The question of how immigrants fare when their relationships break down and when they enter new relationships remains an under-studied issue in the wider literature on family immigration. I analyze the narratives shared with me by four Filipino immigrants to Saskatchewan, each of whom discussed their experiences settling into Canada, separating from their partners, rebuilding their lives, and eventually forming new families with new partners. These narratives highlight how a long-term assessment of immigrants’ settlement trajectories invariably shows shifts in relationship and family composition. To probe deeper into these narratives, I use a feminist, multi-scalar intersectional approach that discusses the race, gender, and class hierarchies created by Canadian immigration policies. This approach also examines race, gender, and class processes at the micro-level, meso-level, and macro-level to illustrate the complex workings of power in the lives of the immigrants in this study.
Canada Research Chair in Canadian Migration vs Policy, Impacts and Activism | Associate Professor, Department of Politics, York University