Immigrant Women's Lives

Weaving Garment Work and Legislative Policy

Ruth A. Charles

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781317776208
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

First published in 1999. Driven by the interest of the author this study looks at the lives of immigrant women in central New York who are working in the garment industry in hope that by raising awareness Congress will current review legislation when its highlighted how it affects these women and their families. Her view is that the media and public discussion tends to present these women as if they are all illegal immigrants looking for welfare benefits instead of law-abiding, hard-working residents. This research is written to describe what these women are like, what their experiences regarding immigration have been, and how arbitrary legislative policies and regulations affect them. much these women it also illuminates how much personally the woman have sacrificed in the way of social status, cultural comfort, and family relationships to come to the United States.

Chapter 1
Threading Past and Present Immigration Policy and Labor

Introduction

This research examines the role of work in the lives of twenty immigrant women employed at the Learbury garment factory in central New York. The context of the immigrant experience, the work situation, and women's life stories will allow for contrast and exploration of their experiences. By looking at the women's ethnic backgrounds and family roles, I wanted to discover how they defined their participation in the work force. I also investigated how paid employment relates to the culture of their home land, their family, and the cross-cultural experiences they face working in the United States. Finally, I will emphasize the role of immigrants in United States society and the legislative policies which affect their lives.

The garment and textile industry has a rich history of immigrant women's employment. Unfortunately, this has frequently involved the exploitation and oppression of employees through long hours and low wages, as has been well documented (Byerly 1986; Enloe 1995; Fernandez-Kelly 1984; Lamphere 1987; Rosen 1987; Sacks 1984; Udesky 1994). Through a feminist lens, I will explore women's participation in the garment industry in conjunction with immigration legislative policy. The current experiences and perspectives of the immigrant women I interviewed at the garment factory will serve as the basis for the policy analysis.

An immigrant woman's work history and the tradition of work in her home country will be of interest to compare with her present employment. For the immigrant women interviewed, their participation in the garment industry represents a wide range of situations such as a continuation of employment utilizing a previously obtained skill, short term placement while settling into their new country, or their only option if their skills, education and employment history are not recognized here. Some women find themselves faced with an economic need which did not exist in their home countries and now demands their employment and income (Duleep and Sanders 1993; MacPherson and Stewart 1989; Stier and Tienda 1992). Others come from a rich tradition of professional paid employment but set in a different cultural context. The comparison of her standard of living and the role of work in her life before and after the migration demonstrates the impact of migration on her social status, economic standard of living, and possibly, changes in dignity and self respect (Kibria 1990; Margolis 1990; Shapiro-Perl 1984).

The cross cultural issues of assimilation and role adjustment were discussed with the women interviewed in this research. The process of adaptation that they and their families encounter in this new country and the changes in their family roles are studied (Benson 1990; Yamanaka and McClelland 1994). I discussed with each woman her family and her past and previous work situations, to see how her participation in the work place has changed. The competing social values from both cultures highlight the tensions that these women face.

Addressing the political economy is essential to understanding women's roles in the work force. Women are caught in the double bind of participation in the production of goods in the public work place and the process of reproduction of children and systems within the family (Lamphere 1987). There is a clash between the public and private domains of their lives and the roles which they must play (Fernandez-Kelly and Garcia 1990). As producers, they are sources of cheap labor which the capitalist system exploits with low wages for high profits. As reproducers, they use produced goods of clothing and processed food in the home while raising the next generation of workers. The economic and political influences from the work place carry over into the decisions made within the home (Sacks and Remy 1984). Women have always received lower wages for their work, and this is evident in the garment industry as well (Dugger 1996b; Kessler-Harris 1990; Safa 1981).

History and United States Immigration Policy

To understand the experiences of an immigrant and the current immigration debate, a historical context needs to be established. This book focuses on the intersection of immigrant women's participation in the garment industry and immigration policy. The early textile and garment industry could not have flourished without a steady supply of immigrant labor. Available work in places such as the garment factories fueled the immigrant groups to make the move, searching for a better way of life. An understanding of who these people were and the roles they filled yields a foundation on which to build the women of this study's experiences.

For centuries explorers have been arriving and claiming the land now called the United States. The first successful immigrant colony was established in St. Augustine, Florida by Spanish explorers in 1565 (Daniels 1990, 96). The numbers that arrived to the new land following the initial settlement were coming to what was considered wild and unsettled territory. With the incorporation of the United States in 1776, laws and systems for governance were formalized. The first census completed in 1790 measured sixty percent of the population being from English descent, and the majority of the rest from other English speaking areas of Europe (Daniels 1990, 66). Daniels notes that the census does not account for the African slaves who are reported to be twenty percent of the total population at this time (lessening the true British percentage of the population to forty eight percent). During the eighteenth century, the majority of newly arrived African natives were not immigrants but sold as slaves and were concentrated in the southern states. The French and Spanish were a small number of the total population of the Continental United States (three percent), with the majority remaining in areas not officially a part of the United States (Daniels 1990, 68).

The patterns of immigrant arrivals to the United States since that time resemble the waves on the ocean, with a current large wave rising and looking ready to break (see Table 1). The first major immigration wave in the United States came between the years of 1840 and 1880 and brought people from northern and western Europe. There were no restrictions on immigration at that time and many came fleeing wars, government upheavals and food shortages (Fix and Passel 1994). The second major immigration wave was in the early 1900s and consisted of people from southern and central Europe, such as the Italians and Poles. It was during this period that immigration legislation first began to appear. The economic situation in the United States during the Great Depression, as well as the new restrictive laws written in the 1920s, dropped immigration to its lowest levels for many years. As the waves of people rose and dropped, affected states were not able to implement their own immigration policy as it was usurped under the jurisdiction of the federal government.

Table 1. Immigrant Arrivals to U.S. 1820-1990
Source: INS Fact Book, July 1993.

Congress passed its first legislation regulating immigration in the late 1800s. By taking the initiative and passing laws, Congress assumed the sole responsibility for regulating immigration and controlling the criteria applied to arriving immigrants which it continues to keep today (Levine and others 1985). The Chinese Exclusion Act passed in 1882 was based on both the racist opinions of the Europeans living on the west coast, and competition for work on the railroads in the west (Immigration and Naturalization Service 1992). On the surface the differences were based on the nativity of the Chinese workers. The move for exclusion was fueled by the fact that the Chinese would work for lower wages than the European or native born men. This caused problems for other contract labor groups who wanted work but at higher wages. Only Chinese men had been immigrating and very few women were allowed. The Exclusion Act denied women the chance to immigrate on their own or to join their spouses already here.

The Immigration Act of 1891 was the first law written to establish national control of immigration. The legislation created the Office for Immigration, which was initially housed in the Department of Treasury because it dealt with collecting funds from commercial carriers. This office was the precursor to the current Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) which is now housed in the Justice Department under the attorney general. The 1891 act also created categories by which people could be excluded from the United States. They included criminals, polygamists, and people diagnosed with carrying contagious diseases. This act set a precedent for exclusion which could and would be expanded in later years to contain other groups.

Immigrants from India, typically turbaned male Sikhs from the province of Punjab, had come to work in railroad and lumber camps in the Pacific Northwest at the turn of the century (Daniels 1994). The men had immigrated to the United States and Canada out of family financial need and a lack of work in their home areas. The Asiatic Exclusion League lead a riot in Bellingham, Washington in September, 1907 with the focus of driving the Asian Indians out of the lumber camps. The mill owners liked the reliable Asian workers but feared the violence of the European American mobs. The precipitating factor was once again competition for wages in the mills, veiled as dislike for the turbaned Indians (Jensen 1988). The barred zone act passed in 1917 was the outcome of the exclusion movement, which had started to lobby for its passage in 1907.¹ Similar to the Chinese Exclusion Act, this legislation stopped all permanent immigration from India and other parts of Asia. This left four small groups of Indian male immigrant populations, two located in British Columbia, Canada and two in the Sacramento and Imperial Valleys of California until immigration was reopened (Daniels 1994).

It was at the end of World War I the number of immigrants soared. In 1920, three hundred percent more immigrants arrived than in 1919 (Immigration and Naturalization Service 1992). The United States economy was facing low levels of employment and a shortage of adequate housing. U.S. citizens, feeling the pinch of limited resources, did not want to compete with the large numbers of new immigrants for these jobs. The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1924 set the first numerical quotas on immigration to the United States. As summarized by Fix and Passel,

The law passed a ceiling of 150,000 per year on European immigration, completely barred Japanese immigration, and provided for the admission of immigrants based on the proportion of national origin groups that were present in the United States according to the census of 1890. Because this census preceded the large-scale immigrations from southern and eastern Europe, this provision represented an explicit effort to ensure that future immigration flows would be largely composed of immigrants from northern and western Europe. (Fix and Passel 1994, 10)

During the post World War II years when the national economy had improved, immigration policy started to shift and open up to allow war brides, refugees, and the temporary exchange of students and teachers (Levine and others 1985). A new cycle was begun which started to create a climate that was sympathetic to immigration. In 1943, the Chinese Exelusion Act was repealed and 30,000 Chinese women arrived, many to join their husbands who had migrated decades before (Daniels and Kitano 1988,15). China was the United States' ally in World War II and this law was passed to encourage the relationship. In 1946, the rules against those immigrating from India were relaxed. The new legislation designated that people from India could have the previously denied right to citizenship and were given access to a small quota of immigration visas (Daniels and Kitano 1988). Shortly after this change, President Truman by proclamation also raised the quota for Filipino immigrants.

The positive perspective on immigration became apparent in many pieces of legislation passed in the 1950s and 1960s. One landmark bill, first proposed by President Kennedy and later signed by President Johnson, was the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965. The act repealed the quotas based on country of origin and replaced it with preference categories for immigration. The goal was to base immigration allowances on either family reunification or on employment skills. Large immigration that had never been allowed previously became possible from Asia, though many thought that any increase in immigration would be from southern Europe and not Asia (Daniels and Kitano 1988).

The changes that occurred in immigration patterns could not have been predicted. In 1960, forty-six percent of all immigrants came from Asia, the Caribbean or Latin American. In 1980, immigration from these areas of the world to the United States was up to eighty percent (Bogen 1987,22). Between 1820 and 1920, two thirds of the immigrants coming to the United States passed through New York City (Bogen 1987). With the passing of this bill, ports of entry in Texas and California gained significance with the large numbers of immigrants arriving from South and East Asia.

An unanticipated side effect from this act was that by newly limiting immigration in the west, Mexican citizens who previously had unlimited immigration rights were stopped, creating the current dilemma of illegal immigration (Fix and Passel 1994). Also, the perception that immigrants were "poor huddled masses" fleeing poverty needed to be adjusted. The current employment preference category encourages the immigration of highly skilled workers which are the educated and upper class of their country (Morawska 1990, 193). Now many immigrants are the elite and well educated of their countries.

World crises which necessitated the immigration of refugees to the United States have occurred many times in immigration history. Each time a crisis arose, a new bill and policy had to be created. The Refugee Resettlement Act that was passed in 1980 was to make a comprehensive policy for current and future humanitarian admissions (Fix and Passel 1994). At the time the bill was passed, the world was facing the "boat people crisis" where thousands of Vietnamese were fleeing their country in small unsafe boats across the South China Sea. One of those people was Kim, whose flight from Vietnam will be told later. The Refugee Resettlement Act changed the refugee status from being included in a general preference level to its own separate visa category. It created clear criteria for procedures for admission and processing of refugees, and created a policy which made the United States responsive to these people's needs.

Major immigration and naturalization acts were passed in 1986 and 1990. The emphasis of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), was to reduce illegal immigration by lowering opportunities for illegal immigrants to gain employment (Simon and Alexander 1993). The act constructed regulations which were to dissuade employers from hiring illegal aliens. Now all employers have to collect documents to certify that a new employee is either an U.S. citizen or is an immigrant with the proper permission to work. Employers can be fined if they are found consistently out of compliance.² All of us experience the effect of this bill as we file the I-9 paperwork whenever we start a new job. Unfortunately, the premise of the law has not worked because it is easy to get fraudulent documents to assert work status (Fix and Passel 1994).

The Immigration Reform Act passed in 1990 has been called the most liberal bill to be passed since 1921 because of the number of immigrants allowed annually. From 1992 to 1994, 700,000 immigrants were allowed annually to attempt to address the large back log of applicants. Starting in 1995, the immigration quota was reduced to 675,000 where it is supposed to stay. The 1990 Immigration Act was also considered the most comprehensive piece of legislation as it created separate admission categories for family, employment and diversity-based visas (Immigration and Naturalization Services 1993). Revisions in a number of areas such as exclusion and deportation, visa waivers, enforcement and asylum seekers were also included.

The most recent legislation by Congress was the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA '96). It was signed by President Clinton on September 30, 1996, and it had a stormy run through the legislature (Siskind 1996).³ The central focus of this act was to stop illegal immigration and strengthen provisions for border control. Deleted from the bill was the controversial provision to deny illegal alien children the ability to attend public schools. Added to the bill were stricter measures on sponsorship of legal immigrants. Now sponsors are financially responsible for the immigrant for ten years, or until the immigrant becomes a citizen. If the immigrant applies for any federal financial assistance, such as food stamps or welfare, the sponsor's household income is also to be considered. This creates significantly higher financial standards for sponsorship of an immigrant and will make it more difficult for new immigrants to sponsor future family members.

Women and Work in the Garment Industry

The effects of immigration waves and policy can be seen when paralleled with the experience of women working in the textile and garment industry. For individuals and families, to make the leap and immigrate there needs to be both push and pull factors to encourage them (Chan 1990). The study of the early foundation of the textile and garment industry explains the start of women's participation in the work force outside of the home, and the consequent pull that was created for the immigrant women and their families, which continues to be a source of financial support today.

Historical Perspective of Garment Work

As the eighteenth century drew to a close, the textile industry in New England was just beginning. Samuel Slater, an industrious Rhode Islander, returned f...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• List of Tables
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Threading Past and Present Immigration Policy and Labor
• Chapter 2: Designing the Study—Research Methods and Context
• Chapter 3: "Oh My God!!"—Arriving in the United States
• Chapter 4: "It's Different Here"—Cross Cultural Experiences in the United States
• Chapter 5: Experiences and Changes in Work Force Employment Status and Involvement
• Chapter 6: The Good and the Bad—Work on the Factory Floor
• Chapter 7: Bridging Life Stories and Policy Implications
• Chapter 8: Weaving Legislation and Lives
• Bibliography
• Index