Gender and Immigration Policies

One of the biggest characteristics that both interviewees share in common is that they are both immigrants that came to America, however, this was almost a completely different experience for both of them. We can gather from both stories that the immigration process can look different case by case, person by person, connection by connection. Helen Hodgson was granted swift access to the United States via a work permit and came in as a nurse. Hodgson notes that it was easy for her to come to the United States, that they wanted her. After receiving her work permit, she also received her green card not so long after. For Nazanin Gregoretti and her process through immigration, it was quite different and proved to be more difficult. Despite how much she studied in both countries before coming to the United States and becoming a doctor in Argentina, she did not obtain her work permit until 2017. There seemed to have been a significant amount of resistance from the United States immigration department due to the fact that Gregoretti was from the Middle East and she came around the time 9/11 happened. Due to the two different scenarios, one being easy-breezy and the other being tedious, we could hypothesize that United States Immigration can be biased and situational to almost each person. Hodgson stated after the interview that she sat down next to the head of the immigration department chair on the fly to the United States and he told her that if she needed anything, she could come to him. Hodgson stated “It’s all about the connections you have when it comes to wanting to move to the United States.” While Hodgson started working for one of the top hospitals in Georgia, Emory, and got situated with an apartment, Gregoretti had to take a different approach to pay bills and take care of her family in the United States. Gregoretti reflects on past experiences of taking up babysitting and transforming into more of a domestic role within her household and family. Whether that be by cooking, taking care of her child and husband, keeping the house clean, she did it all. She was in the United States on a spousal permit, and her husband, Ivan, received a student visa, attended graduate school, and then received a work permit. This allows us to think deeper about the performative gender roles that are present in other countries outside of the United States. Perhaps the most “natural” way to act when Gregoretti did not have a job was to shift all of her focus on her nuclear family and house based on the way she was raised and watched her mother growing up. Gregoretti notes several times how depressed her mother was from her parents divroce, and when asked if she thought her grandmother raised her, Gregoretti quickly respond with a surprising “no, my mother raised me” and it was evident that there was no debate about that. Despite being around her grandparents more, there was a clear boundary in her family that they could not discipline her, therefore only her mother could do that. Furthermore, living in the United States has caused a lot of new learning experiences and culture shocks for the interviewees. A similar concept they both expressed is how much more freedom Americans have, more specifically kids/teenagers. This was said in both a positive and negative light–with Hodgson noting that teenagers are not as respectful to their elders as they are in Nicaragua. Gregoretti reflected on how strict her mother was towards her, and that once she came to Argentina/the United States, she felt much more free to do things outside of school.