This study's objective was to examine the affect that migration and employment have on immigrant women's negotiating position within the household. Depth interviews were conducted with nine women who migrated to Portland, Oregon from Ethiopia or Eritrea. Women were encouraged to share a narrative history of their migration and employment experience. These interviews were analyzed to answer three primary questions: Who are immigrant women supporting through their participation in the paid labor market? How do women utilize gain access to employment opportunities and what strategies do women use once employed to meet competing demands on them at work and in the household? And finally, to what extent do women maintain control over their income and influence household decisions? This study found that women, particularly women who migrate prior to marriage, support natal households more than women who migrate after marriage. Women use social networks to find information about jobs, and once employed use an array of strategies to meet domestic demands. These strategies include joining households with other women to share household labor, finding employment opportunities that allow them to care for children while working, and having their mothers come to care for small children. Women who have recently married and have lived in the United States a short amount of time are most likely to express desire to maintain control over their income, while women who have lived in the United States for a longer time are more likely to pool their income with their husbands. Many women felt that they had an equal influence in household decisions as their husbands, but little evidence was provided that this was the case. Instead this study concludes that working outside of the home increases the perceived contribution that women make to the household leads to their empowerment and improves their negotiating position.

This research study examines the impact of international migration of household labor for Bosnian immigrant women living in Portland, Oregon. Bosnia is a society with enduring patriarchal traditions which assume that women are in charge of doing household chores. Men are in charge of providing for the family monetarily. Many Bosnian families migrated to the U.S. in the mid 1990's in order to escape the war in Bosnia. In this study I interview 10 of these Bosnian women, concerning the division of labor in their homes in Bosnia and their homes in U.S. After migrating to the U.S. the amount of work women did within the home lessened as their husbands became more involved in helping with various chores. The changes in the division of household labor did not subvert traditional gender roles. Wives transferred and adapted their views of gender performativity after they migrated to the United States. The results are consistent with research that states that migrant women focus more on advancement of their family rather on their own emancipation.