Announcements

1. Announcements • Fri- Tadiar and Sulit readings • Mon – guest speaker & reflection paper #2 due • Final projects: • How are interviews going? • Final paper: • How do the stories told in their interviews show you the impact of the larger social forces of racism, (hetero)patriarchy, colonialism, globalization, neoliberalism, etc on these individual subjects’ lives? • Simultaneously, how do these interviews show you the ways in which these women cannot simply be reduced to these larger social forces (i.e. how do they express their own agency and resistance)?

2. Weak Winners of Globalization H1B Visas and the Politics of Location

3. (il)legal workers • 1965 Immigration Act: explosion of Asian immigration + shutting down of Mexican immigration • Context of Cold War US economy: • legal Asian workers come in as skilled/professional labor to develop industries • Illegal Mexican aliens power agricultural and service industries, continue legacy of marginalized, racialized, low-wage labor

4. H-1B Visa • Nonimmigrant visa program • H1 created in 1950s – had to prove intent to return home • 1970 – could result in permanent positions • 1980s – H1-B introduced to cap increasing #s to placate labor organizations • Foreign workers with “specialized knowledge & skills” in “specialty occupation” • DoL attempts to protect both foreign and native worker (64)

5. “technocoolies” • 1992-2003: over one million H-1Bs • 2001 – 49% from India • Failures of H-1B • No required prior notice of termination • Cannot remain in country for more than 10 days if job is lost • Less wages, more hours, few benefits • Blaming H-1B worker naturalizes systemic exploitation (60)

6. The Game of Globalization • Powerful losers in the North • Displaced American white-collar workers • Weak winners of the South • (non)immigrant H-1B holders • Powerful winners of transnational corporations • Sponsoring companies that profit from flexible labor • Necessity of a politics of location