Communication, Culture and Critique
Volume 10, Issue 1, 2017, Pages 76-92

Immigrant Activism: Narratives of the “H-4 Life” by Indian Women on YouTube (Article)

Mallapragada M.*
  • a Department of Radio-Television-Film, Moody College of Communication, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, United States

Abstract

H-4 immigrants, when mentioned in news about high-skilled immigration, often have to reckon with the problematic institutional description of their status as “dependents.” Using online media to produce and circulate new texts for understanding what it means to be an H-4 immigrant is an act of documentation for and by those who are culturally and politically undocumented in mainstream U.S. culture. This article considers 2 YouTube videos by Indian women on the H-4 “dependent” visa and argues that these online media texts represent what L. Lowe (1996) has called “immigrant acts” (pp. 8–9). The YouTube videos not only represent and make visible the H-4 subject but, importantly, do so while foregrounding creative storytelling and personal narratives of the H-4 experience. © 2016 International Communication Association

Author Keywords

Indian immigrants Gender and Media Online Activism H-1B High-Skilled Labor H-4 visa YouTube

Index Keywords

[No Keywords available]
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85011884571&doi=10.1111%2fcccr.12147&partnerID=40&md5=bba1649bf8aa7b90fb9daf8e61805b32
DOI: 10.1111/cccr.12147
ISSN: 17539129
Original Language: English