The Central Role of Occupation in the Doing, Being and Belonging of Immigrant Women

Abstract

The United States (US), as a receiving country for immigrants, has had recent waves of people arriving from regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Leaving behind the familiar and encountering a new socio-cultural landscape, immigrants experience major disruptions in their daily lives. This study examined the link between occupation and the adjustment, integration and reconstruction of the lives of 13 immigrant women to the US. Results show that migration altered their experience of space, time, roles and meaning of occupations, which threatened their sense of identity and feelings of competency. The women were proactive in modifying their habits and routines to cope with these changes and availed themselves of new opportunities. A focus on occupation as the unit of analysis was the key to understanding the process of renegotiation of ways of doing, being and belonging in their new context.

Keywords:

• Immigrant women
• Integration
• Identity
• Acculturation
• Occupational adaptation