Читать книгу Asian America - Pawan Dhingra - Страница 26

A single case illuminates how different theories lead to distinct conclusions. Asian-American women have been closely associated with garment manufacturing in New York City and Los Angeles. Perspectives emphasizing assimilation explain the large number of immigrant minority women working the production line as due to their typically low human capital (i.e. lack of advanced education or English-language skills). They do not have the capacity to perform many other jobs in that geographic area. Also, their network ties lead them to the industry. From an assimilationist perspective, consideration is placed on whether workers gradually move out of these jobs or not as dependent on their education, skills, family needs, co-ethnic resources, and so on. For instance, many garment workers learn about these jobs through relatives and friends, and they prefer these jobs because the work schedules suit their needs as mothers (Chin 2005). For such persons, the industry works relatively well, even if it does not pay much. Unfair exploitation of the women may take place, but they can leave these jobs as they accrue more education or skills. They face no inherent marginalization.

More critical scholars such as those who adopt a racial formation and/or global economic perspective differ in their thinking of this trend. Their question is why are Asian-American women seen as “natural” fits for such manufacturing jobs within a racial capitalism that utilizes different groups of people for different parts of the production process? How do impressions of women shape how they are treated on the job? Why is migration structured around women’s supposedly nimble fingers? Global manufacturing firms and general consumers depend on these women to produce cheap goods. People’s gender and nationality sharply guide their job prospects, which means that people are not treated equally based on skills but instead face unequal options. Moving out of a gendered job sector is rare. From such a critical perspective, attention is paid to the injustices workers must resist and to the effect of work on power relations within their families (Su and Martorell 2002). In other words, one comes to different conclusions on these immigrant women’s adaptation depending on one’s perspective and therefore which information one prioritizes. In reality, garment workers experience aspects from both types of perspectives, and their lives are more fully understood as such. We attend to multiple perspectives in this book as we discuss social trends.