Synopses & Reviews
What is life like on a sugar plantation at the end of the twentieth century? What will happen if the sugar industry collapses? How do the poverty-stricken cane cutters of rural Jamaica fit into the global economy? And how does sugar make its way from the canefield to our kitchens?
The Carribean's history is inseparable from sugar. In Jamaica entire communities depend on the sugar industry, earning a precarious living on old-fashioned plantations. For many the crop even doubles as currency. But as the advanced nations reassess the economic policies that keep sugar alive, time is running out for the island's industry.
King Sugar looks at the world sugar business, identifying the key playersproducers, markets and transnational companiesand explaining how the industry works. It explores the economics and politics of trading agreements, the mysteries of the futures market and the technology of sugar production. Based on interviews with traders, buyers and producers, it provides a unique look at the history of this commodity. King Sugar also looks in detail at how ordinary people fit into this global industry. Through interviews with workers on a plantation she provides a vivid picture of producers and the crises they face. The book finally assesses the future of sugar, both in Jamaica and the wider world, and considers the options for those still ruled by "King Sugar."
Review
"Harrison's examination of the Caribbean sugar industry straddles the line between a journalistic and a scholarly approach...Unique characteristics of the book are the personal vignettes and interviews with plantation workers, producers, traders, and buyers." -Choice,
Synopsis
Women and men migrate across international boundaries at roughly the same rate. Yet most scholarship assumes that international migration results primarily from the labor migration of male workers. When international female migration is acknowledged, the focus is almost exclusively on women in the low-wage labor sector of the global economy.
Gender and Immigration challenges this outlook by examining the diverse and complex ways in which women in a variety of occupational and social categories experience international relocation.
Written by experts and policymakers in the field, the timely essays collected here explore whether international migration provides women with opportunities for liberation from the subordinate gender roles of their countries of origin. Or, do migrant women face both traditional and new forms of subordination and discrimination in their host societies?
Exploring the experiences of a broad range of women, from "unskilled" workers on the U.S.-Mexican border and Filipino mail-order brides to Indian-American motel owners, Asian businesswomen, and Russian immigrants to Israel, Gender and Immigration offers a much-needed corrective to the long-standing invisibility of women in international migration research.
About the Author
Gregory A. Kelson is Executive Director of the Institute for Women and Children's Policy, an international policymaking think-tank in Chicago.
Debra L. DeLaet is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.