African immigrant women’s transition and integration into Canadian society: expectations, stressors, and tensions
Abstract
This article contributes to an emergent body of research that explores African immigrant women’s experiences in Western destination countries. Foregrounding these immigrant women’s voices in this research, we aim to better understand the challenges they grapple with as newcomers to Canada. Specifically, our study sought to explore the stressors they faced within and outside the family and how these stressors mediate their transition and integration into Canadian society. Three main themes emerged from our study: (1) Participants felt ill prepared to face the challenges of starting life anew in Canada, which included in particular navigating changes in economic wellbeing and gender roles; (2) Participants experienced a lack of community support, which was reflected in both mental/emotional health and parenting issues; and (3) Participants expressed frustration with the manner in which Canadian socio-legal systems manage immigrants’ family issues. Our findings underscore the need to actively engage African immigrant women and men in the development of policies and practices that mediate their everyday lives in Canada. Such policies and practices should consider the changing gender relations, cultural knowledge, and informal support channels within African immigrant communities.
Notes
Key populations
African immigrant women
Location
NA
Key findings
African immigrant women feel ill prepared to face challenges building a new life in Canada, including changes in gender roles and economic well-being; participants in study lack community support, reflected in mental/emotional health and parenting issues; participants expressed frustration with Canadian socio-legal systems and their relationship to immigrant families
Key recommendations
Need to include perspective of African immigrants in policies and services that shape their lives in Canada; these policies should consider the the changing gender relations, cultural knowledge and informal support channels within immigrant families
Gaps identified
Policies and services that mediate the lives of African immigrants do not currently take into account the perspectives of these immigrants
Community organizations
NA
Open-access – No
Integration timeline
At what point during the integration process the study was conducted?