U.S. Immigrants: Race, Gender and Ethnic differentiations - Essay Example

?U.S. Immigrants: Race, Gender and Ethnic differentiations Introduction There has been a steady growth in the number of immigrants in the US in the last few years. The nation is considered as the world’s most popular destination for immigrants. Immigrants are generally considered as the most vulnerable group in a nation’s population since they carry greater risk of physical, social and psychological problems. This is because they need to settle in a foreign country under different climatic, social and cultural environment. In US, there have been various laws for welfare of the immigrations that focuses on health facilities made accessible for these immigrants. In general, immigrants in the US receive poorer quality health care than the nation’s citizens. One reason for this is that addressing the matter of health care services for the immigrants is complex because of the heterogeneity of this group. Moreover, various state and federal policies restrict health care provisions to specific immigrant groups like the unauthorized ones and recent arrivals (Derose et al., 2007, p.1258). This first part of this paper focuses on the precarious political relationship between immigration and health care with major focus on pregnant immigrant women, immigrant mothers and immigrant women of child bearing age, as examined in Lisa Sun-Hee Park’s book Entitled to Nothing. The second part of this paper focuses on Miliann Kang’s book The Managed Hand that puts forth the notion of body labor through commercialized intimacies for Asian immigrant women, especially Korean immigrant women in NYC in manicure salons in three distinct low-wage service sectors. Politics of public charge The concept of public charge was revived in the 1990s in order to induce deportation of immigrant women of reproductive age. It is an integral part of a broader project that focuses on maintaining discipline within the immigrant population. The Book The Managed Hand, presents the results of about 200 interviews conducted on immigrant organizations, government bodies and safety net providers. The author has also scrutinized various policies and media reports before providing frank, first-person accounts of how the difficulties of public charge concept unfolded, and its impact on the immigrant community. In 1891, the Immigration law instructed federal officers to deny entry to immigrants based on public charge for reasons like carrying “loathsome or dangerous contagious disease” (Park, 2011, p.4) that even involves pregnancy. The term “public charge” means the possibility of a person becoming permanently dependent on the government either financially or for any other assistance in terms of service at government’s expense. It is part of U.S. Immigration law for over hundred years and is characterized by its overall vagueness, which allows it to be overly flexible so that immigrant officials can manipulate it to deport immigrants. In 1996, reforms were made in immigration laws that include giving a definite definition to the concept of public charge like which government services will be considered before applying public charge on individuals. However, it did not much clear the confusion of immigrants, especially “pregnant low-income immigrant women” (Park, 2011, p.4). The fear of public charge is extreme among immigrants and this can be illustrated by an example like how a Korean immigrant woman burnt herself badly in a bathtub, but refused to admit herself in emergency care for 30 days for fear of jeopardizing her family who were documented citizens. As a result of this, she died because of infection (Park, 2011, p.92). With the consistent growth of the number of immigrants in the nation, America’s economic, cultural and racial features get threatened by foreign born population. Therefore, to monitor and prevent the movement of immigrants within the boundaries of the nation, government policies use control and discipline as major tools. To exert control on and to maintain disciple among the immigrant population, it is necessary that they remain in constant contact with the state. To ensure this, there are Port of Entry Fraud Detection (PED) Program and the Medi-Cal eligibility process. The Port of Entry Fraud Detection is an integrated program of California Department of Health Services (DHS) to investigate and curb the deceptive ways in which immigrants get access to health care services. The PED program was launched for the first time in 1994 with twofold goals: to thwart fraudulent Medicaid measures before they happen, and to expose documented immigrants or non-citizens who attempt to come back to the U.S. through ports of entry. The PED programs were just a part of a bigger measures adopted by the state to reduce Medicaid costs by surveying the accessibility of health care services to individuals. The common fraudulent practice that immigrants adopt to get access to health care facilities is false display of “income, property, residence, or household composition” (Park, 2011, p.59). By investigating all such practices of immigrants, DHS was successful in refusing 55 percent of health care applicants who were disabled, elderly and had low earnings. The most prominent success reports of the program came from San Diego County. Moreover, this program was given precedence over most other activities in DHS Investigations Branch, which means all skepticisms were processed within seven days and reports were revealed within another ten days, which is quicker than any other state official processes (Park, 2011, p.59). Immigrant women who survive on government policies can more easily be observed and controlled than those who are independent with no need of government services. Therefore, it is a deliberate act by the authorities to design policies that make immigrants dependent on the state even at the risk of public outcry (Park, 2011, p.19). Historically, to protect the rights of US born citizens, there have been attempts to create strategies to confine vulnerable minority groups like immigrants within the framework of myriad political and economical policies. The PED program focuses on links between Asian and Latin American immigrants. The first test was conducted on the Mexican immigrants by introducing the program in U.S.- Mexico border, and when the results were positive, the program was launched in international airports to monitor the Asian immigrants. The common characteristics of various racial and ethnic populations are exposed by combined existence of different kinds of policies. During different periods of U.S. history, tests were conducted on various ethnic groups on rotation basis to widen the boundary of citizenship rights. For example, according to legal scholar Bill Ong Hing, “legislative attacks on the Asians in the late 1800s served as a model for the exclusion of eastern and southern Europeans” (Park, 2011, p.22). In recent years, Latin American immigrants are openly attacked both physically and verbally with regard to their utilization of public services. However, as is the characteristic of Port of Entry Fraud Detection program, its focus can shift to other immigration groups including the model minorities. These test processes to determine access of health care facilities to immigrants have another major issue to concentrate on. This issue is related to unprecedented movement of private information across state and federal agencies. As heath care services like prenatal care is becoming more difficult for immigrants to access, at the same time, government’s privilege to hold private information about individuals is expanding. For instance, in California, existing immigrants felt the impact of government’s constant scrutiny of private information of individuals during the period between five years prior to September 11, 2001 attacks and the subsequent enactment of the federal USA Patriot Act (Park, 2011, p.22). Korean manicurists in New York’s nail salons In her book, The Managed Hand, the author Miliann Kang observed the Korean immigrant women who work in New York’s nail salons. Her initial excitement and feeling of self-indugence were soon replaced by harsh reality of daily inequalities and dynamic pressure of this intimate service exchange. These workers did not immigrate to America leaving behind their country and family with the dream of grooming the hands and feet of other women. However, the rapid success of this entrepreneurship, have encouraged thousands of Korean women to take up this job as a ladder for economic upliftment. Similarly, “while no individual woman suddenly wakes up with the idea that manicured nails are central to her identity,” (Kang, 2010, p.9) this service has fast become affordable and accessible to women of all races and social position. Kang writes, “Rather than being an end in and of itself, nice nails and beauty more broadly are vehicles, albeit flawed and unreliable vehicles, to claim power in work, family, and relationships” (Kang, 2010, p.132). Kang has observed the daily interaction between customers and nail technicians in six nail salons in NYC, two of which are visited by mostly African American women, two of them are visited by whites from upper and middle class, and the final two are discount salons situated in shopping malls. The general idea that mostly Korean women are engaged in manicuring services stems from the fact that many whites believe that most Asian women are naturally talented with sense of service, and they enjoy doing this work. For this reason, the upper and middle class white women visit nail salons attended by Korean women as they are not only satisfied by the Koreans’ service of polished and painted nails, but they also expect pampering and reverence. Thus, for these customers, the nail technicians need to learn the language of “complimenting and coddling” (Kang, 2010, p.163). However, white customers do not apply the same logic on women of other ethnic communities like the Russians and Polish women. Supporting this belief, many Russian immigrant women worked in nail salons before shifting to other jobs. The general explanation is that they became fluent in English and acquired enough education to prove themselves worthy of other jobs, and not because they did not enjoy the job. However, the Korean women even after acquiring high education do not do the same. The answer lies in racial categorization. The question is not about becoming competent for other kinds of jobs, but the Russians after acquiring fluency in English simply mingle as whites. Contrary to this, Korean women even after falling in the bracket of “upwardly mobile, hardworking model minority”, (Kang, 2010, p.141) still find nail salon jobs as best available option. In contrary to the whites, the African American customers demand less pampering and more respect. Instead of demanding extra hand messages, they want “aesthetic nail designs” (Kang, 2010, p.167) along with fair and respectful treatment. Kang has attributed the reason as that the whites are most interesting in doing nail jobs for self-expression than for advancement of status. This is also because the blacks are aware of the professionalism of the Korean manicurists, and so are congenial. However, even this condition is unstable because of the underlying Black-Korean conflict. The conflict arises from feeling of superiority by the Blacks. Even though according to the model minority concept, the Asian immigrants are given a middle status between the blacks and whites (above blacks and close to whites), the African Americans ignore this since they feel they are superior because they do not perform such subservient jobs (Kang, 2010, p.167). However, Black-Korean conflicts are less matter of concern in these nail spas where the black customers and Korean manicurists interact keeping aside racial and class tensions (Kang, 2010, p.30). Then there are discount nail salons, which cater to “women who have not purchased nail services in the past but are attracted by the price and convenience” (Kang, 2010, 217). In these salons, customers generally do not visit for getting pampered or for superior artistic nails, but to express themselves as belonging to certain social class (Kang, 2010, p.217). Often these salons are criticized for using unsanitary practices; such charges arise from older perception of Asian immigrants as carrying disease (Kang, 2010, p.30). Conclusion Although immigrants comprise a major proportion of American population, this group till date faces racial, ethnic and color prejudices. Pregnant immigrant women are often considered as threat to national resources, and therefore services provided to them are subject to careful critical assessment. On one hand, they are often denied health care services and public facilities that are so easily accessible to American-born citizens, on the other hand Korean manicurists are victims of capitalism and patriarchy. The attitudes of customers in nail salons often depict their social and economic status, which also shapes the relationship and understanding between the manicurists and the customers. References Derose, K.P., Escarce, J.J. & N. Lurle (2007). Immigrants and Health Care: Sources of Vulnerability. Health Affairs, 26(5), 1258-1268 Kang, M. (2010). The Managed Hand: Race, Gender, and the Body in Beauty Service Work. California: Univ. of California Park, L.S. (2011). Entitle to Nothing: The Struggle for Immigrant Health Care in the Age of Welfare Reform. N.Y.: New York Univ. Press Read More