May Day: Support Immigrants Rights!

Tomorrow - May 1, International Workers' Day - is a national day of action for immigrant rights. In Madison, there will be a rally at the State Capitol building, from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm, followed by a picnic at Brittingham Park.

On the Women'e e-News website, an article by Allison Stevens makes two important points. The majority of "illegal" immigrants in the United States are women and children. And groups that advocate for women immigrants' rights are divided on how best to navigate the current political debate:

Some women's rights activists say immigrant women would be better off if Congress skipped the subject and turned to the next item on their agenda.

"Frankly, it is our position that any kind of reform under this administration and under the Republican Congress is dangerous," said Olga Vives, who migrated to the United States from Cuba in 1961 and now serves as a vice president at the National Organization for Women, an advocacy group in Washington, D.C.

Other experts on immigrant women say the time is right to enact a deal that would provide a path toward legalization for at least some of the 11 to 12 million undocumented immigrants who are estimated to be living in this country.

"We are at a pivotal time in the immigration reform process," Amanda Baran, a Legal Momentum staff attorney and expert on immigrant women, said at a March 28 news conference. "Now is the time to fix the system before more immigrant women suffer."

As is usually the case, women immigrants face particular challenges:

Less likely than their male counterparts to work outside the home, women often have less financial independence than men and are often saddled with raising children, some of whom are U.S. citizens because they were born here. Many live in poverty and lack full access to public and government support services that provide aid in the areas of health care, housing, child care, reproductive health and economic development programs.

This lack of equal access to services is especially problematic for immigrant women who suffer sexual harassment, assault and domestic violence, [attorney Joanne] Lin said.

Women also face difficult emotional terrain when migrating to foreign countries, said Yifat Susskind, a spokesperson for MADRE, an international women's rights organization in New York City.

Whether or not they work outside the home, women in most cultures--especially in Latin America, birthplace to a majority of immigrants in the United States--are responsible for food preparation, child care, health care, education and other aspects of life in their communities. They often lose those roles--and part of their identity--when they move to the United States, Susskind said.

"Women in a different way than men face a kind of unraveling of who they imagine themselves to be," Susskind said. "That kind of loss of identity can be just very, very destabilizing for people."