Labor and Gender Relations/Gender and Sexuality

Question 1

How did Nepali migrant women typically handle childcare responsibilities while they were working in the United States?

Gurung

Answer 1

Relying on extended family members
Sending children back to Nepal for care

Question 2

What do these stories of Nepali migrant women (stories from the margin) tell us about South Asian America in terms of class, gender, and family dynamics?

Gurung

Answer 2

• Nepali migrant women face a mix of class, gender, and family roles
• Often work low-wage jobs and challenge gender norms by being breadwinners
• still face family expectations, showing changing but conservative family dynamics in South Asian communities

Question 3

How does Nepali migrant women’s role as breadwinners simultaneously subvert and support traditional patriarchal norms?

Gurung

Answer 3

They maintain traditional caregiving duty, therefore reinforces the idea of women’s ultimate responsibility for family care

Question 3

How does the coming-out approach of South Asians differ from the “American” script?

Roy

Answer 3

South Asian coming-out processes are often more complex, involving negotiation of cultural expectations, familial pressures, and a desire for social acceptance within both the LGBTQ+ and their ethnic communities

Question 4

What do the emotional and psychological impacts of transnational family arrangements suggest about the hidden costs of migration that are often overlooked in discussions about immigration and labor?

Answer 4

It increases feelings of guilt, stress, and emotional strain

Question 5

Why is the coming-out process particularly complex for South Asian Americans?

Roy

Answer 5

Weight of family honor, cultural conservatism, and close-knit nature of South Asian communities
Familial relationships can be compromised by coming out

Question 6

How do Roy’s discussions about “marriages of convenience” reflect broader tensions between traditional South Asian cultural values and LGBT identities?

Roy

Answer 6

Marriages of convenience to protect family honor and cultural norms

Badhaai Ho as an example

Question 7

Why does Roy argue that coming out for South Asian LGBT individuals often involves “exchanging one closet for another”?

Roy

Answer 7

While they may come out in a broader societal context, they still remain closeted within their family and cultural circles