In The Leavers, Peilan is a young woman who immigrated to the United States by herself while pregnant with Deming. The Leavers depicts the many challenges that Peilan faced. She is ultimately taken away from Deming by immigration authorities. Immigration to a foreign country includes many challenges that Peilan experiences. In addition to general immigration challenges, there are gender-specific migration experiences that one goes through such as Peilan.
Traditionally, when one is talking about immigrants, the focus has been on “male migrants and their wives and children,” meaning that the focus is placed on the male, leaving the woman and children as second thoughts. Some countries have policies that classify men as “independent” migrants and women as “dependents,” referring to their relation to men as one of “wife” or “daughter,” (Grieco). Women are not seen as individuals that possess their own capabilities to seek out opportunities. This classification scheme present in many countries places extreme limits on a woman’s migration experience. It can slow down their process to gain legal citizenship, access language classes, and access income security programs when compared to the processes of men. Additionally, stereotypic classifications can play a role in the work women do. They typically enter fields such as domestic service as opposed to the labor workforce (Grieco). For women that need to work, as in the case of Peilan to support herself and Deming, this can limit the different careers available.
In addition to the popular gender classification scheme, women’s migration experiences are dependent on the resources they bring with them like employment, education, and familial and social networks (Erez). Peilan came by herself and with limited resources. She did not even have a male acquaintance with her, disqualifying her from the “special treatment” families that contain male figures receive. Due to the lack of access to resources and services, women are not able to seek health, social, and legal services (Erez).
Currently in the United States, more than 23 million female immigrants exist, far exceeding the number of male immigrants (“Immigrant Women and Girls in the United States.”). Therefore, many are affected by the intersectionality of being both a woman and an immigrant. Throughout time, sex roles have been increasingly incorporated into conversation surrounding migration, but there needs to be more of an effort to ensure equal access to resources to both immigrant men and women.
Works Cited:
Erez, Edna, and Shannon Harper. The Handbook of Race, Ethnicity, Crime and Justice, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2018, pp. 457–474.
Grieco, Elizabeth, and Monica Boyd. “Women and Migration: Incorporating Gender into International Migration Theory.” Migrationpolicy.org, Migration Policy Institute, 18 July 2019, www.migrationpolicy.org/article/women-and-migration-incorporating-gender-international-migration-theory.
“Immigrant Women and Girls in the United States.” American Immigration Council, American Immigration Council, 25 Sept. 2020, www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/immigrant-women-and-girls-united-states.
Thanks for the post! I think it’s an excellent idea to show how Immigration effected the characters in our story. In today’s world, immigration is a hot topic of political discussion. Many people have been exposed to in depth discussions on other views about it. I think that by making the story relatable to today’s immigration policies that you opened some people eyes to the unfortunate reality of how it often works. I also think that it was interesting to make the connection between immigration as well as how sex roles may also effect the treatment of an immigrant. Overall, I think that this will help us look at the readings through a different lens than we normally would.
Hi Bailey! Thanks for this great presentation. I really liked how you highlighted that women are viewed in relation to their relationships with men and how that affects their experiences in migration. This isn’t something I think many of us consider. I think Ko’s choice to highlight the journey of a single woman and the way you explained how her treatment was different than other immigrants based on this status is important in understanding Peilan’s journey.
Thank you for this post, it is interesting to look at Pelian’s story from the perspective of her gender and immigration journey. She faced added challenges of limited career choices and her pregnancy while in America. Part of the reason she came to the US in the first place was her pregnancy, and the challenges she faced there due to not being married. It was surprising to me that while female immigrants outnumber male immigrants, they are subjected to more obstacles because of their gender. These policies are discriminatory against women like Pelian, who deserve the same resources as men.
This is strong information between the independent and dependant immigrants the experiences that women would need that would be different than a male’s experiences. I feel like there are an uneven style and structure between gender immigrants and how one is favoured over the other by their classifications. Having seen and learned within the past creates a difficult possibility that could change the output structure of immigrants gender’s within the moving process and through the passage this would allow users to fully understand and process how things are occurring and analyzed.
Hi Bailey! Thanks for your post, I had assumed that there was some prejudice present in the immigration process; however, I did not know the extent. After I realized that Deming’s story was inspired by reality, I realized just how common it is for people, especially women and children, to encounter similar immigration issues to Deming.
Hi, I really enjoyed your post and how you were able to relate the research to our reading. This really helps us see her differently. Although it seems she adapted a lot easier than Deming did.
Thank you for the great post Bailey! I found the relationship between the classification scheme and Peilan’s story to be very intriguing. This broadened my view of the story and gave me a far better understanding of how these immigration policies impacted her story.
Hi Bailey, you did a great job on this context research presentation. Your post can definitely help us to understand the novel from the prospective of Peilan. Due to her intersectionality of both being an immigrant and a female, she faced more challenges than those male immigrants. It ‘s not hard to find that gender inequality even exists in the immigrants. The female immigrants are usually labelled as dependent ones which makes them harder to get equal services and resources. And I think it’s great to make the connection between immigrants and their genders, and more efforts need to be done to solve this inequality.
Thanks for this context research presentation! Immigration has been one of the most prominent topics in the United State’s politics. I am not super familiar with the issue being presented through the lens of gender differences, and it is super interesting to see the different perspective. I never even though about males receiving preferential treatment in that way, and how single women wouldn’t be included the same way as married women. Thanks again!
Thanks Bailey, I really enjoyed your post! I found it interesting to learn about how immigrant men and women have unequal access to resources. Especially sense women are classified as dependents which slows down the process for them to gain legal citizenship, access to language classes, and access to income security programs. This made me think about how being classified as “dependent” also adds to the interesting identities of being female and immigrant, which limits the opportunities of different fields of work they can do such as how Peilan worked as a nail technician and wanted Deming to graduate high school to have opportunities that she never had.
Very interesting! I never really thought about how immigrant men are placed on a pedestal compared to females, similar to many different parts of society. Women being classified as dependents is unacceptable though, especially if they only receive special treatment if they have a male with them.
Thank you so much for sharing! I like the topic you mentioned about the different treatment of men and women in the immigration system. This is a very serious topic, as you mentioned that women are considered to be taken care of, which is discrimination against women. We need to speak out more in the future to let people in society understand that equality between men and women exists in any system and law. Because the system’s treatment of the difference between men and women will affect people’s thinking subtly, we need to modify it! Thank you very much for being able to provide us with this information.