Immigrant and Refugee Women: Recreating Meaning in Transnational Context

Denise L. Spitzer

ABSTRACT: Migrating to another country is potentially fraught with both challenges and potential opportunities. This article examines ways in which mature Chilean, Chinese and Somali women who migrated to deploy personal and communal resources to imbue shifting relations and novel spaces with new meanings. Through these activities, they create a place for themselves on Canadian soil while remaining linked to their homelands. I argue that the ability of immigrant and refugee women to reconstruct their lives—often under conditions of systemic inequalities—is evidence of their resilience, which consequently has a positive effect on health and well-being.

KEYWORDS: agency, Canada, health, identity, immigration, women

My oldest daughter went back to because under conditions of systemic inequalities, is she wanted to find her roots, to find out where she belonged after so many years in Canada, she evidence of a resilience that consequently has didn’t know where you belong. It’s like you’re a a positive impact on health and well-being. tree without roots. Psychologically it makes you As Oakley (this volume) indicates, health feel like, who I am, where do I stand? So she went and well-being offer an important arena in to Chile to find out and it was okay, it was good then because they said, we are half Chilean, half which to examine the complex and compel- Canadian. —Esther1 ling tensions emerging from the dynamic in- tersections of gender, migration and socio- political context that are played out through In the quotation above, Esther’s eldest a host of issues, including identity negotia- daughter is described as a tree without roots. tion. Moreover, by focussing on the relation- The embrace, however, of her transnational ship among identity, health, migration and identity, forged by a return to the land of gender in this work we can attend to the her birth, eventually allows her to branch out ways in which cultural logic, social forces across multiple landscapes and cultivate a and personal resources operate in daily life. sense of belonging. In this article, I draw on research with mature Chilean, Chinese and Somali women who migrated to Canada to examine the ways in which they deploy per- Immigrant and Refugee Women in sonal and communal resources to imbue Canada: An Overview shifting relations and novel spaces with new meanings. Through these activities they cre- A brief demographic overview suggests that ate a place for themselves on Canadian soil the ability to flourish on foreign soil is sub- while remaining linked to their homelands. stantially difficult. Statistics indicate that I argue that the ability of immigrant and refu- immigrants—primarily those from non- gee women to reconstruct their lives, often European source countries—are especially

Anthropology in Action, 14, 1 & 2 (2007): 52–62 © Berghahn Books and the Association for Anthropology in Action doi:10.3167/aia.2007.14010206 Immigrant and Refugee Women AiA

vulnerable to poverty. Furthermore, within ily and community networks that may have this category, women experience a more pre- served as important sources of social support cipitous decline in socioeconomic status than in their homeland. In addition, newcomers men (Kazemipur and Halli 2001). After resid- must contend with conflicting values, novel ing in the country for a period of more than social pressures, potentially disparate gender ten years, non-European immigrant women ideologies and contesting ideas about health also report a greater deterioration in health (Spitzer 2004; Thurston and Vissandje´e 2005). status than men from similar countries of Indeed, the primary purpose of this research origin and than their Canadian-born counter- project was to explore the ways in which parts (Ng et al. 2005; Vissandje´e et al. 2004). mature women from three ethnocultural From a biomedical perspective, negative per- communities negotiate ideas about meno- sonal habits such as smoking, alcohol con- pause and aging in the context of migration sumption and poor nutrition leading to (Spitzer 1998). What emerged was a testa- obesity are regarded as the primary factors ment to the ways in which women were able that contribute to poor health outcomes. to recreate meaning in new contexts while Newcomers to Canada, however, are less holding lightly to tethers linked to the land likely to engage in these behaviours and are of their births. not more likely to be obese than the average To illuminate these issues further, I begin Canadian (Ng et al. 2005). Social determi- with a brief examination of identity forma- nants of health, therefore, such as socioeco- tion in a transnational and multicultural con- nomic class and access to social support, text, followed by an overview of the research health services and remunerative employ- project. I then present perspectives from ment, appear to the most important contribu- Chilean, Somali and Chinese Canadian tors to this decline in health status (Dunn women who uncovered ways to re-aggregate and Dyck 2000). and realign themselves in Canada. I conclude Generally, immigrant women are better with a discussion of the efforts by these educated than their Canadian-born counter- women to reconfigure their sense of identity parts; however, they are less likely to work and belonging in a new, often materially and in positions that are commensurate with their socially impoverished environment. education and former occupational status than native-born women or foreign-born men (Chard et al. 2000; (Re) Making Identity and Belonging 2003). Moreover, despite relatively higher in Transnational Context levels of education, immigrant women are disproportionately located in the lowest- waged sectors of the Canadian labour market The traditional notion of culture as a set of (Chard et al. 2000). Professional gatekeeping beliefs, customs and behaviours situated in and demands for Canadian credentials and a particular landscape has been displaced by experience serve as additional—and signifi- the observation that our world is character- cant—obstacles to the efforts of migrants to ised by global flows that interpenetrate com- reclaim past occupational status (Bauder munities north and south. These global 2003; Bannerjee 2004). ethnoscapes are evidence of an increasingly While coping with downward social mo- de-territorialized world where people, goods bility, immigrants and refugee women must and ideas are highly mobile (Appadurai often negotiate new gender and familial 1996). Both intensified connectedness and roles, particularly in light of dislocated fam- more frequent uprooting challenge the idea

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that culture is a wholly stable entity quite Disruptions in spatial relations may lead to literally grounded in a specific soil (Gupta increased opportunities to create new attach- and Ferguson 1997). The relationship among ments with other members of society poten- space, people and culture is always a social tially resulting in enhanced social solidarity and historical creation undermining the no- and altered identity constructions (Abdul- tion that there is a ‘natural’ national identity rahim 1993; Ehrkamp 2005). that can elicit firm allegiance from—and offer Travel between homelands can also lead “authentic” identity to—individuals and to an increased sense of displacement that communities (Gupta and Ferguson 1997). For engenders further negotiation of one’s iden- immigrants and refugees, movement and re- tity (Spitzer 2006a). Moreover, transnational settlement necessitates a reconfiguration of linkages between homelands and lands of identities and a re-calibration among mean- resettlement further contribute to hybridized ing, identity and place that is further compli- identities in which multiple versions of self cated by individuals’ confrontation with and community are constructed under con- potentially novel physical and social loca- ditions of inequity (Bhabha 1996). Rather tions. than succumbing to the notion of ethnic mi- Identity provides us with a sense of be- nority cultures as bounded, pristine entities longing, the discursively constructed ‘place that can be juxtaposed against the backdrop to stand’ that links individuals and within of a dominant culture, hybridity embraces whose networks meanings are shared. Iden- the messiness of ongoing negotiations be- tity is neither singular nor is it a fixed cate- tween cultural formations of unequal stature gory, but is instead one that is constantly in where new discourses are shaped in the in- a state of creation, maintenance and reconfig- terstitial spaces between them (Bhabha 1996). uration. Notably, we deploy multiple identi- For example, in their study of African Cana- ties that render others both inside and dian women, Okeke-Ihejirika and Spitzer outside of those groupings depending upon (2005) found that second-generation women context. While identity can be regarded as successfully negotiated between the gen- both a process and a resource that can be dered expectations of their parents and their deployed, it is also delimited by social loca- common desire to retain some form of Afri- tion, socioeconomic status and cultural con- can identity while integrating mainstream text (Dwyer 2000; Fortin 2002; Spitzer 2006a). liberal discourses of individualism and Gender also plays a significant role in shap- choice. ing the form and boundaries of identity for- mation. For example, under diasporic conditions, female gender roles and women’s Study bodies often serve as the markers of ethnic communities; therefore, their behaviours are This article draws from a study undertaken intensely patrolled and rewarded in efforts in the mid-1990s in three Canadian cities, to maintain ethnic distinction in pluralist so- (the primary site of data collec- cieties (Spitzer et al. 2003). tion), and Ottawa. Thirty-three In the context of immigration, feelings of women—eleven Chilean Canadian, eleven belonging are informed by one’s migratory Chinese Canadian and eleven Somali Cana- trajectory (Fortin 2002). Moreover, migratory dian—were interviewed using a semi-struc- conditions may challenge taken-for-granted tured interview guide to explore the spatial organisation that may underpin gen- experience of menopause and immigration der relations and ground identity formation. from the women’s perspectives. The open-

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ended questions were designed to elicit For the purpose of this article, I will focus women’s life stories in order to place meno- on the revelations in the life stories that high- pause in the context of the life cycle. In a life light these women’s experiences of recreat- story, the focus is on the participant as an ing meaning in the context of identity in actor in his or her life and social world. To Canadian society. These issues, I will argue, assess the impact of immigration on their have implications for overall health and well- experiences, I employed the concept of the being as they are critical to social support, a ideal self, which encourages participants to vital determinant of health. reflect on their personal and cultural notions of an ideal that can be contrasted with their lived experience (Watson and Watson- Chilean Canadian Informants Franke 1985). The three cultural communities, Chilean, Most came to Canada following the Somali and Chinese, were selected as they overthrow of the Allende government in differed in size and timing of immigration, 1973 with the intention that they would degree of integration into Canadian society, eventually return to their homeland. As the and the amount of ethnic community and Pinochet dictatorship persisted, new rela- infrastructure from which they could draw tionships were established in diaspora. As support. Furthermore, I had personal contact children were born and raised on foreign soil, in each of the communities through ongoing the prospect of returning to Chile perma- volunteer work and some knowledge of one nently began to fade. However, both longing of the languages, Mandarin. for their homeland and concerns about the Women were recruited for the study via nature of their departure continued to domi- network sampling (snowballing); a tech- nate the thoughts of informants. The decision nique that is particularly well suited to work- to leave home and the migratory journey ing in populations that may be difficult to were not relegated to the past, but were in- enter (Brink and Wood 1988). Interviews stead constant companions in their current took place in one or two sessions and ranged lives as they negotiated identity, community, between two to six hours in total. They were engagement, roles and employment (cf. East- held in the language of the woman’s choice mond 1993). Furthermore, as their children and took place in a setting selected by the began to engage in their own active explora- informant. To enhance reliability, a single in- tions of identity, and as General Pinochet terpreter, if required, was engaged for each stepped back from the reigns of power alter- language combination. Participation in the ing the context for their exile, Chilean partici- study was voluntary and informed consent pants deepened their reflection on and was either taped or obtained in writing. In- reinterpretation of these experiences. terpreters also signed a confidentiality Their political involvement in Chile inevi- agreement. Pseudonyms are used in all cases tably led to their emigration. Their political and some details of women’s lives were al- activities ranged from union and student or- tered in all presentations to obscure their ganizing—or simply being married to some- identity. Interviews were taped, transcribed one who had been engaged in political and coded using the qualitative data research activities—to voting for the democratically software Q.S.R. NUD*IST(N4). Transcripts elected Dr. . Opposition to were subject to theme analysis; the analyses the military junta fostered cohesiveness were then reviewed by two informants in amongst Chilean newcomers to Canada in each community. the 1970s despite political differences within

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the coalition. As Chile reverted to a demo- itage, but they also respected their children’s cratic government in 1989, this centrifugal efforts to branch out into their own identities force weakened, resulting in reflective and as Chilean and these identities too sometimes ambivalent feelings about politi- proved to be flexible. As one mother told me, cal engagement and the price they paid for ‘If there is a Canadian soccer team playing their even seemingly benign involvement. a Chilean team, my son will cheer for Can- Although some women regretted their en- ada, but if Chile is playing another country’s gagement with political activities, others team, he will cheer for Chile!’ shifted their energies from campaigning for Despite an ongoing longing for their the liberation of Chile to struggles in broader homeland and for family members left be- arenas of social justice, human rights or more hind, many women concluded that Chile local community issues. may have provided a more hostile landscape Once the political situation in Chile stabi- for aging women than was evident in Can- lized, many returned for a visit that often ada. From their recollections, older women served as a pivotal event affirming the deci- were frequent objects of derision and al- sion to remain in Canada. Despite intense though men aged fifty and older reveled in feelings of attachment to their homeland and their virility, women of similar age were be- to family relations and friends from whom lieved to be decrepit and asexual. Further- they have undergone a prolonged separa- more, mandatory retirement for women in tion—a separation that was highly charged their fifties underscored their uselessness in under an atmosphere of political repression the public arena. and fear—the lifestyle, values and obvious In Canada, Chilean respondents believed military presence compelled them to relin- it possible to push back the boundaries of quish the dream of returning. Moreover, old age. They felt able to reassert themselves moving from Canada would also mean in their relationships as sexual beings, desir- choosing between reuniting with parents or ous and pleasing, but also deserving of plea- remaining with children who had known no sure. In Canada, they reasoned, a woman in other home. As Rosa said, ‘I don’t think we her fifties is not yet old; therefore she is not have a right to broke (sic) the family again’. expected to retire from the workplace—or The decision to remain signaled the trans- the bedroom. Furthermore, the practice of formation from exile to transnational that led solidarity with other Chilean women as to more deliberate activities to establish a home in Canada while maintaining ties with learnt through political work and forged Chile. As Esther noted in the opening quota- through the shared experience of migration tion, one needs to nurture one’s roots to en- and re-establishing a Chilean community in sure that one has a place to stand. Teaching the north helped encourage women to orga- children Spanish, telling stories of home, en- nize themselves in a variety of small activist couraging children to participate in Chilean groups that supported Chilean cultural activ- heritage and community activities were all ities, politically oriented events and discus- part of nurturing those roots. Promoting sion groups. Christina brought together identification with Chilean heritage was also other Chilean women for formal and infor- effected through volunteer work in various mal gatherings to claim a new social space community projects and provided an outlet for themselves. Finding support and solidar- for meaningful interaction with other mem- ity in the company of women, she said, we bers of the community. Most felt they sowed need to remind ourselves: ‘We’re perfect, seeds of pride and knowledge of Chilean her- we’re beautiful, we’re everything’.

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Somali Canadian Informants post-secondary institutions, which were sub- stantially less than those demanded of for- eign students. As they were ineligible for Somalis comprise the single largest ethnic student loans or bursaries, post-secondary group on the African continent. A clan-based education was effectively postponed or de- society ordered by kinship networks, social nied. They were unable to avail themselves of relations and extended family lies at the core certain settlement services that were offered of Somali communal life (Lewis 1994). For only to permanent residents. This delay nearly twenty years, however, this life has meant that family members outside of Can- been disrupted. An estimated 350,000 people ada could become too old to sponsor as de- were killed between 1988 and 1995 in Soma- pendents, which at the time was defined as lia in a civil war that precipitated a massive younger than nineteen years of age (Spitzer exodus from the region and that contributed 2006b). As a result, women were often de- to the current global Somali diaspora (Si- prived of the presence of family and close mons 1995). Under conditions of diaspora, kin and of services and educational opportu- familial networks were disassembled with nities that could have provided not only members scattered in different directions increased earning power through improve- and reassembled with various fragments ab- ment of language and enhanced skills train- sorbing orphaned children and grappling ing, but a source of meaning and respect. with the absence of the men who had been As women in Somalia age, they can antici- murdered or who were languishing in other pate garnering greater respect from their refugee camps. community, reaping the love and devotion During the height of the conflict over from their children in whom they have in- 70,000 Somalis, predominantly women and vested substantial emotional and material re- children, found refuge in Canada (Spitzer sources, and entering a phase during which 2006b). In this country, Somali refugees had they can enjoy the unhurried company of to cope with the new phenomenon of single friends and family. As part of entropy of the parenthood that thrust them into new deci- recent Somali diaspora, however, the bonds sion-making and economic roles (Affi 1997; of community and family have been frac- Spitzer 2006b). Moreover, attempts to reunite tured and the sources of status and meaning with family members were stymied by a pol- that would normally accrue to mature icy that imposed a waiting period for Con- women have dissipated. vention refugees who lacked identity Older Somali women in Canada often at- 3 documents. Coming from a predominantly tempt to reassemble kinship ties, locating oral society where few women possessed distant clan relations or former neighbours passports, driver’s licenses or other official who find themselves among the predomi- documents during the midst of a civil war nantly female ranks of refugees from the that obviated any attempts to secure such Horn of Africa. In particular, female age- documents even if they were eligible for mates can recreate the nightly gatherings that them, this policy had a profound impact on may now take place in a cramped Toronto the Somali community in Canada (Spitzer high-rise instead of a home’s airy verandah. 2006b). During the waiting period—initially These women’s gatherings become the focal five years and later reduced to three— point for micro-business enterprises where refugee women could not sponsor family those assembled share wares such as Arabic members to join them, nor could their chil- perfumes and Somali dresses imported by dren qualify for ‘Canadian’ tuition fees at traveling family members or foodstuffs

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cooked at home and sold to other households one’s dedication to family and to society. The in their apartment block. In addition, women informants who emigrated from China in the may reconstitute traditional loaning circles, 1990s were used to a work-unit system in hagbad, which allow them to pool resources which employment was not only stable but to the benefit of all members. Perhaps most also the centre of distribution for social important, women may gather together in goods, including housing and meal services Qu’ranic study. As Raqiya said: (Walder 1986). In the planned economy, spouses could be assigned jobs in other parts The best thing for my life at this age is when of the country necessitating long periods of my final days comes is to be reading the separation. Those who migrated in the 1960s, Qu’ran, to die with the Qu’ran. To die with aad aab. Aad aab means when you watch God often to accompany family members or to and when you follow all the things you’re join fiance´s who were attempting to establish supposed to do. themselves in Canada, were also compelled to adjust to prolonged separation from fam- Religious practice does not require the ily some of whom were scattered throughout presence of a sheikh nor need it be restricted other parts of the Chinese diaspora. to the location of a mosque; therefore, even In China, midlife women, particularly edu- in the absence of close familial relations or cated urbanites, could be expected to enjoy an extensive community, solitary or small- a second youth, taking time to study calligra- group prayer provide an important source of phy, t’ai chi or to visit friends. These urban social support, spiritual solace and meaning. workers retired at age 55, yet they could con- tinue to be consulted by their employers or to work as volunteers, thereby continuing Chinese Canadian Informants their work lives in which they were heavily invested. Women in rural areas were often All of the informants in this study were born still engaged in labour and assumed child in southern China although their life trajecto- care roles; therefore, while they were unable ries had some of them journeying to Canada to enjoy this period of rejuvenation, they via Vietnam, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan gained satisfaction from their role as and central China. In contrast to the other workers. informants, most of whom were compelled For some recent immigrants who came to to leave their homelands for political rea- Canada as mature adults to join their adult sons,2 with the exception of one business mi- children, migration severely constrained grant, this group of possibilities for work in the labour market primarily came to Canada to accompany due to age and language barriers. Profes- family members who were seeking better sional couples from China who served their economic or educational opportunities. They work units wherever they were directed now were part of two waves of migration; one in lived together for the first time and were the 1960s and the other in the 1990s. compelled to take on tasks like cooking that In Chinese society, demonstrations of in- were novel experiences. Some experienced a dustriousness, rather than declarations of reduced sense of usefulness in the family due love and intimacy, traditionally validate hu- to the busy lives of their children and their man relationships (Potter and Potter 1990). unfamiliarity with their surroundings. But Therefore, both waged and unwaged labour not all Chinese Canadian women expressed play a significant role in providing meaning these sentiments. Ding, a former factory to one’s life by offering opportunities to enact worker shared:

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Migrating here has broadened my scope of are able to recreate meanings for themselves knowledge and insight. I lived in Shanghai by forging new linkages and imbuing differ- for forty years. Life was monotonous.... ent activities with new meaning. Some of Everything was routine as a clock; nothing exciting, no challenges. When I came to these renegotiations are precipitated by re- Canada, the environment was totally differ- turn visits to their birthplaces where imagin- ent and I was faced with challenges, looking ings of home are disrupted and where the for jobs, making a living and making new pull of life in Canada overwhelmed. friends. As immediate attachments around Chilean politics came undone, some of the Chilean Some informants, like Ding, enjoyed the Canadian women respondents shifted their new challenges and potential opportunities efforts to other platforms for social activism, that life in Canada offered. Ding found satis- and/or became involved in the promotion of faction in the first position she acquired in Chilean heritage. Many encouraged creative Canada as a child-minder for a family who links with other women and on an interper- wanted their children to learn Mandarin Chi- sonal level, renegotiated marital relation- nese. Indeed a number of respondents found ships. In both public and private domains great pleasure in volunteer work teaching they refuted old-age labels and asserted Mandarin to children or organizing events themselves as intelligent, capable and sexual at the local immigrant women’s centre. beings who were very much alive. Furthermore as education is also highly Somali women informants who are tradi- valued, many respondents took advantage tionally embedded in bilateral kinship net- of continuing-education courses, English-as- works found themselves without the broad a-Second-Language classes, and the re- ties to social support and meaning that ac- sources of the public library system. In con- crue to mature members of these networks. trast to their experiences in China, many of A loss of kin networks, exacerbated by gov- these services were available free of charge ernment policy that limited the inflow of or at minimal cost, allowing even those who Somali refugees by demanding official docu- were economically disadvantaged to gain ac- mentation and delaying reunification, have cess to settings where they could enjoy soli- meant significant loss of status because roles tary contemplation or spend time learning are relational. In Canada, they recast those and socializing with others. ties to engage with others in Qu’ranic study and in socializing with other age-mates as a way of creating a space for themselves that Conclusion resonates with home while in Canada. Chinese Canadian informants talked about Migrating to another country is potentially taking advantage of new opportunities to fraught with both challenges and potential volunteer, to share their heritage and skills opportunities. In this article we have seen with younger generations, and to avail them- how women from three disparate ethnocult- selves of public services such as libraries that ural communities, drawing on both personal offered materials free of charge. and community resources, have tried to re- Notably, all of the ways in which these configure their social support networks, women reconfigured their lives were con- identities and sense of belonging in Canada. strained and structured by broader social Despite tremendous challenges wrought by and institutional forces. Generally, they were social, political and other, more proximate confined to low-socioeconomic status condi- forces, these immigrant and refugee women tions precipitated by lack of recognition of

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their credentials and experience—and for in health status over the long term. Further- some—their age of migration. Furthermore, more, social determinants play the most sig- government policies that inhibited family re- nificant role in informing this trend. The unification had significant repercussions for association between low-socioeconomic sta- women in terms of limiting access to social tus and poor health are well established and support and compelling them to redefine the dynamics of downward social mobility gender roles. Yet despite these obstacles, also appear to be associated with poor health women have found ways to make sense of outcomes (National Forum on Health 1997; their new contexts, to re-aggregate with oth- Krieger et al. 2001). Social support is also ers around hybrid identities and places of an important factor in contributing to health belonging. Informants integrate variant dis- that is particularly salient for migrants who courses around gender, age, self, and work may be extracted from social support net- to create altered identities that enable them to works and who cope with different amounts sustain themselves in Canada. For example, and sources of social support in Canada (Na- Chilean women draw from emerging dis- tional Forum on Health 1997; Stewart et al. courses of aging that insist women in their forthcoming). In their analysis of Canada’s fifties and sixties are still vital and sexual. National Population Health Survey, Dunn Chinese women too draw on notions of and Dyck (2000: 1582) found that: ‘Immi- healthy aging and of individualism to sup- grants who reported that they did not have port their efforts to become active adults and “somebody to make them feel loved” were to engage in solitary activities that contrast more likely to report fair or poor health sta- with their more social existences in China. tus’. The immigrant and refugee women who In Canada, Somali women are often able to participated in this study, while facing con- transcend clan divisions to create spaces siderable challenges in Canada, are not where they can avail themselves and provide wholly bereft, and their efforts to reorient for mutual aid. themselves, making contributions to young Imbuing new activities or shifting empha- persons, becoming active in their commu- sis onto existing ones offers new avenues for nity, or finding strength in individual pur- reasserting values and soliciting support in suits are evidence of their resilience, which this new environment. Importantly, these re- serves to mitigate the ill-effects of their social negotiations alter but do not dramatically and material marginalization. Although not challenge gender ideologies as they intersect all migrant women or men will respond to with ethnic identities. Chilean informants’ migration in an identical way, the processes recreation of meaning is organized around of emigration, immigration, adaptation and cultural transmission to the young and one’s integration demand ongoing reflection and role as a wife. Somali women build on the action, which although influenced by social, key identifiers of their culture, Islam and kin- temporal, geographic and personal context, ship, to enhance their support and sources are also commonplace features of human ex- of meaning. Chinese women who are fo- istence. As applied anthropologists, we may cussed on work and family are also engaged have opportunities to ensure that immi- in volunteer activities that underscore both grants and refugees are proffered appro- the value of work and enculturation of the priate material and social resources as well next generation. as decision-making latitude to enable new- As noted at the beginning of this article, comers to engage in mutual aid and to nego- female migrants to Canada from non-Euro- tiate new and/or hybrid identities or ways pean countries tend to experience a decline of being. Moreover, we have an obligation to

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refute the dominant discourses that portray Bannerjee, H. 2004. ‘Immigrant Women: Labour immigrant and refugee women solely as in the North American Continent’, in M. Batta- helpless victims, lacking in agency or re- charya (ed) Globalization, Delhi: Tulika sources to make positive changes in their Books, 87–92. lives or the lives of those around them. Bauder, H. 2003. ‘ “Brain Abuse” or the Devalua- tion of Immigrant Labour in Canada’, Antipode 35 (4): 699–717. Denise Spitzer is a medical anthropologist and Bhabha, H. 1996. ‘Cultures In-Between’, in S. Hall the Canada Research Chair in Gender, Migra- and P. Du Gay (eds) Questions of Cultural Iden- tion and Health at the University of Ottawa. tity, London: Sage, 53–60. Her email is [email protected]. Brink, P. and M. Wood 1988. Basic Steps in Plan- ning Nursing Research: From Question to Pro- posal, Boston: Jones and Barlett. Notes Chard, J., J. Badets and L. Howatson-Leo 2000. Women in Canada: A Gender-Based Statistical 1. All names are pseudonyms. Analysis, Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 189–217. 2. Although we tend to distinguish between im- Dunn, J. and I. Dyck 2000. ‘Social Determinants migrants as voluntary migrants and refugees of Health in Canada’s Immigrant Population: as involuntary migrants, the categories in re- Results from the National Population Health ality are often blurred. In this study for in- Survey’, Social Science & Medicine 51: 1573– stance, some Chileans entered Canada as 1593. immigrants; however, they emigrated for the Dwyer, C. 2000. ‘Negotiating Diasporic Identities: same reasons and with the same haste as Young British South Asian Muslim Women’, some who arrived as refugees. Moreover, Women’s Studies International Forum 23 (4): some women who enter the country as volun- 475–486. tary migrants may in fact have had little say Eastmond, M. 1993. ‘Reconstructing Life: Chilean in the decision to emigrate and in reality may Refugee Women and the Dilemmas of Exile’, be reluctant immigrants following their hus- in G. Buijs (ed) Migrant Women: Crossing bands or children. Boundaries and Changing Identities, Oxford: 3. Convention refugees are individuals who are Berg Publishers, 35–53. determined to meet the standards set out by Ehrkamp, P. 2005. ‘Placing Identities: Transna- the 1967 United Nations Convention Relating tional Attachments of Turkish Immigrants in to the Status of Refugees. Germany’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Stud- ies 31 (2): 354–364. Fortin, S. 2002. ‘Social Ties and Settlement Pro- References cesses: French and North Africa Migrants in Montreal’, Canadian Ethnic Studies 34 (3): 76–98. Abdulrahim, D. 1993. ‘Defining Gender in a Sec- Gupta, A. and J. Ferguson 1997. ‘Culture, Power, ond Exile: Palestinian Women in West Berlin’, Place: Ethnography at the End of an Era’, in in G. Buijs (ed) Migrant Women: Crossing A. Gupta and J. Ferguson (eds) Culture, Power, Boundaries and Changing Identities, Oxford: Place: Explorations in Critical Anthropology, Dur- Berg Publishers, 55–82. ham, NC: Duke University Press, 1–29. Affi, L. 1997. ‘The Somali Crisis in Canada: The Kazemipur, A. and S. Halli 2001. ‘The Changing Single Mother Phenomenon’, in H. Adam and Colour of ’, CRSA/RCSA 38 R. Ford (eds) Mending the Rips in the Sky: Op- (2): 217–238. tions for Somali Communities in the 21st Century, Krieger, N., J. Chen. and J. Selby 2001. ‘Class Lawrenceville, NJ: Red Sea Press, 441–448. Inequalities in Women’s Health: Combined Appadurai, A. 1996. Modernity at Large: Cultural Impact of Childhood and Adult Social Dimensions of Globalization, Minneapolis, MN: Class—A Study of 630 US Women’, Public University of Minnesota Press. Health 115: 175–185.

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