Hands that Shape the World finds that immigrant women are among the most vulnerable to exploitation, abuse, and human rights violations in the U.S. Assessing the state of immigrant women in the five years since the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, this unprecedented review of conditions for immigrant women finds that the U.S. government has not only failed to protect the rights of immigrant women, but has implemented new legislation negatively impacting the well-being, health, employment, and family life of immigrant women.

Beijing+5 Women's Delegation meets with migrant women from Italy

Hands that Shape the World, first released as part of a U.S. immigrant women's delegation to the "Beijing + 5" activities in New York City in June 2000, is an important contribution to the process of assessing progress on the Platform for Action set at the 1995 conference. Although the Beijing Conference made important strides in promoting international standards for women's rights, the particular challenges facing migrant women continue to be ignored, both at the United Nations level and by the U.S. government. The report urges the U.S. government to include immigrant women, including the undocumented, within its commitment to expand the rights and opportunities for all women in the U.S.

Hands that Shape the World spotlights areas of critical concern for immigrant women in the U.S. In many cases, these are concerns shared by all women, especially poor women and women of color. But the report demonstrates that issues of immigration status, citizenship, language, and other factors distinguish immigrant women and are significant barriers to equality and enfranchisement. In addition, it finds that the devastating impacts of immigration and welfare reforms implemented in 1996 pose a severe threat to many of the rights and protections for all women outlined in the Beijing Platform.

Hands that Shape the World is based on immigrant women's testimony and accounts of the impacts of welfare and immigration reform collected and compiled by the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, which conducted a comprehensive review of existing reports and assessments of reforms to U.S. immigration and welfare policy. Participating organizations in the delegation of U.S. immigrant women attending the Beijing +5 activities, as well as a number of other immigrant women's groups and advocacy organizations, contributed to key sections of the report.

Key Findings

Hands that Shape the World finds that:

• Women constitute over half of all new immigrants coming to the U.S. each year - part of a growing population of over 50 million women migrants worldwide.
  
• The migration of women is often a response to the negative impacts of economic globalization. Women in developing countries have been hard hit by the impacts of structural adjustment programs, political instability, civil strife, ethnic and religious tensions, and depletion of resources.
  
• Once in the U.S., immigrant women face particular obstacles as workers due to immigration status, language, or citizenship, in addition to factors of discrimination based on gender and/or race.

  Beijing+5 Women's Delegation meets with migrant women from Italy

  
  
• Immigrant women often lack adequate health care both for economic reasons, as well as for fear of losing immigration status or being deported for accessing public health programs.
  
• The 1996 welfare legislation in the U.S. especially undermined the economic well-being of poor immigrant women and their families by eliminating or undercutting access to benefit programs for those in need. For example, many welfare-to-work programs fail to address issues of English language proficiency, access to training, childcare, and transportation that are necessary for many women to move into the workforce.
  
• Immigrant women are increasingly subjected to human rights violations by Border Patrol agents and other immigration officials. Following the passage of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), the number of women held in dehumanizing detention facilities has grown, as have violations of basic human rights standards for women held in immigration service custody.
  
• Immigrant women are more vulnerable to workplace abuse and exploitation by laws such as employer sanctions and IIRIRA that have effectively criminalized those without legal immigration status.
  
• IIRIRA closed off opportunities for legalization of status and added to the confusion and fears of battered immigrant women, who have become more reluctant to report abuses or access avenues for legalization without the sponsorship of an abusive spouse.
  
• The global trafficking of immigrant women and children is increasingly a significant concern in the U.S., with government estimates of some 50,000 women trafficked to the U.S. each year. Migrant victims of trafficking abuse and exploitation have few legal recourses; they themselves are often tagged as the criminals, detained, prosecuted, and deported.
  
• Some gains have been made in accessing political asylum for immigrant women facing gender-based persecution. However, greater restrictions to the asylum application process have generally made the process more difficult for newly-arrived women.
  
• Lesbian women still face many hurdles to legal migration, and thus are more vulnerable to exploitation, discrimination, and family separation.
  
• Immigrant girls in the U.S. face many of the same obstacles to rights and to linguistically and culturally appropriate services as immigrant women.
  

NNIRR Staff at Beijing+5 Women's Delegation

• Bring women out of the shadows. Repeal "employer sanctions," which has increased discrimination in hiring, undermined union organizing efforts, and made women workers more vulnerable to exploitative employers.
  
• Legalize migrant women's work. Provide fast and equitable avenues for legalization for the undocumented.
  
• End human rights violations. Improve complaint process, monitoring, documentation and prosecution of rights violations.
  
• Protect family unity. Uphold the principle of family unity, and remove obstacles to relief for deportation and adjustment of status for immigrant women.
  
• Address the needs of immigrant women in poverty. Provide universal access to health care, food stamps and other benefits for women in need. Enforce labor standards, and raise wage and benefit levels.

• Ratify the 1990 UN Convention on the Protection of Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
  
• Support participation and attention to the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia, and Related Forms of Intolerance, including a critical focus on migrant women's issues and the intersection of racism and xenophobia in the U.S.

• Support organizing and leadership of immigrant women and girls in the U.S.
  
• Foster collaboration of academics and researchers to address the data gaps.
  
• Challenge anti-immigrant sentiment and the criminalization of immigrant women.
  
• Centralize a platform of racial justice for all women