Migration Policy and Gender: Examining the Agency High Skilled Tied Movers in USA.
This presentation examines the gendered process of international migration and the extent to which high skilled dependent visa holders exercise agency in that process. In particular, it examines the factors that shape the agency of tied movers in the decision-making processes in various stages in the migration process. The research is driven by the questions: Do high skilled tied movers exercise agency? At which stage of the migration process is agency exercised? Is the movement for high skilled tied movers gendered? The study focuses on the attendant dependent visas of temporary high skilled visas of the United States and uses data collected through semi-structured interviews conducted between June 2017 to August 2017 for the analysis. Findings indicate that women are overwhelmingly represented among dependent visa holders, also are high skilled, and enter to the domestic sphere once they migrate to the US. Results also indicate that there is an implicit relationship between structural factors and the exercise of agency of high skilled tied movers in the various stages of the migration process. While tied movers exercise some agency, this agency is highly constrained due to traditional gender roles and dependent visa status.