Organizer and Chair: Jyotsna Vaid, Texas A&M University
Discussants: Ritu Menon, Kali for Women; Shelley Feldman, Cornell University; Karen Leonard, University of California, Irvine; Dolores Chew, Marianopolis College; Sucheta Mazumdar, Duke University; Rashmi Luthra, University of Michigan, Dearborn
Theories of transnational migration have considered how class, occupational status, ethnicity, and receiver country policies have shaped migration patterns and experiences. We argue that a consideration of how gender intersects with each of these dimensions will refine our understanding of migration processes. With South Asia as our focus, six speakers will address female migration from a variety of disciplinary approaches. Ritu Menon (co-author of Borders & Boundaries: Women in India’s Partition, 1998) will provide a gendered historiography of how women in India and (west) Pakistan experienced the violent displacement and dispossession that occurred in the partition of India in 1947. Shelley Feldman will discuss women’s experience of partition from the perspective of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Karen Leonard (author of The South Asian Americans, 1997) will review the early history of settlement from South Asia to North America, largely a history of male (Punjabi) immigration, since women were initially barred from entry. She will also present a gendered overview of South Asian immigrants in Southern California, focusing on Muslims. Sucheta Mazumdar will present oral histories of Indian immigrant women with particular attention to Gujarati motel owners. Dolores Chew will examine ethnicity, class and gender inter-relationships in the context of Sri Lankan refugees and Bangladeshi factory workers in Canada. Finally, Rashmi Luthra will present a gendered analysis of identity and autonomy issues facing the college-age offspring of the first generation, who now constitute a sizeable and growing segment of the South Asian immigrant community in North America.