TY - JOUR
T1 - Asian women, job training and the social organization of immigrant labor markets
AU - Grahame, Kamini Maraj
N1 - Funding Information:
The methods used in institutional ethnography can be diverse and varied. Thus, observation, interviewing, recollection of work experience, textual analysis, and the like are all possible methods (Smith 1987: 160). This study is based on observations of the intake process within the community organization, interviews with workers involved in intake work who may also teach in the programs, managers of the organization which funds the programs, and potential clients of the agency under study, as well as an examination of an array of documents which are used in the co-ordination of the program. The research was conducted in River City, a major population center in Massachusetts. The community organization was chosen based on a preliminary search for organizations which both offered employment training programs and attracted an Asian women clientele. The organization in this study is one of two that I found in River City which routinely serviced Asian women clients. At the time I did the fieldwork for this study, between 1993 and 1994, this agency had only Asian clients in the job training programs I investigated. The particular training program was funded through the Job Training Partnership Act. On the basis of some preliminary investigation, I was able to determine that JTPA is one of the set of programs that immigrant women would be likely to gain access to because of eligibility requirements for the different programs. I contacted this agency and was able to conduct interviews with several of the agency personnel over a period of months before being able to observe their classes and intake interview process. The interviews were open ended interviews which were centered on questions regarding various aspects of the program, including the kinds of programs they run, the process of getting funding, and their recruitment and placement strategies for clients. As these interviews revealed a variety of activities centered on the compilation of records, forms, reports and the like, I asked for copies of these In a similar vein, I collected material from the organization which provided the funds to the CBO to run the program.
Copyright:
Copyright 2018 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 1998
Y1 - 1998
N2 - This paper examines the entry of Asian immigrant women into a gendered labor market via government-funded job training programs. The focus is on the intake processing of clients into an employment training program operated by a community based organization. The study reveals that women's family responsibilities and the cultural capital they bring function to screen them into or out of training programs and ultimately shape their location in the workforce. The study thus draws attention to how race, class, and gender enter into the organization of Asian immigrant women into the labor market. This investigation is based in institutional ethnography (Smith 1987), a research strategy which displays how activities in a particular setting are coordinated with more extended forms of social organization. The study shows that the overriding concern with successful placement in a job as mandated by government regulations is a critical factor in selecting the women for these programs.
AB - This paper examines the entry of Asian immigrant women into a gendered labor market via government-funded job training programs. The focus is on the intake processing of clients into an employment training program operated by a community based organization. The study reveals that women's family responsibilities and the cultural capital they bring function to screen them into or out of training programs and ultimately shape their location in the workforce. The study thus draws attention to how race, class, and gender enter into the organization of Asian immigrant women into the labor market. This investigation is based in institutional ethnography (Smith 1987), a research strategy which displays how activities in a particular setting are coordinated with more extended forms of social organization. The study shows that the overriding concern with successful placement in a job as mandated by government regulations is a critical factor in selecting the women for these programs.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0345647709&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0345647709&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1023/A:1022123409995
DO - 10.1023/A:1022123409995
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0345647709
SN - 0162-0436
VL - 21
SP - 75
EP - 90
JO - Qualitative Sociology
JF - Qualitative Sociology
IS - 1
ER -