POWRE: Transnational Identities: Southeast Asian-Americans, Gender, and Employment in Colorado

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This research will investigate the ways that Southeast Asian immigrants' migration and employment patterns shape, and are shaped by, their gender and ethnic identity formation in the larger metropolitan area of Denver, Colorado. Specifically, the study will examine: i) the ways that particular employment opportunities are structured by "race"- and gender-based exclusions; ii) how these immigrants themselves formulate and enact strategies to challenge the labor market discriminations they face; and iii) the ways that stereotypes of "Asian-American" femininity and masculinity operate differently across generations and ethnic groups. The research provides an in-depth analysis of labor market participation and identity formation among 100 cross-generational pairs of in-migrants (total n = 200) from four Southeast Asian countries (i.e., Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos, and Cambodia) in the larger Denver metropolitan area. The project will employ multiple methods, including in-depth and focus-group interviews, event-history surveys, and census data analysis. Local student groups representing the specific immigrant communities will be centrally involved in the collection, analysis, and dissemination of the projects' findings. The findings will be situated within historical analyses of the different national groups' immigration and labor market patterns and experiences. The questions that this project will address are important for three main reasons. First, since 1965, the number of Southeast Asian immigrants entering the U.S. has grown rapidly. They are a population of increasing demographic significance. Second, this project will clarify both the factors influencing this growing population's employment opportunities, and the ways in which their presence is influencing economic and cultural developments in the Denver area. Third, scholars know very little about this population. This research thus can fill a critical gap in knowledge. This POWRE project will lay the groundwork for a wide range of comparative projects and cross-disciplinary conversations and will inaugurate a new realm of investigation that will link Silvey to a broader range of colleagues than she currently has. In addition, at this point in her career, she has a rare window of opportunity to advance this research agenda. Finally, this work will help establish Silvey's knowledge base in topics that remain closely linked to her longstanding research foci but also extend beyond her previous work to include the politics of international, Southeast Asian-American labor and immigration geographies.