I the SOCIAL INTEGRATION of BARREL CHILDREN IN

THE SOCIAL INTEGRATION OF BARREL CHILDREN IN CANADIAN SOCIETY By Andrea Denise Lawrence, BSW, Ryerson University, GRADUATION YEAR 2001 An MRP presented to Ryerson University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Work in the Program of Social Work Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2019 © Andrea Denise Lawrence i AUTHOR’S DECLARATION FOR ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION OF A MRP I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this MRP. This is a true copy of the MRP, including any required final revisions. I authorize Ryerson University to lend this MRP to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I further authorize Ryerson University to reproduce this MRP by photocopying or by other means, in total or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I understand that my MRP may be made electronically available to the public. ii ABSTRACT THE SOCIAL INTEGRATION OF BARREL CHILDREN IN CANADIAN SOCIETY Master of Social Work, 2019 Andrea Denise. Lawrence Program of Social Work, Ryerson University People migrate globally in search of better lives, and migration often produces political, sociocultural, and economic turbulence. This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of two Caribbean barrel children, whose mothers sought employment in Canada and abandoned or left their children in the care of family members. Data consisted of two daughters’ stories daughters, which illustrate the complexities of the barrel-children phenomena. A narrative approach was used to collect the data, and theoretical frameworks guiding the study included Bowlby’s attachment theory, Black feminism, and the intersectionality of race, class, and gender. Data analysis involved structural and narrative analysis. The study found that, in contrast to the literature, the two participants had positive experiences as barrel children and in reuniting with their parents in Toronto. The study highlights the importance of grandmothers in caring for children left behind and even after reunification with parents in Canada. The Black community, along with Black teachers, also play key roles in helping barrel children integrate into Canadian society and face challenges such as racism. Keywords: Barrel children, Canada, Caribbean immigrants, Children left behind, Parental separation. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to thank a number of people who supported me through my long and winding journey to attain one of my educational goals. I would like to thank my employer, particularly my previous supervisor Jim Langstaff, who was instrumental in helping me balance full-time work and school while encouraging me throughout the process. I also thank my professors at the Ryerson University School of Social Work, who helped me through tedium while being extremely patient. I would like to say a special thank you to Gordon Pon, my MRP supervisor, who helped grow through this process of completing the Major Research Paper. Thank you to all the people in my Ryerson cohort, my friends, parents, and my brother—who has been so understanding about everything I do. I would like to thank Junior Higgins, who echoed louder than me my lifelong deep desire to go back to school to do my masters and who had helped me every step of the way. To my girlfriend Liz Brown, who I have known since the first day of college and who has been the voice of reason and is witty beyond her biological years, thank you for providing cultural inspiration while helping me to focus on bigger goals! Lastly, I would like to thank the two participants, Doreen and Tammy (pseudonyms). Without their participation, this major research paper would not have been possible. iv DEDICATION I am dedicating this Major Research Paper to my grandmother Victoria Lawrence, who passed away over 20 years ago; gone but not forgotten. She was the first person to introduce me to social work practice, in the small land-based community of South Manchester, Jamaica. This was long before social work became professionalized or a career I wanted someday to pursue. Affectionately called “Aunty Vicky” by everyone in the community, she would organize, volunteer, support, and intervene to bring the community together, especially around issues of social justice. Her passion for justice was transformative. In addition, I would like to dedicate this MRP to the two participants in this study and to all immigrants who became barrel children because of global migration. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction …………………………………………………………………………...8 Literature Review……………………………………………………………………..14 Theoretical Framework………………………………………………………………..20 Methodology…………………………………………………………………………..29 Findings and Discussion……………………………………………………………….36 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...55 Appendixes……………………………………………………………………………..58 References………………………………………………………………………………65 vi LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix A – Recruitment Flyer Page 58 Appendix B – Interview Guide Page 59 Appendix C – Consent Agreement Page 60 vii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION Global migration is defined for the most part as a situation where people move from a developing to developed countries to look for employment (Conway, 1991). This migration has resulted in interesting shifts in human existence that bring some degree of turbulence and change to the political, socio-cultural, and economic landscapes. At the heart of this global dynamic is the movement of people in search of “a better life,” primarily from an economic perspective. Global migration often has a number of unforeseen consequences, including but not limited to breakdown in the family structure through parent-child separation (Conway, 1991). In the Caribbean, migration is mostly for financial benefit and often takes the form of serial migration, in which parents’ moves from the Caribbean to industrialized nations such as the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, while their children remain behind (Williams, 1985). Parents, most frequently mothers, leave their home countries with the intention of having their children later reunite with them in their new home, when the parents can afford to do so. While the parents' primary goal is to secure a better financial future for their families, their children are often left in the care of aunts, uncles, grandparents, community members, or friends. Parents, while trying to settle in the new countries, send back clothes and food to help with their children’s material well-being, in a barrel. The term “barrel children” was coined by Dr. Claudette Crawford- Brown of the University of the West Indies and suggests that the contents of the barrel often replaces the love and physical bond desired by the children (Crawford-Brown & Rattray, 1994). The barrel becomes an indirect means of maintaining these long-distance relationships. The barrel is of great significance for most families in the Caribbean, particularly Jamaicans. Originally made of 1 cardboard and recently upgraded to plastic, the barrel sends a bona fide message of love from migrant parents to their children left behind. The strategic choice of the barrel’s contents, such as bars of scented soaps with a distinct foreign scent (particularly Irish Spring), provides an even more significant message, as the contents speak ‘love’ from a distance. The barrel further coveys an alluring message of better things to come when parents and children finally reunite. The bars of perfumed soap both offer comfort and provide a glimpse of a utopia (Crawford-Brown & Rattray, 1994). Although barrels are sent throughout the year, for many of those left behind the Christmas barrel is a tantalizing prospect of temporary escape from the deeply woven feeling of emotional separation from their blood parents and their ever-present reality of their less affluent existence. Emigration is not the only or even dominant reason why parents become separated from their offspring; broken marriages, death, and incarceration are others. Nevertheless, the impact of emigration on the life outcomes of barrel children has received significant attention within social science. Despite the wide body of literature in this area, research tends to be skewed toward the overall economic outcomes of immigrants. Limited attention has been paid to the specific issue of parental separation as a result of economic migration to more prosperous countries. The literature that exists suggests that there are huge social-integration challenges for adult children, particularly daughters who were left behind in countries like Jamaica and later unite with their mothers (Crawford-Brown & Rattray, 1994). This paper examines the impact of the barrel-children phenomenon on the social integration of women living in Toronto. A narrative approach was used to gather responses from the participants. In the narrative approach the respondents shared their lived experience and 2 knowledge with the researcher, providing intricate details of their lives, in both Canada and Jamaica. Context The aim of the research were (a) to capture the participants’ experience as barrel children living in Jamaica without their parents and (b) the challenges, benefits, assumptions, discourses, and stereotypes that relate to their social integration in Toronto. This research was of particular interest to me as well as to the participants, because I experienced parental separation and lived instead with extended family. My grandmother was the main maternal figure in the formative years of my life. The two

Load more