After the 1965 liberalization of immigration policy and in response to the nursing shortage in the U.S., there was a substantial increase in the immigration of Indian nurses to the U.S., mainly from the Kerala Christian community. Unlike their Asian Indian immigrant counterparts, the immigration of the Kerala Christian nurses is unique in that the primary immigrants are women. Consequently, the men are dependent on the women in the immigration process, leading to temporary and sometimes permanent reversals in economic gender roles. There is a resulting increase in the level of tension around gender relations, which becomes evident in the communal life of the immigrant congregation.

On the basis of ethnographic research and indepth interviews, I examine the nature of gender relations in an Indian Orthodox Christian immigrant congregation in a major metropolitan area in the U.S. Furthermore, using the congregation as a base, I conducted participant observation in a nursing home where many Kerala nurses are employed. My aim is to understand how gender relations change between India and the U.S. in the three spheres of church, home and work.