Navigating Intersecting and Conflicting Identities: Experiences of Immigrant Mothers at a Canadian College

Abstract

This article explores the perspectives of immigrant student-parents who pursued post-secondary education at one community college in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Drawing from interviews with 10 women who had immigrated to Canada as adults, this analysis focuses on the experiences and pathways of the immigrant student-mothers into career preparation programs at the college. The accounts of these women illuminate tensions among the multiple identities that they navigated in the process of making a new life in Canada. Key themes I explore from their accounts include narratives of job downgrading and underemployment; the gendered complexity of navigating post-migration employment and child-rearing; and the emotional weight of navigating multiple identities as college students. Ultimately, this analysis highlights the emotional labor undertaken by immigrant mothers in a larger system of inequities in immigration, employment, and education.