Life history research: A contribution to processes of adult learning ...

oneself—that often follows immigration (Schild, 1999). I constantly learn new ways to articulate this
transformation and to translate it for people that knew me before; it also affects the ways other see me in
various contexts. Educational materials for immigrant women should be aimed at accompanying and
offering them information in this transition. This information should include both the social and cultural
aspects of this transition.
Many of the elements that seemed immobile in the culture of origin change in the new context, and allow
immigrant women to see new possibilities. In some cases the change is favorable and women gain
freedom, while in others they fall in situations of hardship or abuse, depending on their personal
circumstances. The incorporation of immigrant women to Canada in this context is complex; poverty is
racialized in the country, and women still have lower incomes than males in comparable positions
(Gleason & Perry, 2005). These challenges affect immigrant women in varied ways, depending on their
cultural capital, their social networks, age and marital status upon migration, among others (Parrado et al,
2005). The four study participants describe their overall experience of immigration to Canada as positive.
Their experiences—although not free from challenges—generated considerable growth and learning in
their personal and professional lives. Immigrant women will be affected differently by the new context,
depending on their personal circumstances and their cultural and personal values, yet, offering
orientational materials that take into account the cultural aspect of the gender perspective can be useful
and comforting for women.
I came to Canada because I intuited I could use this environment to generate a change in my perception of
who I could be as a woman. Eventually, I realized that I needed to cultivate new gender awareness in
order to live my life in a different manner. Toronto offered me the freedom of being away from the
familiar in a place where the boundaries of social acceptability for women are broader. I soon realized
that, although the context made me feel freer, the oppression I felt was internalized and I would have to
transform it gradually through a combination of consciousness-raising and “re-appropriation” of more
aware and positive notions of gender identity (Tappan, 2006). 2 This is what I call the process of
deconstruction and reconstruction of identity that can bring immigrant women, Mexican or otherwise, to
more expansive notions of themselves as women within the Canadian context.
Educated Immigrant Women: Questions of Privilege
Educated women are a group that is not mentioned very often in accounts of immigrant women’s lives
and struggles. Perhaps the fact that they made it to an institution of higher learning and that they qualified
to enter Canada as legal, skilled immigrants, makes people think our integration into Canadian society is
smooth. Being a university educated woman has such connotation of privilege that it would seem like
these women have nothing else to ask for (Josselsson, 1996). Access to a university education is often
linked to class background. In Latin America, it is mostly middle and upper-middle class families that
benefit from the subsidies to virtually free university education (Hunter & Brown, 2000). In spite of free
access to public universities, the majority of the population in these countries cannot afford to be away
from the labor force in order to continue their education. Perhaps many would argue, if a woman like
Gloria attained professional success as a business consultant in Mexico and Canada, or Papalotl integrated
into Canadian society smoothly, both in her personal and professional life, what is there to look at, when
there are other women that face much more challenging conditions, such as the lack of legal status or the
constant presence of abuse in their lives? While the latter are two examples of situations that make
women highly vulnerable, educated women also face challenges due to gender oppression, in Mexico for
2 Tappan explains how the appropriation of internalized oppression is a collective, socio-cultural process,
as opposed to an individual one. In my case, partially because I was living away from Mexican culture,
the awareness-raising process began individually, although at later stages, I started connecting and
having conversations on the topic with the participants and other Mexican women in Toronto.