Immigrant Women Tell Their Stories

出版者:Haworth Pr Inc

作者:Berger, Roni

页数:284

出版时间:2004-5

价格:$ 50.79

装帧:Pap

isbn号码:9780789018304

具体描述

I felt like an alien who fell down to earth, not understanding the rules of the game, making all the possible mistakes, saying all the wrong things. Your whole life is in the hands of other people who do not always mean well and there is nothing you can do about it. They can decide to send you away and you have no control. The moment I enter the house, I shelve my American self and become the 'little obedient wife' that my husband wants me to be. The most difficult part is to find myself again. At the beginning I lost myself. This jargon-free book documents and analyzes the experience of immigration from the female perspective. It discusses the unique challenges that women face, offers insights into the meanings of their experiences, develops gender-sensitive knowledge about immigration, and discusses implications for the effective development and provision of services to immigrant women. With fascinating case studies of immigration to the United States, Australia, and Israel as well as helpful lists of relevant organizations and Web site/Internet addresses, Immigrant Women Tell Their Stories is for everyone who wants to learn or teach about immigration, especially its female face. It was like somebody sawed my heart in two. One part remained in Cuba and one part here. Immigrant Women Tell Their Stories examines the nature of immigration for women through the eyes of those who have experienced it: how they perceive, interpret, and address the nature of the experience, its multiple aspects, the issues that it presents, and the strategies that immigrant women develop to cope with those issues. The women in this extraordinary book came from different spots around the globe, speak different languages and dialects, and their English comes in different accents. They vary in age as well as in cultural, ethnic, social, educational, and professional status. They represent a rainbow of family types and political opinions. In spite of their diversity, all these women share immigration experience. This book provides an understanding of the journeys they traveled and the experiences they lived to bring you new insights into what it means to immigrate as a woman and to frame effective strategies for working with and for immigrant women. My father is the head of the house. When he decided to move to America [from India] my mother and us, the daughters, did not have much say. My mother and I were not happy at all, but it did not matter. Immigrant Women Tell Their Stories provides you with historical and global perspectives on immigration and addresses: legal, political, economic, social, and psychological dimensions of immigration and its aftermath deconstructing immigration by age, gender, and circumstances major issues of immigrant women language, mothering, relationships and marriage, finding employment, assimilation (how much and how soon), loneliness, and more resilience in immigrant women immigration from a lesbian perspective guidelines for the development and delivery of services to immigrant women You may say that I am the bridge, the desert generation that lost the chance to have it my way. But I will do my best to raise my daughters to have more choices than I. In this well-referenced book, immigrant women from Austria, Bosnia, Cuba, various parts of the former Soviet Union, Guatemala, India, Israel, Lebanon, Mexico, Pakistan, and the Philippines tell us their stories, recount what their experiences entailed and what challenges they posed, and teach us ways to help them cope successfully. This was the best decision we could have made and the best thing we had ever done.

用户评价

这本书的广度令人印象深刻，它并没有将“移民女性”作为一个单一的、同质化的群体来呈现，而是清晰地揭示了不同背景、不同受教育程度、不同目标群体在迁徙过程中所面临的截然不同的挑战和机遇。有的故事关乎政治庇护，有的则纯粹是经济驱动的流动，还有的仅仅是为了追逐一个看似遥不可及的个人梦想。这种多样性使得全书的论述具有极强的现实基础和说服力，绝非空泛之谈。不同群体的叙事在相互对照时，反而凸显出女性身份在跨国界流动中的普遍困境，比如如何平衡传统角色与现代期望。这种多视角的交织，让读者能够从更复杂的维度去理解“异乡人”的含义。它不提供简单的答案，而是构建了一个丰富的对话空间，鼓励我们去思考，在加速的全球化浪潮中，个体身份的边界究竟该如何被重新定义和坚守。这是一部充满层次感和复杂性的杰作。

这本书最让我感到震撼的，是它对于“韧性”（Resilience）这一主题的探讨，但它描绘的不是那种好莱坞式的、一帆风顺的成功，而是那种在泥泞中艰难爬行、不断自我修复的真实力量。作者似乎刻意避开了对苦难的浪漫化处理，而是将焦点放在了那些“微小的胜利”上——可能是成功地教会孩子当地的语言，可能是独立开设了一家小店，又或者是仅仅在陌生的邻里间找到了一个可以倾诉的角落。这些看似微不足道的成就，在巨大的人生变动面前，却成了支撑她们继续前行的锚点。书中的女性们展现出的适应性令人惊叹，她们像水一样，能适应任何容器的形状，却从未失去自身流动的本质。我特别喜欢作者在描绘她们如何建立“新的家庭网络”时的笔触，那是一种超越血缘的连接，是基于共同经历和相互支持的契约。这本作品，与其说是讲述了她们的“移民史”，不如说是关于“人类精神如何超越环境限制”的一部赞美诗。

我必须说，这本书的结构和叙事节奏处理得相当高明，它避免了传统纪实文学可能出现的枯燥说教，转而采用了一种近乎诗意的碎片化叙事手法，让读者自己去拼凑和解读那些深层含义。这种处理方式非常考验作者的功力，但在这里，效果是惊人的。它让我不得不放慢阅读速度，仔细品味每一个精心挑选的词汇和停顿。不同章节之间，时间线索有时是跳跃的，有时又是重复强调的，这种非线性叙事，恰恰模仿了记忆的运作方式——那些重要的时刻总是在不经意间闪回，带着新的光芒和领悟。我感觉自己不是在“阅读”故事，而是在“体验”一段跨越数十年、横跨数个大洲的集体记忆。特别是一些关于身份认同危机的描绘，那种“身在此处，心系彼方”的永恒拉扯感，被描绘得入木三分，那种无处安放的疏离感，即便是局外人读来，也感同身受。它成功地做到了将个体的声音放大，使其成为对全球化时代迁徙现象的深刻注脚。

老实说，我最初对这类主题的书籍抱有一种略微的警惕，生怕读到的是充满控诉或过于理论化的分析。然而，这本书完全打破了我的预设。它的语言风格非常内敛和克制，没有过度的煽情，却自有千钧之力。作者似乎更像是一个谦逊的记录者，将麦克风递给了这些女性，让她们的声音直接穿透纸面。我欣赏这种“少即是多”的表达哲学。那些潜台词比直接的陈述更具冲击力。例如，对故土的怀念往往不是通过长篇的描述来实现，而可能仅仅通过对某一种特定食物气味的捕捉，或者对某种光线的记忆来完成，这种极具画面感的捕捉，极大地增强了文本的艺术感染力。它教会我，真正的力量往往隐藏在平静的外表之下，而深刻的变革，往往是从那些最不引人注目的日常瞬间开始累积的。这本书读完后，留下的不是一时的情绪波动，而是一种持久的、对人性深度的敬畏。

这本书真是让我大开眼界，它以一种极其细腻和富有洞察力的方式，描绘了那些在文化和地理上跨越边界的女性所经历的复杂心路历程。作者似乎拥有非凡的同理心，能够捕捉到那种初来乍到的迷茫、融入新环境的挣扎，以及在两种文化身份之间不断拉扯的微妙情感。我尤其欣赏叙事中对日常琐事的关注，正是这些看似微不足道的细节，勾勒出了一个宏大而真实的移民图景。那些关于语言障碍、家庭责任的重新定义，以及如何在新的社会结构中重新找回自我价值的故事，都深深地震撼了我。它不仅仅是关于“离开”和“到达”，更是关于“成为”——成为一个在多重身份下不断重塑自我的个体。文字的力量在于其真实感，读起来就像是坐在那些女性的厨房里，听她们娓娓道来，那种亲切和坦诚，让人完全沉浸其中，仿佛自己也参与了那段艰难而又充满希望的旅程。这本书成功地将宏大的社会议题与最私密的个人体验完美地编织在一起，读完后，我对“家”的定义也有了更深层次的理解。它提醒我们，每一次跨越都是一次深刻的自我发现。