Southeast Asian Immigrant Nannies in California - Dissertation Example

Southeast Asian Immigrant Nannies in California In the life of a working woman the biggest challenge she faces is choosing between her family and work. Most working women, if they can afford, take a break when they have kids but for many of these women it is almost impossible to do that it may be because of financial problems or even because of the nature of work. In such cases domestic help like nannies are there to help. This research paper will take a close look at the southeast asian immigrant nannies in California, it will highlight the legal aspects around the issues, their choice of work, the working conditions and many such aspects and the possible solutions. A nanny is a person so is in simple words known as a child minder or a child care taker. Many families turn to the use of nannies so that they could continue working or engage in other aspects of life. This is the main reason why in recent times the demand of nannies has increased a great deal in number. Immigrants in the United States of America have increased a lot in recent years. People from various parts of the country are migrating to America. In an article in Huff Post, Barrera the author highlights that America has been hit by the largest wave of migrants from Asia. She states the statistics, ‘About 430,000 Asians, or 36 percent of all new immigrants, arrived in the U.S. in 2010, according to the latest census data. That’s compared to about 370,000, or 31 percent, who were Hispanic’ (Barrera n.p.). This research paper will take a close look at the southeast asian immigrant nannies in California, it will highlight the legal aspects around the issues, their choice of work, the working conditions and many such aspects. For a long time immigration has been one of the most siginificant issues that are being discussed in government. It is one of the issues that are constantly being discussed and new laws, bills and reforms are being passed in the betterment of the country as well as laws that also provide for the immigrants. In a recent article by Carl Meacham the effect of immigrant reforms on the U.S citizens is being discussed, it shows that by such reforms America would demonstrate that its willing to work for the immigrants, as it is well known that immigrants boost the economy of the country (Meachamn n.p.). Such laws make U.S a desirable place for people to migrate to increasing the number of immigrants from all around the world including the south east of Asia. In 1990 The Immigration Act increased the number of Asians coming to America by increasing the quota (Johnson n.p.). This led to more and more immigrants in America and the percentage of Asian immigrant nannies in America tend to increase. The main aim of this research proposal is the ‘poor’ working conditions of immigrant nannies in America. Such kind of workforce tends to face a lot of difficulties while working. In an article by Odette Yousef, problems faced by immigrant nannies are being highlighted. The author sheds light on issues like low wages, bullying, problems faced due to not being of English background and many others. He calls the immigrants ‘the invisible workforce’ which sums up how immigrants are ignored regarding their working conditions (Yousef n.p.). Another book by Tamara Hose Brown, Raising Brooklyn takes the reader deep into the lives of nannies and caretakers by talking about their lives on daily bases and the problems they have to face (Brown 100-112). People now days are becoming more and more career oriented which in turns raise the demand of nannies. Therefore it leaves a significant amount of vacuum in that job sector. Many immigrants that migrate to America are in desperate need of a job and the vacuum created in the nanny business many women tend to choose this field of work. There are many reasons why they go such a job, firstly it does not require much education only a few training programs secondly it pays well and u can find such a job easily. In an article in The Times the author discusses the importance of such immigrant workers and how they are helping the US citizens by either caring for their home or working as nannies or care takers for elderly, the author also sheds light that these people play a vital role in our lives and they must be considered where the reforms for immigrants are being made he further states ‘To truly address the needs of our modern American economy and workforce, immigration reform must create a direct road to citizenship for care workers currently in the United States and establish a program for care workers who will come in the future’ (Poo n.p.). The number of foreign people working as nannies, housekeepers, cooks is constantly increasing. The relationship between immigrant workers and the employer household may vary sometimes the household takes advantage of their situation and make them work over time without extra pay, make them live in poor conditions, many nannies experience sexual harassment by their employees. These women face many problems with employment as they have limited number of jobs like working at a bar or working for a really low wage in a household. Even if they apply through an agency, because of their status of being an immigrant the agencies take a larger than promised share of their wages. ‘Domestic Workers United and its allies in New York are lobbying for state legislation to improve working conditions. The Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights would provide for paid sick days and vacation, advance notice of termination, and severance pay. In California, a bill giving nannies the right to overtime pay cleared the legislature last year but was vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’ (Crary n.p.). In the Geographical Review the author attracts the reader’s attention to the consequences of Asians settling in America, she talks about how in the last forty years America has been flooded with immigrants from around the world including Asia (Skop and Li 169). Many reforms are being looked into to solve the problem of immigration for immigrants who are working in America including immigrants working as nannies. In another article immigration reforms in california are being discussed by the atuthor Robert Taylor, who talks about a bill that was recently passed ‘California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill into law that would allow the DMV to issue driver licenses to illegal immigrants that are eligible for work permits under a new Obama administration policy' (Taylor n.p.). This research paper will in detail look at all the aspects surrounding the situation of south East Asian nannies in America. The laws and reforms that are being introduced which are making the lives of these immigrants easy or making their living even harder. It also sheds light on the working conditions of nannies in California about the problems they may face because of their status of being an immigrant and why do these women choose this line of work when they come to America. Bibliography Barrera, Juliana. “Asian Immigrants Surpass Hispanics As Biggest Immigrant Wave To U.S.” The Huffington Post. 15 June 2013.Web. 5 July 2013 Brown, T. M.. Raising Brooklyn: Nannies, childcare, and Caribbeans creating community. New York: New York University Press, 2011. Print. Crary, David. “More illegal immigrants hired as housekeepers, nannies.” USA Today. 11 March 2007. Web. 6 July 2013 Ehrenreich, Barbara, and Arlie Russel Hochschild. Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy.: N.p., n.d. Web. 08 July 2013. Johnson, David. “Asian-American History.” Info please. Web. 6 July 2013 Meacham, Carl. “U.S immigration reform: good or bad?” Center for strategic and international studies.13 June 2013. Web. 6 July 2013 Poo, Ai-jen. “The Plight of the "illegal" Nanny.” Time ideas. 6 march 2013. Web. 6 July 2013 . Shukla, Sandhya. “Locations for South Asian Diasporas.” Annual Review of Anthropology 2001: 551-572. Web. Skop, Emily and Wei Li. “Asians in America's Suburbs: Patterns and Consequences of Settlement.” Geographical review April 2005: 167-188. Print. Taylor, Robert. “Immigration reforms.” Policy mic. November 2012. Web.6 July 2013 . Weatherford, J.M. “Anthropologies and Nannies.” Man June 1975: 308-310. Print. YOUSEF, O. “Invisible Workforce: Immigrant Domestic Workers Face Tough Challenges in a Push for Better Conditions” | @pritheworld. PRI's The World. (n.d.). Web. July 17, 2013 http://www.theworld.org/2013/05/invisible-workforce-immigrant-domestic-workers-face-tough-challenges-in-a-push-for-better-conditions/ Annotated bibliography: Ehrenreich, Barbara, and Arlie Russel Hochschild. Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy.: N.p., n.d. Web. 08 July 2013. In this book the author researches along the lines of the prospect of women’s role in global economy. She talks about the lives of women and how they go unnoticed no matter how hard they are working. She further highlights the case of millions of women of third world countries that migrate to other developed or developing countries to look for work and how this aspect plays a key role in the economies of different countries. She talks about women working as housekeepers, nannies or sex workers. She covers a large range of such women from Vietnamese mail-order brides to the importation of Mexican nannies in Los Angeles. Johnson, David. “Asian-American History.” Info please. Web. 6 July 2013 This article by Johnson is more of a factual article which states the laws reforms that surround Asian American immigration. He talks about how millions of Chinese laborers came to America in 1800s and goes on chronologically around the aspect of immigration mentioning laws and reforms that have affected it and either reduced or increased immigrants coming to America. Available at: Infoplease . Crary, David. “More illegal immigrants hired as housekeepers, nannies.” USA Today. 11 March 2007. Web. 6 July 2013 In this particular article the author researches on the idea of increasing illegal nannies in America. He manages to discuss the problems such immigrants face while they work as nannies or housekeepers. Hand in hand with that he explores the relationships of the employee and the employer in such cases. Showing both sides of the coin, that is both the positive and negatives of the relationships. Available at USA Today: . Expert Summary: Tamara Mose Brown the author of the book ‘Raising Brooklyn’ is a well known and respected authority over the issue of immigration. She has been an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College, City University of New York since 2008. Raising Brooklyn is although her first published book she is well known for her research in the topic of immigration and therefore making her book an authority in the case of working conditions of nannies. Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo another famous author who has written a lot on the issue of immigration including issues of immigrant workers like nannies and caretakers. She is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Southern California. She has written books like Doméstica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadows of Affluence which talks about the role of immigrants in the domestic workforce. Other books include ‘Nation and Migration’ and ‘Religious and social justice for immigrants’ both of these books look into the issues faced by immigrants and immigrant workforce. Read More