Immigration activists team with women’s movement in push for rights

Submitted by Mastodon on Sat, 2013-12-07 21:52

Article here. Excerpt:

'Immigrant rights and feminist organizations are coming together in an attempt to reframe immigration as a women’s issue, which they hope will redefine the fight over changing the nation’s immigration laws.

So far, the groups have sought to influence immigration legislation in the Senate, undertaken large-scale demonstrations and united national women’s groups.

And even as chances of an immigration overhaul have faded in recent weeks, their efforts have mobilized women across the country.

“When you ask people what images they think of when they think of immigration reform, (it’s) often men, scary looking, scaling the border walls,” said Pramila Jayapal, co-chair of We Belong Together, a national immigration campaign that focuses on women. “The idea that it’s really women and children that are the majority of immigrants to the United States is completely lost.”
...
According to advocates, more than a quarter of employment visas go to women as the primary holders, because the system prioritizes male-dominated industries such as technology; in addition, more visas are available for workers with higher skills and education, which many women cannot get in their countries of origin.

This means the majority of immigrant women rely on the family-based visa system and thus are disproportionately represented in the backlog of 4.3 million immigrants awaiting such visas.'

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Comments

... if a woman wants to come into the US on a marriage visa because she married an American man in her home country (or even in the US), she is being exploited and used by said man who hopes to use her as a 1950s-stereotyped housewife he keeps in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant. Thus she is a victim. Or possibly, an outside chance, she is using the man (*gasp*! Does that ever even happen??) to gain entry to the US as a citizen and so should not be allowed to get away with it. Either way, she shouldn't be allowed in, or if she is, she should be informed immediately by an INS official that she may be getting trafficked/exploited in some way and has the right to divorce her American husband at any time, and can apply for permanent residency under VAWA simply by saying she was being abused by her American now- or soon-to-be ex-husband.

However if she is married to a foreign man who is in the US, she is being discriminated against because she can't get into the country until his status is either modified to permanent resident or he is naturalized, which takes a number of years, and so by gum, this needs to end ASAP!

OK, now I get it.

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Submitted by Matt on Sun, 2013-12-08 00:14