Progress 10/01/00 to 09/30/06
Outputs
This project examines basic factors of human security - livelihood, housing, health, and education -- of immigrants in central Illinois. Women comprise a growing proportion of immigrants globally and locally, but their contributions are often overlooked in the literature. In central Illinois, I organized and conducted a pilot survey of recent immigrants, as well as several focus groups, evenly divided between women and men, and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders. Latina/o immigrants are most common, primarily those from Mexico, but opportunities for work and education also attract immigrants from Central and South America, India, Korea, China, and the Middle East to the area. Approximately 40-45 percent of the immigrants in central Illinois are women. They are actively engaged in economic security areas as well as broader aspects of family well-being. They work in factories, hotels, restaurants, grocery stores and carry out a wide variety of care work
activities, especially childcare, healthcare, and eldercare. Focus group discussions indicate that they undertake many entrepreneurial activities, but these are usually temporary or short-term, such as selling tamales during holidays or providing childcare. They often do not identify these activities as work and therefore do not report them in response to survey questions. Although sixty-eight percent of all respondents reported having lived in other parts of the U.S. before coming to Champaign County, most were not familiar with the basic health and human services infrastructure in the U.S. In response to survey questions, they indicated that they rank health care, transportation, and education as the top three needs in their communities. Despite the availability of universal insurance for children in Illinois, most respondents were unable to find providers willing to accept new patients under this plan and go to over-crowded clinics. Interpretation and translation services for
health care are seriously inadequate. Consistent with other findings in the literature, Latino immigrants reported sending large amounts of remittances back to their home countries. The pilot study data indicate that most immigrant women and men are working and participating in their communities, but their employment is far from secure and support services, such as transportation and subsidized health clinics, are mainly available in the largest communities.
Impacts
The research is expected to increase our understanding of employment and financial security of immigrant women and men working in non-traditional locations in the Midwest. Preliminary findings have been used in discussions with legislators and community groups as well as academic colleagues.
Publications
- Summerfield, G., Pyle, J. and Desai, M. [Editors] 2006. Globalization, gendered transnational migration and care work, Symposium in Globalizations, Vol.3, No. 3.
- Summerfield, G. and Orgocka, A. 2006. Gender and intrahousehold decision making: Family dynamics in the context of international migration and other frontiers for development policy. In: Edith Kuiper and Drucilla Barker, Editors, Feminist Economic Perspectives on the World Bank, London and New York: Routledge.
- Summerfield, G. 2005. Gender and human security of immigrants in the midwest. Illinois International, Fall 2005.
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Progress 01/01/05 to 12/31/05
Outputs
Through a small pilot survey, this project explored the livelihood aspects of gender and security in Central Illinois, focusing on Champaign County. Needs assessment questions were included with interviews conducted in Rantoul Village. The results of the needs assessment were presented to the Rantoul Community Center which provides space for many service groups to work with immigrants. Although sixty-eight percent of all respondents reported having lived in other parts of the U.S. before coming to Champaign County, most were not familiar with the basic health and human services infrastructure in the U.S. Respondents were asked to indicate three priorities or needs in their present community. They ranked health care highest, followed by transportation and driver's licenses, and adult English classes. All of these issues are related to employment security and obtaining better jobs. At this point (prior to completion of formal analysis), the pilot survey on livelihood
issues has provided some intriguing tentative results. The immigrants in our sample come to Central Illinois directly from Mexico or from other U.S. locations such as New York and Florida. Contrary to our expectations, very few come from Chicago. This secondary migration from traditional U.S. destinations to new destinations is not well understood. A preliminary view of the data raises interesting questions about how Latino immigrants are saving and creating wealth. Consistent with other findings in the literature, we find that Latino immigrants are sending large amounts of remittances back to their home countries. An important motive for the remittances in this area is as a way to save money. However, sending money to Mexico and then having it sent back to the U.S. in a time of need is an inefficient way to save. About half of the surveyed immigrants own their own home, but in almost all cases, that home is a trailer and the immigrant is renting the land that the trailer sits upon.
Although this is a way to store value, because a trailer can be sold to other immigrants, it is a less secure way to build up wealth than home ownership. Migrants also face high costs to access financial services. One service provided in a local business charges 10 percent for check cashing. These preliminary data indicate that most immigrant women and men are working and participating in their communities, but their employment is far from secure and support services, such as transportation and subsidized health clinics, are mainly available in the largest communities.
Impacts
The research is expected to increase our understanding of employment and financial security of immigrant women and men working in non-traditional locations in the Midwest. Preliminary findings have been used in discussions with legislators and community groups as well as academic colleagues.
Publications
- Summerfield, G., Pyle, J.L. and Desai, M. 2006. Globalizations, transnational migration, and care work. A Symposium of Papers in Globalizations, Vol. 3, No. 4.
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Progress 01/01/04 to 12/31/04
Outputs
To examine gender and human security aspects of income, housing, education, and health care, we facilitated several focus groups of women and men separately in Rantoul Village and Champaign (both in Illinois). Rantoul Village has experienced rapid growth in the population of Mexican immigrants during the last four years, in part because of expanded operations by a meat-processing plant. Champaign has a larger, more established and more varied immigrant population. We also conducted a small survey using the snowball sampling approach. We worked with community groups in creating a needs assessment that was included in the survey. The respondents ranked transportation, child care, health care, and interpretation services very highly. The women who lived in Rantoul said that they had trouble finding child care providers who speak Spanish and most are on waiting lists. They have to go half an hour to Champaign for health care, and this is a burden for families. Because
they usually have to miss half a day of work or more, they usually restrict care to emergencies. As part of this project, we held a symposium at UI in March: Gender and Human Security: Latina/o Immigrants in the Midwest (with additional support from the Chancellor's Initiatives and cosponsors). The symposium brought together specialists to explore research, community activism, and policy initiatives related to immigration, gender and human security issues in Illinois. In October, we participated in a symposium on transnational care work on campus.
Impacts
The research is expected to help in creating more appropriate human security policies related to employment, health care, and quality of life for women and men who are immigrants from developing countries who settle in small and rural communities in the Midwest.
Publications
- Summerfield, G. 2004. Gender and human security: Latino immigrants in the midwest. Special issue, Perspectives, Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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Progress 01/01/03 to 12/31/03
Outputs
The project objectives of identifying and assessing gender aspects of human security of immigrant families in Illinois are especially important given the budget cuts in the state during the post-9/11 period. Women are slightly more than half the immigrants in the U.S. and the proportion has been increasing since the mid-1990's. Our project focuses on Illinois, which is the fifth largest recipient state for immigrants and by far the largest destination in the Midwest. Immigrants comprise about 13-15% of the population in Illinois. Most come from Latin America, particularly Mexico. The PUMS (2003) for Illinois was released, showing that women make up 45% of Latino immigrants and 51% of Asian immigrants. Yet in most studies of the Midwest, they are still invisible. After holding focus groups with Muslim immigrants the preceding year, we worked with Latino immigrants during 2003. We held separate focus groups in Spanish with women and men in Champaign county and conducted
interviews with service providers. We have set up a symposium for March 2004 and have invited state officials and policymakers as well as academics and community groups. In the focus groups, we explored the connection between employment and health insurance coverage. We found that most of the men and women in our focus groups did not have insurance. Those who live in the city of Champaign usually go to a local clinic that has Spanish-speaking staff. Although children in poor families are eligible for KidCare insurance, most providers will not accept them as patients, and their parents must wait for hours when taking them to the one, overcrowded clinic that accepts them. For emergencies, they may go to the hospital, but language is a problem and unauthorized immigrants fear that immigration officials will be notified. Some of them received medicines from Mexico. The women use health care services more than the men and mentioned that they had access to additional health care programs
when pregnant. For all of the immigrants contacted, health care issues were linked to the need to learn English, have a good job and ability to get a driver's license. Our work shows a behavioral model for immigrants settling in rural communities. The immigrants who come to rural areas and small cities of Illinois are usually not farmers but often are engaged in working for the agro-foods industry and in food service work. Agricultural field workers in central Illinois are usually internal migrants who live the rest of the year in Texas rather than those crossing the border from Mexico. Meatpacking has been a common field of work for immigrants in the Midwest in recent years, and Cass County in central Illinois had over 1,000 percent growth of Mexican immigrant residents between 1990 and 2000 largely because of new jobs at a pork processing plant. Meatpacking is not, however, the only area of employment in central Illinois. A study in two small towns in Iroquois County found that most
immigrants were working in jobs with more comfortable working conditions; this contributed to better integration into the towns.
Impacts
The research is expected to help in creating more appropriate human security policies related to employment, health care, and quality of life for women and men who are immigrants from developing countries who settle in small and rural communities in the Midwest.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/02 to 12/31/02
Outputs
The objective of this project is to provide a comprehensive picture of the different factors that affect the integration and adaptation of immigrants in rural Illinois, with an emphasis on gender issues and human security. Based on the study objectives outlined in the original application, the following activities have been completed or are in process: 1) Based on focus group interviews with Muslim immigrant mothers and daughters, I co-authored a paper with our graduate research assistant, Aida Orgocka, that has been submitted for publication. The paper draws on our research on gender and human security of immigrants in the U.S. to address intrahousehold negotiations. Our goals are to improve the understanding of factors influencing intrahousehold allocation and decision-making in order to increase women's and girls' agency and inform policy-makers of ways to be more responsive to intrahousehold dynamics in designing and revising health and income assistance programs;
2) Using these data, we analyzed the chapter on gender and intrahousehold resource allocation and power in Engendering Development by the World Bank's gender group written in 2000. We presented our paper at annual conference of the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) in Los Angeles, California, July 2002. The presentation was part of a special panel critiquing the volume. It noted that the volume summarizes what is known about a core group of issues, heavily relying on econometric studies, but it does not take account of some of the more recent policy-related changes of economic restructuring and globalization. It omits gender and international migration concerns that our research addresses. Our study touches on a few areas often overlooked in studying intrahousehold aspects of economic development policies. We contend that it illustrates the need for policy-makers to understand the specific context and different expressions of agency in the groups they serve. 3)
To gauge the human security needs of recent immigrants, we contacted key informants for the Latina/o and Asian immigrant communities in central Illinois. Furthermore, we met with the Survey Research Lab consultant to get feedback on our survey. Based on these informal interviews, we have revised the survey questionnaires. We also modified our focus topic protocol.
Impacts
This research is expected to help design and revise policies to provide employment security for immigrants in rural communities.
Publications
- Summerfield, G. and Orgocka, A. 2002. Gender and intrahousehold decision-making in immigrant families: Issues and concerns (Submitted).
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Progress 01/01/01 to 12/31/01
Outputs
The objective of this project is to provide a comprehensive picture of the different factors that affect the integration and adaptation of immigrants in Central Illinois, with an emphasis on gender issues and security. Based on the study objectives outlined in the original application, the following activities have been conducted or are under way: 1) Conducted focus group interviews with Muslim women in several counties in Central Illinois (Champaign, McLean, and Peoria) as well as Cook county. We are in the process of transcribing these data. Most of these women are housewives, living in families that have an annual income ranging from 10,000-30,000 U.S. dollars. They have middle to high school education, an average of five children, and their activities are concentrated in their local religious communities. They do not make any special efforts to reach out to a larger community although they participate in neighborhood activities. We are preparing to conduct
interviews with Latinas. 2) We carried out a survey of current statitistical literature regarding foreign born population with particular emphasis on immigrants in the U.S. and Illinois. The data were extracted from the Bureau of Census 1990 and 2000 and publications deriving from the Census. According to these reports, in 2000, 28.4 million foreign born resided in the United States, representing 10.4 percent of the total U.S. population (51% from Latin America, 25.5% from Asia, 15.3% from Europe; and 8.1% from other regions of the world). According to these sources, the foreign born are more likely to be unemployed than natives, earn less than natives, and are more likely to live in poverty than natives. 3) A literature survey identified areas that need research about immigrant women (e.g., Hondagneu-Sotelo, 1999; Pessar, 1999; Zhou and Bankston III, 1994). The following areas were identified: A. Broaden the concept of gender which is often contained within kinship and domestic unit
boundaries. Examples may include labor recruitment, immigration legislation, ethnic formations and citizenship, narratives and organization of xenophobic movements and immigrants' responses to these movements; B. Research how images, meanings, values associated with gender, consumption, modernity, and the family circulate within the global cultural economy; C. Examine extent of kin's willingness and capacities to care for the children and socialize youth in socio-cultural values. Also consider the contribution of social networks on the creation of social capital; D. Identify how women negotiate the strains and limitations on the perpetuation of labor reserve and the demand for female labor opportunities; e. Consider other than disadvantaged groups of immigrants, e.g., highly educated professional and entrepreneurial immigrants.
Impacts
This research is expected to help design and revise policies to provide employment security for immigrants in rural communities.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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