What Will I Tell My Daughter?
Immigrant Women Who Relocate With
Their Spouse or Partner:
Issues and Challenges
Randean Kopytko
Overview
Canadian Immigration
Specific Challenges
Randean’s Immigration
History
Employment
Rationale & Methodology
Social Interaction
Childcare/ Schooling
Research Questions
Successes
Case Studies
Conclusion & Questions
Making Every Connection Matter
Provincial Nominee Program
Increase number of
skilled newcomers
Promote immigration
Settle in small urban
and rural areas
My Journey
Winnipeg, Scotland, Winnipeg, New Hampshire, Vermont, & Winnipeg .
Return to Winnipeg
Employed with Military Family Resource
Centre
Adult English as a second language
Neighbourhood Immigrant Settlement
Worker
Rationale
Experiences of principal applicants comprehensively
documented (Carter, Pandey, Townsend, 2010)
experiences of women who immigrated to Manitoba
with or for their partner or spouse has garnered less
consideration & research
Aim to explore the struggles and successes that
women face when they relocate to Manitoba with the
intention of informing education and settlement
services for women
Methodology
Qualitative
Case Studies
Semi-Structured Interviews
Questions
1) What are the main considerations affecting women’s
decisions to move?
2) What were their successes and challenges during
and after relocating?
3) What types of services might relocating women
benefit from?
Case Study
Participants
5 women from Kazahkstan, Mali, Paraguay,
India and the Phillipines; arrived in Canada
between 2008-2012
Profession range from homemaker, Assistant
Notary, Physician, Math Teacher, Accounting
Supervisor
4 out of 5 immigrated with their spouse
Participants Continued
3 women made the decision to immigrate,
another couple decide together, and one was
the husband’s sole choice
4 out of 5 of the women have children that
immigrated with them
Factors That led to Their Immigration
Some of the women
already had
extended family in
Canada
New opportunities for
themselves and their
children
Challenges: Employment
Credential recognition
Canadian work
experience
Finding work in a new
country
Manual labour/ survival
jobs
Amandeep:
Employment Challenges
“In India, this is the problem as I
already told you like, corruption
we don’t get good jobs. So it
doesn’t matter, that is why
people have good qualifications
like they are having master
degree and everything but they
are not getting good jobs. One
problem is the population and
the other thing is corruption. It
doesn’t matter how what
percentage you have and what
degree you have but only that
person will get a good job who
has good...connections”
Angela- Employment Challenges
•
“..finding
work, a job that is
related to my profession that
is the biggest, the big
obstacle when I came here
because no one...no
company would hire me for
my profession even though I
have experience because I
have no Canadian
experience they want...they
want Canadian experience,
so that...I have overcome.”
Challenges: Childcare
Surprised it is not
free / Expensive
Limited access / no
spaces available
Waiting list
Subsidized childcare
“proximity of children....reconstitute their
career”
(Salaff & Greve, 2006, p.160)
AmandeepChildcare Challenges
• “...I couldn’t find good
daycare for my son, so
that we decided to, I
decided to stay home.
So now I am here, I am
studying while staying at
home. I took online
program...power
engineering.”
Challenges:
Raising Child in New Country
Discipline
Parenting strategies
Maintaining own
culture
School system
Miriam:
Challenges Raising Child
in New Country
• “Impacts...how to deal with
kids...they didn’t get everything in
Mali, the culture, the Malian
culture...but here I am trying
here...it is so different how we
deal with kids here and there so
that is one thing....
• Like...even talking with
kids...looking like that...we don’t
do that...but here you...kids are
not suppose to do that...like
those things and so that has
impacts so we have to work
through those things”
Challenges:
Reduction or change
in access to familial
connections/
friendships
Language
Leisure
Social Interaction
Angela:
Challenges of Social Interaction
•
....I
am alone here, I have no, you
know, relatives. I am just living with
my partner she has her own
relatives...I only have friends, so it is
important that I should still have
connections with my mother
because first of all why I am here
because I want to give them...I
already give them but I want to give
them more...
• Yeah, Skype is good...because
every time it is just like talking with
her personally and it has helped me
to conquer my loneliness here
because you see, I am alone here.
When my partner is not around I am
alone here just watching television
and sometimes there are times that
I cry because I am lonely...So, but
once I talk with them it is a relief.
Vera:
Challenges of Social Interaction
• “Maybe not isolated, they
feel uncomfortable because
they left a lot of friends in
their home country you
know and they try to get use
to living here...they face a lot
of challenges. First of all,
one of the challenges is
language. Not only women, I
know that family felt isolated
because they can’t, how to
say...conversations. They
don’t have friends maybe
and it is very difficult to
communicate with people.”
Successes
Vera: employment within first week
Rosa: Familial support & friends
Miriam: accessing resources, subsidized
housing, daycare, free language training,
employment in francophone milieu
Anglea: employment grant, studying in her field
Amandeep: financial stability, home ownership,
country of residence
Employment
Recommendations
Credential recognition; clear info, guidance,
continued support
Essential skills training, e-Portfolio
How-to job search; informational interviews
Interview skill development; behavioural, SAR,
prompt sheets
Social networking; LinkedIn, Facebook
Follow-up strategies; thank-you letters
Employment
Recommendations contd.
Resume; chronological, T-style, photo, length
Cover letter, references
Retraining in their field
Volunteer coordination; why, arrange placement
Survival job-purpose
Soft skill training; working in diverse groups,
conflict resolution, workplace culture & idioms
Childcare Recommendations
Assistance with
accessing childcare
Info regarding
subsidized/alternativ
e options
Support system
(familial)
Leisure (whole
family)
Recommendations: Raising
Children in New Culture
Discipline
Parenting info
Activities for both
School system
(report cards,
homework, casual
approach, concept of
time)
Recommendations:
Aid With
Isolation/Social Interaction
Welcome package
Speakers
Cultural groups
Outings
Continued support
Angela’s Advice for
Other Women
•
I think they should...especially
those...professional ones...they should
attend a government program upon arrival it
is important..... because it will help them to
find a better job and it will also help them to
market themselves because the resume
here is not the same as the resume in our
country. The Philippine resume is so
detailed and it takes you three or four pages
if you submit that resume in Canada the
employer will not read that. They should
learn how to prepare a good resume so that
the employer will notice. That is the thing
that I learned...attending a government
program before you find a job because a
government program might help you. They
might not give you a job but they might help
you to find a job.”
Summary
Canadian Immigration
Specific Challenges
Randean’s Immigration
History
Employment
Rationale & Methodology
Social Interaction
Research Questions
Childcare/ Schooling
Successes &
Recommendations
Case Studies
Conclusion & Questions
Making Every Connection Matter
Contact Info
Randean Kopytko
http://ca.linkedin.com/randeankopytko
randeank@yahoo.ca
“Making Every
Connection Matter”