The Opportunity Trap : High-Skilled Workers, Indian Families, and the Failures of the Dependent Visa Program / Pallavi Banerjee.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Banerjee, Pallavi, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

East Indians--United States--Social conditions.

East Indians.

Foreign workers, East Indian--United States.

Foreign workers, East Indian.

Professional employees--United States.

Professional employees.

Skilled labor--United States.

Skilled labor.

Visas--United States.

Visas.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : 11 b/w illustrations

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : New York University Press, [2022]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Unravels how US visa laws fail Indian professional workers and their legally dependent spouses and familiesThe Opportunity Trap is the first book to look at the impact of the H-4 dependent visa programs on women and men visa holders in Indian families in America. Comparing two distinct groups of Indian immigrant families —families of male high-tech workers and female nurses—Pallavi Banerjee reveals how visa policies that are legally gender and race neutral in fact have gendered and racialized ramifications for visa holders and their spouses. Drawing on interviews with fifty-five Indian couples, Banerjee highlights the experiences of high-skilled immigrants as they struggle to cope with visa laws, which forbid their spouses from working paid jobs. She examines how these unfair restrictions destabilize—if not completely dismantle—families, who often break under this marital, financial, and emotional stress. Banerjee shows us, through the eyes of immigrants themselves, how the visa process strips them of their rights, forcing them to depend on their spouses and the government in fundamentally challenging ways. The Opportunity Trap provides a critical look at our visa system, underscoring how it fails immigrant families.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction: The Anatomy of State-Imposed Dependence

1. The Visa Regime: Indian Migration and the Interplay of Race and Gender

2. Model Migrants and Ideal Workers: How Visa Laws Penalize and Control

3. Beholden to Employers: Gendered and Racialized Dependence

4. At Home: Dependent Spouses and Divisions of Labor

5. Transcultural Cultivation: A New Form of Parenting

Conclusion: Dismantling Dependence

Acknowledgments

Appendix A: Demographics of 25 Families of Tech Workers

Appendix B: Demographics of 30 Families of Nurses

Appendix C: The Four Main Visa Categories

Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 29. Mrz 2022)

ISBN:

1-4798-6082-4

OCLC:

1296426904