High-Tech Housewives

"Bhatt’s ethnographic study illustrates in detail the lived reality of the men, women and children who make up this population of transmigrants – moving from India to the US, back to India and oftentimes back again to the States. Whilst focusing on the gendered dimension of these movements, the book presents a broader context of how personal and professional expectations and aspirations are affected by legal frameworks, family demands and considerations about future migrations. . . . [a] rich empiracal work."

"An intimate look into the world of IT sector workers from India who live and work in places like Redmond, Bellevue, Kirkland and Seattle . . . highlights the calculated decisions many of these young families make to ensure their own financial stability and maintain connections with both U.S. and India."

"intimate look into the world of IT sector workers from India who live and work in places like Redmond, Bellevue, Kirkland and Seattle in Washington state."

"Mapping the arrival of H-1B workers from India and marriage migration, their lives in Seattle, and following them on their return to India, High-Tech Housewives provides a longue durée perspective on Indian transmigrants. Thick with descriptive narrative, High-Tech Housewives takes us into the lives of these individuals."

"High-Tech Housewives makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the transnational circulation of technical labor, by highlighting the role of the household in the reproduction of the global Indian IT workforce. Through rich ethnographic detail, the book documents the experiences and predicaments of dependent spouses of temporary H1-B visa workers in the US and after their return to India, providing a human face to current debates on immigration. It is a welcome addition to the transnational and migration studies, gender and labor studies, and anthropology."

"A seminal book about how US immigration policy influences the lives of temporary workers and their families, many of whom find themselves in liminal spaces, in between nations, homes, and employment. Amy Bhatt provides readers with a clearer understanding of the problematic positions that Indian temporary workers and their families face as a result of immigration laws that prioritize economic gain over the needs of migrants."

"A thoughtful examination of how immigrant women build lives and labor within the constraints of the US state, high-tech capitalism, and transnationalism, and enable a global economy."

"High-Tech Housewives provides a long overdue study on the large but overlooked group of temporary migrant professionals in the United States, H-1B workers, and their dependents, H-4 visa holders. This book makes an invaluable contribution by focusing on the plight of H-4 dependents, the wives, who are multiply displaced by their disqualification from labor market participation, increasing their dependence on their husbands and heightening the isolation of their migration."

"Amy Bhatt offers an empirically rich, theoretically nuanced account of high-tech immigration to the United States, drawing important attention to the interplay of gender, occupation, and family dynamics. This book is essential reading on how the 'temporary' migration of high-skilled workers and their families are fundamentally reshaping our notions of citizenship, social relations, and national belonging."