GWS 155 Laura Fantone

Fall 2011 Dept. of Gender and Women's Studies

Office 614 Barrows Hall
lfantone@berkeley.edu


Gender and Transnational Migration
Tuesdays Thursdays 3:30 pm-5pm
200 Wheeler Hall


What economic, social, and cultural forces impel women to migrate and shape their experiences as
immigrants? How does gender, together with race/ethnicity and class, affect processes of settlement,
community building, and incorporation into labor markets? This course examines gender structures and
relations as they are reconfigured and maintained through immigration. It emphasizes the agency of
immigrants as they cope with change and claim their, legal, social, human and economic rights.


REQUIRED TEXTS

Course Reader (available for purchase at Krishna Copy, Telegraph and Parker St. in Berkeley;
also on reserve at Moffitt Library)

Pierrette Hondagneu- Sotelo, Gender and US immigration, contemporary trends 2003,
University of California Press.

Hochschild A. and Ehrenreich, B. Global Woman, Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New
Economy 2004. Henry Holt &Co, New York.

Miriam Ching Yoon Louie, Sweatshop Warriors, 2001, South End Press, Cambridge, MA.

Recommended Text (Fiction):

Jumpha Lahiri, Unaccustomed Earth, Vintage Books, 2008 (eight short stories about expatriate
Bengali families living in the US, in a alienated upper-middle class context)

A few online articles are also part of the suggested readings. These can be found on the course b space or
accessed online through our UC Berkeley libraries website CLICK ON
>Find Information > E journal titles A-Z > choose title


GRADING
In class Tests/Critical Responses 15% (4 assignments, 5% each the lowest grade can be
dropped)
This exercise is to develop your skills at: summarizing main points in texts; identifying,
understanding and discussing main concepts in texts; critically commenting upon texts (including by
situating it within debates and drawing links across texts. This will count as 15% of your final grade.

Class Presentation and Participation. 15% Students will give one group presentations focusing on
the readings for their designated week, providing questions and key-terms to share with the class:
the presentation can last max 10 minutes.
Participation: After three absences, your grade will decrease.

Midterm Exam 30%

Final Paper proposal 5% Outline a topic you choose to develop, related to the course program,
rich enough to become a paper on transnational gender immigration issues.

Final Paper 40% The paper should make use of data, cases and theories developed during the
course, and contribute to comment and critique them. It should be between 12 and 15 pages long,
double spaced in 12 point font. It should be properly referenced (guidelines will be provided).


POLICIES
1.You will be expected to do a very close reading of the required materials listed under each class session
on the syllabus before the class. Please come to class prepared to discuss the texts, on the day the readings
are listed on the syllabus.

2. Assignments (paper and exams) will be due on the date specified on the syllabus. Every day of delay
will be counted detracting 10 points from the assignment grade.

3. There will be no extensions granted for the final paper and midterm required for this course.

4. The most effective way to fail this course is engaging in plagiarism. The following is a brief definition
of plagiarism: Plagiarism is using the ideas and writings of others and representing them as your own.
Even if you do not copy another source word-for-word, but rather rephrase the source without attributing
it to the original author by including a footnote, you are guilty of plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious
violation of academic standards and is punishable with a failing grade, possible expulsion from the
institution, and may subject you to ostracism by your peers. For more information on plagiarism see:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/teachingLib/Guides/Citations.html
Professors are supposed to inform you that plagiarism is against university rules. Professors are obliged to
report cases of plagiarism to the Department and they may be turned over to Student Conduct.

5.Possibilities For Extra Credit: attending campus events directly related to immigration and gender is
easy. CRG, BBRG, GWS, Sociology and other programs organize talks and conferences on this issue.
If you plan on attending one of these events you can write a critical response and a summary of the main
points raised by the talk, within a week from the event. The response should be max. 2 pages. Each
response can count for 2 extra points. Maximum extra-credit activities per semester: 3 responses.

PROFESSOR'S CONTACT INFORMATION
My Office is located at 620 Barrows Hall
My Office Hours Tuesdays 1:30 2:30 pm
Thursdays 5:15- 6:30 pm, or by appointment on Fridays- to be scheduled by email 24
hours in advance. You are welcome to talk to me after class. Dont wait for the mid-term or review week
to ask for clarifications and help.
email address: lfantone@berkeley.edu



COURSE TIMELINE

Class #1: Thursday, August 25

Introduction and overview of the course materials, goals and policies.

Class #2: Tuesday, August 30
Introducing the Study of Immigration
From Online Reading :
Portes and Rembaut, I mmigrant America, second edition, <introduction>, pp. 4-27.

Class #3: Thursday, September 1
Introducing Immigration Categories:, class, race, Generations and Gender, transnationalism,
networks, Economic and forced migrants
(manual laborers, professionals, entrepreneurs, refugees and asylum seekers)
From the Course Reader:
Portes and Rembaut, I mmigrant America, second edition, <conclusions>, pp 269-230

PART I- CONTEMPORARY IMMIGRATION AND GENDER ISSUES

Class #4: Tuesday, September 6
Introducing contemporary U S immigration issues
Limits of social s science, who do we talk about when we say immigration and gender?
From the textbook: Gender and US Immigration, Contemporary Trends
Pierrette Hondagneu- Sotelo, ed. 2003. <Introduction>, pp. 3-14

From Course Reader:
Trinh T. Minh-ha, <Gossip and Science>, <Nativist Interpretation> <Woman and the subtle
power of linguistic exclusion>, (Woman, Native, Other, pp.100-104, 67-73).

Class #5: Thursday September 8
Brief outline of scales in gender in immigration studies: the global, the national, the local
From Course Reader:
Susanne M. Sinke,<Gender and Migration, Historical Perspectives>, IMR 2006,vol 40,n. 1

From the textbook: Gender and US Immigration, Contemporary Trends, pp. 20-40
<Engendering Migration Studies. New Immigrants in the US>, by Patricia Pessar

Class #6: Tuesday, September 13
Immigration periodizing and dynamics within ethnic groups
First in-class test. Define some key terms.

From Course Reader:
-Sucheta Mazmudar, <What happened to women? Chinese and Indian male migration to the US
in a global perspective>, (in Asian Pacific Islander American Women, A Historical Anthology,
NYU Press, 2003, p. 58-73.
- Yen Le Espiritu, Gender and Labor in Asian Immigrant Families, 1999.

Class #7: Thursday, Semptember 15
Intersections of work and gender in the border economies
From the textbook: Gender and US Immigration, Contemporary Trends, pp. 101-123
<The Intersection of Work and Gender Central American Immigrant Women and Employment
in California>, by Cecilia Menjivar.

From Course Reader:
Leslie Salzinger, <Manufacturing Sexual Objects> , in WOMEN AND MIGRATION IN THE
US MEXICO BORDERLAND, Duke 2007, pp. 161-181.


Class #8: Tuesday, September 20
Transborder Lives
From Course Reader:Lynn Stephen, <Womens Transborder Lives CHAPTER 6>, pp. 178-208.
Duke 2007

PART II EXPLOITATION AND RESISTANCE OF IMMIGRANT WOMEN WORKERS

Class #9: Thursday September 22
Personal accounts
From the textbook Sweatshop Warriors by Miriam Ching Yoon Louie, <introduction> and
<interview to Bo Yee and Annie Lai>, <interviews to Flores y Petra> p. 1-18, p. 48-58,p 101-117.
Videoclip from Sewing Women

Class #10: Tuesday September 27
Struggles
From the textbook Sweatshop Warriors by Miriam Ching Yoon Louie, <Chapter 2: Mujeres
Luchando> p. 63-100

Class #11: Thursday September 29
Second in-class test. Questions
From the textbook Sweatshop Warriors by Miriam Ching Yoon Louie, <Chapter 3: Each Day I go
Home with a Wound in my Heart > p. 123-159

Class #12: Tuesday October 4

From the textbook Sweatshop Warriors by Miriam Ching Yoon Louie, <Chapter 6: Just in Time
Guerrilla Warriors > p. 215-245


Class #13: Thursday October 6
Families in Struggle
From the textbook Sweatshop Warriors by Miriam Ching Yoon Louie, <Chapter 6: Just in Time
Guerrilla Warriors > p. 179-194
From the textbook:: Gender and US Immigration, Contemporary Trends <Im here but Im
there>CHAPTER 15, pp. 317-338

Class #14: Tuesday October 11
Mid-Term. Exam

PART III. MIDDLE CLASS MIGRS, INTERGENERATIONAL TENSIONS AND
GENDER ROLES

Class #15: Thursday October 13th
CLASS MOBILITY AND ASIAN DIASPORA PROFESSIONALS

From Course Reader:
Shalini Shankar,California Here we come, Consumption and Desi Bling, Managing the Model
Minority Sterotype in <Desi Land: teen culture and success in the silicon valley> pp. 26-42;82-
86pp. 145-166.
Optional Reading:,< Hell/Heaven >, short story by Jumpha Lahiri in Unaccustomed Earth. p
60-83

Class #16:Tues. October18
Family Ties
From Course Reader:
Shalini Shankar, Dating on the DL and Arranged Marriages in in <Desi Land: teen culture and
success in the silicon valley> pp. 167-200.
Azadeh Moaveni by <Lipstick Jihad> Introduction, 3pg. CHAPTER 1, p.6-28.
Optional Reading:,< Homecoming >, in Lipstick Jihad. p 52-64
ADD WEEK ON marriage and expectations of social mobility???
Global woman chapter chapter 13 Clashing dreams by hung Cam Tai
Cyberbrides in middle class mexico-p 503-552.
Videoclip from Knowing her place

Part IV THE GLOBAL SERVICE CASTE

Class #17:Thurs. October 20
Video clip from The Global Care Chain
Third in-class test. Define some key terms.
From the textbook Global Woman, by Hochschild A. and Ehrenreich, B. <Love and Gold>,
pp.21-36
From Course Reader:
Rhacel Salazar Parrenas <Asian Immigrant Women and Global Restructuring 1970-
1990ies>p.271-282

Class #18:Tues. October 25
The invention of carework
From the textbook Global Woman, by Hochschild A. and Ehrenreich, B. <Chapter 6> <Chapter
9>, pp.88-107; p. 145-156.

Class #19:Thurs.October 27
Questions on the categories of Domesticity and Care Work
From the textbook Global Woman, by Hochschild A. and Ehrenreich, B. <Chapter 7> p.90-116.
From Course Reader:
Evelyn Nakano Glenn, <The movement to reform womens caring> <Americanizing Immigrant
Women> in Forced to Care 2010 p. 71-86

Class #20:Tues. Nov. 1
From Course Reader:
Evelyn Nakano Glenn <Paid Caring in the Home> in Forced to Care 2010 p. 120-151


PART V. MIGRATION & SEX WORK: Labor and Trafficking paradigms

Class #21:Thur Nov 3
From the textbook:: Global Woman, Kevin Bales, <Because She Looks Like a Child>pp. 207-
229 and <Chapter 10:Sex for Visa>pp. 158-172

Class #22 : Tues. Nov. 8
Fourth in-class test. Question and key terms.
From the Course Reader:
Tiantian Zheng <From Peasant Women to Bar hostesses Chinas Karaoke sex industry>
pp124-126. 137-144.
Natasha Ahmad <trafficked person or economic migrant? Bangladeshis in India> pp 211-228

Class #23:Thurs.Nov 10

From the Course Reader: Kamala Kempadoo, <Trafficking and prostitution
reconsidered>.<Unpacking the trafficking discourse, Cross-border movements and the Law> pp
3-38

Class # 24:Tues. Nov 15
Final Paper Proposal.
From the Course Reader: Lin Chew in <Reflections by an anti-trafficking activist>Kamala
Kempadoo, <Trafficking and prostitution reconsidered>, p 65-80
- Jane Freedman, <Selling Sex: Trafficking, Prostitution and Sex Work among Migrant
Women in Europe> in Gender and Insecurity 2003 p 119-135.
-
PART VI GENDER AND IMMIGRATION IN CONTEMPORARY EUROPE

Class # 25:Thurs. Nov 17
Main Issues of European Immigration
From the Course Reader: Jane Freedman: <A Gendered analysis of migration in Europe>, in
Gender and Insecurity 2003 pp. 1-12.
Jacqueline Andall, <The Space Between: Gender Politics and Immigration Politics in
Contemporary Europe> in Gender and Ethnicity in Contemporary Europe,2003, pp. 1-11.

Class # 26:Tues. Nov 22
Gendered and Racialized Immigrants: Islamophobia and Otherness
From the Course Reader: Rubah Salih, <Shifting Meaning of Islam and Modernity: Muslim
women in Italy.> pp. 119- 135 in Gender and Ethnicity in Contemporary Europe
-Umut Erel, <Experience of Citizenship for Women of Turkish Background in Germany> pp
155-173. in Gender and Ethnicity in Contemporary Europe.

*** Thurs. NOVEMBER 24 AMERICAN HOLIDAY No Class****

Class # 27:Tues. November 29
Wars and Forced Migration
From the Course Reader:Claudie Lesselier, <Women Migrants and Asylum Seekers in France:
Inequality and Dependence> p. 35-51. in Gender and Insecurity 2003
Berta Perea, <The Flight Home> p. 386-391.
Mi Bruining <Omoni in Korea: Finding my birth mother and Family>. pp. 597-608.

Class # 28 :Thurs. Dec. 1
Last regular class. Administrative details, wrap-up of the course

Monday to Friday, Dec 5th to Dec 9th Reading/Review WEEK
I will be available with extended office hours and during class time

***Your final paper is due on Friday DECEMBER 16th at 5pm in my office.****