. Georges Vernez's analysis of immigrant women's experience is the first to break this trend, revealing a complex story that resists easy interpretation. Some immigrant women succeed beyond all expectations, while others struggle all their lives and have little to show for it. In examining the myriad factors that contribute to the success and failure of immigrant women in the U.S. workforce, this book provides a profile of their changing origin and characteristics; describes what they do, where they work, and how they fare in the U.S. labor market; and looks at the use they make of public services to support themselves.

Data from the Current Population Survey were used in a unique analysis of migration and economic adaptation in a nationally representative sample of Asian and Hispanic immigrant women. The study describes migration patterns and compares the labor market adaptation experiences of women who migrated with their families and women who migrated independently. The book also examines the systematic differences in migration patterns by country of origin and how these differences relate to labor market performance The findings highlight the considerable impact of immigration policy on the economic adaptation of immigration women. Wives who migrated before their husbands were more likely to be in the labor force, especially when compared to wives migrating after their husbands. In contrast, wives who migrated with their husbands were not likely to participate in the labor force. Interestingly, Asian immigrant wives, were more likely to migrate while married than were Hispanic immigrant wives. Asian wives who migrated after their husbands, earned substantially lower wages than their respective ethnic counterparts (Ph.D. Dissertation, Cornell University, 1995; revised with new preface and index)

Labor, laws, and love. Yen Le Espiritu explores how racist and gendered labor conditions and immigration laws have affected relations between and among Asian American women and men. Asian American Men and Women documents how the historical and contemporary oppression of Asians in the United States has (re)structured the balance of power between Asian American women and men and shaped their struggles to create and maintain social institutions and systems of meaning. Espiritu emphasizes how race, gender, and class, as categories of difference, do not parallel but instead intersect and confirm one other.

This book is the first interdisciplinary reader focusing on immigrant women in the United States. Part I includes three chapters by a historian, a sociologist, and an anthropologist summarizing the way research on immigrant women has developed in the three disciplines. Parts II and III, focusing on Immigrant Women of the Past and Immigrant Women Since 1920, provide empirical and interpretive essays on immigrant women from Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The chapters explore such themes as women in the migration process, the role of gender in the creation of American ethnic identities, and the comparability of today's immigrant women with those of the past. Seeking Common Ground is the first interdisciplinary reader focusing on immigrant women in the United States. By providing a basis for comparison between both different ethnic groups and different disciplinary approaches, the volume aims to encourage interdisciplinary communication and research. After the editor's introduction, the volume begins with three chapters (Part I) by a historian, a sociologist, and an anthropologist summarizing the way research on immigrant women has developed in the three disciplines. Parts II and III, focusing on Immigrant Women of the Past and Immigrant Women Since 1920, provide empirical and interpretive essays on immigrant women from Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The chapters explore such themes as women in the migration process, the role of gender in the creation of American ethnic identities, and the comparability of today's immigrant women with those of the past. The work will be of interest to individuals from all disciplines who are concerned with women's studies in general and immigrant women in particular.

This ground-breaking look at contemporary immigrant labor organizing and mobilization draws on participant observation, ethnographic interviews, historical documents, and new case studies of three organizing drives. The expert contributors provide tangible evidence of immigrants' eagerness for collective action and organizing. Parting company with mainstream thinking, they argue lucidly that immigrants' propensity to organize stems from social isolation. Many of the contributors highlight a specific ethnic group and special labor niches, such as the dominance of Punjabi in the New York City taxi industry. Each case study examines efforts beyond the conventional unions to organize the immigrants, such as worker centers and independent syndicalism on the job. An essential text for courses in labor-relations and immigrant studies, the book takes into account the latest debates in the fields of labor studies, urban studies, sociology, and political science.