1997/98 PCERII Funded Research Abstract
Research Title: Immigrant Women Organizing for Change: Integration and Community Development by Immigrant Women in the Maritimes
Research Team:
Research Domain(s): Social; Citizenship & Culture
The processes of immigration and integration are fraught with hardship for the majority of immigrants from non-English speaking countries or immigrant visible minorities, but in particular for immigrant women, who often come as dependent immigrants. Institutional, social and even cultural barriers render integration for immigrant women slow and difficult to achieve, or even unattainable. Based on statistical information, we know that immigrant women are not well integrated even though they often have higher levels of education than Canadian-born women, their average earnings are less, they are over-represented in the lower status jobs and they are often underemployed. Using a qualitative approach, namely focus groups and oral life histories, this research project proposes to examine the integration process of immigrant women in the major urban centres in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and to document the organizational activities of immigrant women assessing their significance in the integration process. The major questions addressed by this study include how immigrant women are integrated, what integration means to them, what barriers to equitable integration they face, what activities facilitate immigrant women’s integration in Canadian society and what role immigrant women’s ethnic-specific and multicultural organizations play in the integration process.