Aging experiences of older immigrant women in Québec (Canada): From deskilling to liberation

abstract

This article examines experiences of aging of older immigrant women. The data are based on qualitative research that was conducted in Québec, Canada with 83 elderly women from different ethnocultural backgrounds (Arab, African, Haitian, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Romanian, etc.). The results on how such immigrant women deal with material conditions of existence such as deskilling, aging alone, being more economically independent, and the combined effects of liberation from social and family norms associated with age and gender in the light of the migration route, will be presented. For the majority, migration opened up possibilities for personal development and self-affirmation. The findings demonstrated the relevance of the intersectional approach in understanding the complexity and social conditionings of women’s experiences of aging.

KEYWORDS:

• Experiences of aging
• intersectional approach
• older immigrant women
• qualitative research

Notes

¹ For more about Canadian research in this area, see the studies of the Centre d’excellence Metropolis (http://www.im.metropolis.net/).

² Our partners: The Fédération des femmes du Québec, Relais-femmes, les Mamies immigrantes, and the Centre de recherche et d’expertise en gérontologie sociale (CREGES) du CSSS Cavendish-University Affiliated Centre.

³ Despite our explanations about eligibility criteria for the study, seven of the 83 focus group participants were under 65, and two did not reveal their age but were obviously very old.

⁴ For more details about these programs, consult this Canadian government website: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/apply.asp.

⁵ A Canadian citizen or permanent resident can sponsor his or her spouse, dependent children, or other family member, and thus enable them to become permanent residents.

⁶ This program allows a citizen or permanent resident to sponsor someone who is not a relative. Individuals who immigrate under this program are required to provide unsupervised in-home care to children, old people, and people with disabilities. They must live in the private home where they work.

⁷ People eligible for this program are those who are afraid they will be persecuted if they return to their home country.

⁸ The rest were distributed as follows: 11 had high school, and 16 had elementary school educations.

⁹ The low-income cutoff for single people has been established as $18,112 (Fréchet, Lechaume, Legris, & Savard, 2012, pp. 7–8).