{"id":197,"date":"2018-11-21T15:48:03","date_gmt":"2018-11-21T15:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amybhatt.com\/?p=197"},"modified":"2018-11-21T15:48:03","modified_gmt":"2018-11-21T15:48:03","slug":"feature-in-umbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/amybhatt.com\/?p=197","title":{"rendered":"Feature in UMBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Check out this write up<\/a> about my upcoming book talk at UMBC!<\/p>\n

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Amy Bhatt shines light on gender and immigration policy in new book High-Tech Housewives<\/h1>\n

Policy & Society<\/a><\/span>Catalina Sofia Dansberger Duque<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/header>\n

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\u201cI am interested in the human face of policy,\u201d says UMBC\u2019s Amy Bhatt<\/b>. \u201cI want to share the personal narratives of immigrants few people hear about\u2014highly skilled workers\u2014and help us understand their experience as they face questions of citizenship, belonging, and community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bhatt,<\/b> an associate professor of gender and women\u2019s studies, and affiliate associate professor in the language, literacy, and culture, and Asian studies programs, has made headlines nationwide by providing research-based expertise on contemporary U.S. immigration policy. She\u2019s bringing the conversation to UMBC through a Humanities Forum talk on her new book, High-Tech Housewives: Indian IT Workers, Gendered Labor, and Transmigration<\/i><\/a>, on Wednesday, December 5, 2018, 4 \u2013 5:30 p.m., in the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow more than ever, Professor Bhatt\u2019s research is crucial in helping all of us understand the everyday impact of high-skilled immigration,\u201d shares Jessica Berman<\/b>, professor of English and director of the Dresher Center for the Humanities, which organizes the Humanities Forum. \u201cThriving academic research communities are enriched by the knowledge and expertise highly-skilled international faculty, staff, and students bring and share.\u201d<\/p>\n

H-1B and H-4 visa programs allow skilled workers from South Asian countries to travel with their families to the U.S. to fill needed temporary positions in corporations, hospitals, and universities. Bhatt explains, \u201cU.S. consumers depend on the global flow of goods and services in the tech, healthcare, and higher education sectors.\u201d She notes, \u201cIn a global high-tech economy it is important to acknowledge the value that immigrants bring to our lives and how they are being threatened by immigration policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bhatt\u2019s work focuses on gender as an important and understudied factor at the intersection of immigration law and global economy. She notes that 85 percent of H-1B visa holders are men. Their spouses can join them in the U.S. under the H-4 visa program, but, even if\u00a0those spouses\u00a0are themselves highly skilled, they are unable to apply their expertise in the paid workforce. Instead, they often become \u201chigh-tech housewives\u201d due to the constraints of immigration law, rather than choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople tend to think about H-1B visa issues as problems that only affect men,\u201d failing to consider the often highly skilled spouses who come with them to the U.S.,\u201d says Bhatt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen\u2019s abilities to migrate\u2014flexibility in foregoing their own careers at times, and work to manage family demands, cultural transmission, connection to home country, and building local relationships\u2014allow their spouses to take highly skilled jobs in the United States,\u201d explains Bhatt. Her research explores how the current visa system not only limits the employment of highly skilled women, but also impacts their identities and day-to-day experiences in other significant ways.<\/p>\n

In addition to her recent book, Amy Bhatt has recently published three widely read articles on U.S. and international policy issues and gender through The Conversation, including \u201cWhy Trump\u2019s plan to forbid spouses of H-1B visa holders to work is a bad idea.<\/a>\u201d In that article, Bhatt writes, \u201cH-4 women face a triple burden if they are able to start working again, particularly in technology: race, gender and long gaps in their resumes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether sharing her work through academic publications or news media like the Seattle Times<\/i><\/a>, Bhatt\u2019s overall message is the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an urgent call for all of to pay attention,\u201d she says, \u201cto changes in immigration trends, globalization, how businesses are thinking about labour pools, and how we think of gender and women in the family in these economic and political processes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Check out this write up about my upcoming book talk at UMBC! Amy Bhatt shines light on gender and immigration policy in new book High-Tech Housewives Policy & SocietyNovember 21, 2018 10:30 am Catalina Sofia Dansberger Duque \u201cI am interested … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-default"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/amybhatt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/amybhatt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/amybhatt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amybhatt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amybhatt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/amybhatt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":198,"href":"http:\/\/amybhatt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions\/198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/amybhatt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amybhatt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amybhatt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}