Embodying Adaptive Boundaries: Singaporean Muslim Women Immigrants in Australia

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which immigrant Muslim women from Singapore thoroughly embed themselves in and adapt themselves to their new home in twenty-first century Australia. It does so through an analysis of interviews conducted between October, 2019, and February, 2021, with Singaporean Muslim women living in Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney, Australia. This article argues that these women were able to integrate well into Australian society because they embody what this article terms as "adaptive boundaries." Adaptive boundaries refers to the ways in which such immigrants creatively adjust, negotiate, and reformulate their orientations toward their religious beliefs and cultural values, as well as expectations on family life and careers, in order to adapt to their new life in Australia. In doing so, these women successfully overcame many challenges they faced as gendered migrants. This study furthers the borders of scholarly enquiry on gendered migration and acculturation among immigrant Muslim communities in Western societies.