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Feature Articles

Examining the role of minority community spaces for enabling migrants’ performance of intersectional identities through occupation

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Pages 37-50 | Accepted 02 Sep 2017, Published online: 28 Sep 2017
 

ABSTRACT

It is well established in the occupation-based literature that people’s engagement in meaningful occupations is reciprocally connected both to their identities and to the environments within which such occupations occur. However, less is known about how access to or exclusion from certain environments may shape the performance of identities by enabling or constraining opportunities for occupational engagement. We examined the role of minority community spaces (e.g. schools, places of worship, community centres) for supporting participation in occupations among French-speaking immigrants and refugees in Canada who settled in two Anglophone dominant cities. Fifty six people from diverse countries participated in eight focus groups (four in each city) conducted as part of a larger, four stage comparative case study. An intersectional lens was adopted for the theoretical analysis of verbatim transcripts. We present findings according to three themes. First we discuss the implications for occupation of living in an Anglophone dominant context as an official linguistic minority. Second, we attend to the paradoxical role of the Francophone minority community in the integration experiences of French-speaking immigrants and refugees. Third we explore the role of minority community spaces for supporting their occupational engagement and performance of intersecting identities. We contend that community spaces can provide important opportunities for linguistic minority community members to engage in meaningful occupations, but these must attend to the heterogeneity of the populations they serve.

在关于休闲的文献中,人们从事有意义的休闲与其身份和休闲发生的环境是相互联系的。然而,关于如何通过允许或限制休闲参与的机会来进入某些环境或排斥于某些环境之外可能影响身份的表征,我们所知甚少。我们研究了少数民族社区环境(例如学校、礼拜场所、社区中心)在帮助定居于两个讲英语的城市的加拿大法语移民和难民参与休闲活动的作用。来自不同国家的56人参加了八个焦点小组(每个城市各有四个焦点小组),这是一个较大的四阶段比较案例研究的一部分。采用交叉镜头进行逐字记录的理论分析。我们根据三个主题来提呈调查结果。首先我们讨论作为一个语言少数人群在英语环境中生活时,休闲对他们的意义。其次,我们关注说法语的少数社区在法语移民和难民融合经历中的矛盾作用。第三,我们探讨少数民族社区在支持其休闲参与和交叉身份表现方面的作用。我们认为,社区环境可以为语言上的少数群体成员从事有意义的休闲提供重要的机会,但是必须考虑他们服务的人群的异质性。

En la literatura es bien sabido que la participación de las personas en ocupaciones significativas se vincula recíprocamente con sus identidades y con los entornos en que se desempeñan tales ocupaciones. Sin embargo, existe menos conocimiento respecto a cómo el acceso a —o la exclusión de— ciertos entornos puede moldear el desempeño de identidades, facilitando o impidiendo las oportunidades que permitan involucrarse en ocupaciones. En este sentido analizamos el papel que, espacios minoritarios de la comunidad —escuelas, lugares de culto, centros comunitarios— orientados a apoyar a inmigrantes y refugiados francófonos radicados en dos ciudades de mayoría anglófona de Canadá, ejercen para promover que éstos se involucren en ocupaciones. Con este propósito, y en el marco de un estudio más amplio que abarcó cuatro etapas y la comparación de casos, se realizaron ocho grupos de enfoque (cuatro en cada ciudad), en los que participaron 56 personas procedentes de diversos países. Para el análisis teórico de las transcripciones textuales se empleó una lente multidisciplinar. Presentamos los hallazgos obtenidos organizados de acuerdo a tres temáticas. En primer lugar, discutimos las implicaciones ocupacionales que, para una minoría lingüística oficial, conlleva el hecho de residir en un contexto predominantemente anglófono. En segundo lugar, examinamos el rol paradójico para la comunidad minoritaria francófona en torno a las vivencias de integración de inmigrantes y refugiados francófonos. Tercero, exploramos el rol que juegan los espacios comunitarios minoritarios en términos del apoyo que brindan para el involucramiento ocupacional y el comportamiento de identidades que se intersectan. Sostenemos que si bien éstos pueden proporcionar importantes oportunidades para que los miembros de minorías lingüísticas se involucren en ocupaciones significativas, deben prestar atención a la heterogeneidad de las poblaciones que atienden.

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the research assistants who contributed to the completion of this study (Yvonne Kasine, Hafida Bencherif and Leigh Vanderloo in London; and Joyce Akl, Méralyne Fleurant, Zac Tabler, Peter McLaren and Sara-Ève Valiquette-Tessier in Ottawa), as well as all the people who participated in this study in both cities.

Notes

1. First author was based at the University of Western Ontario at the time of the study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported with funding from the Ministry of Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and Pathways to Prosperity, Canada.

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