Gendered Transitions: Mexican Experiences of Immigration

1. Immigration, Gender, and Settlement

CHAPTER ONE Immigration, Gender, I came in 1975 just to stay for a spell, at least that's what I thought. One thinks that it's so easy to come, make a little money, and then return to Mexico to put up a little store and maintain oneself with that—that was my thinking when my sister invited me to join her. I wanted to get out from my father's thumb, to make something for myself, but my idea was not to leave forever or to stop helping the family. But once here, it was initially difficult for me to find work, and later I became locked up in the routine of work at the motel. And at first I did not want to learn English out of fear that immigration authorities would catch us, but yes, eventually I did learn English. Now I have my little [flower vending] business, but it is here, not in Mexico. I have my husband, and most of my brothers and sisters are here too. My life, my sorrows and my joys, they are all here now. Margarita Cervantes Settlement has a funny way of creeping up on immigrant workers who intend to stay only a short while. With the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, more than 2 million formerly undocumented Mexican immigrantsapplied for legal status, but many other Mexican immigrants and their families are staying in the United States despite their inability to secure permanent legal residence status, and in spite of their original intentions to remain only a short while.1 This trend toward staying for prolonged periods of time was well under way by the 1970s and 1980s, signaling the establishment of permanent or "settled-out" immigration.2 The consequences are visible to even the most casual observer in California, the preferred place of destination for Mexican immigrants , where the surge of marketing efforts directed at Spanish-speaking consumers, and the proliferation of Mexican immigrant communities, are difficult to ignore. The permanent settlement of Mexican immigrants is a principal factor driving the so-called Latinization of California.3 and Settlement 1 2 Immigration, Gender, and Settlement Among these long-term Mexican immigrant settlers in California and other states, there is a significant presence of women and entire families.4 In fact, the Mexican undocumented settler population appears to be nearly evenly composed of women and men (Cardenas and Flores, 1986; Passel, 1986), a sharp contrast with the temporary Mexican migrant population, where men predominate.5 In other words, thewell-established, long-staying undocumented immigrant population reflects a balanced sex ratio. Perhaps the most significant recent development in Mexican immigration to the United States is the concurrent increase in undocumented settlement and the participation of women and entire families in undocumented migration and settlement. As I studied these developments in a California community, I came to see that gender is a fundamental category of analysis for developing theories of immigration and settlement, and that in turn, immigration and resettlement experiences are vital to our understanding of how new immigrants reconstruct gender relations. I also developed a view of settlement that highlightshow women's activities advance undocumented immigrant settlement. My aim in this book is to show how gender and immigration are reflexively intertwined. Gender relations shape immigration patterns, and in turn, migration experiences reshape gender relations. THE INTERSECTION OF IMMIGRATION, GENDER, AND SETTLEMENT Before looking at the theoretical legacies and implications of these perspectives, it is useful to ask why themes of gender and settlement have been neglected in the immigration literature. Feminist scholarship has shown that gender—that is, the social and cultural ideals, practices, and displays of masculinity and femininity—organizes and shapes our opportunities and life chances. Yet the concept of gender as an organizing principle of social life has encountered resistance and indifference in both mainstream sociology (Stacey and Thorne, 1985) and immigration scholarship conducted in various disciplines (Beuchler, 1976; Brettell and Simon, 1986; Grummet, 1987; Glenn, 1986; Morokvasic, 1984). There is now research on the topic of women and migration sufficient to yield substantive review essays (Pedraza, 1991; Tienda and Booth, 1991), but gender is typically considered in migration theory only when women are the focus.6 In this book, I argue that gender is an analytical tool equally relevant to Immigration, Gender, and Settlement 3 our understanding of men's migration as it is to our understanding of women's migration...