Examining the role of minority community spaces for enabling migrants’ performance of intersectional identities through occupation

Abstract

ABSTRACTIt is well established in the occupation-based literature that people’s engagement in meaningful occupations is reciprocally connected both to their identities and to the environments within which such occupations occur. However, less is known about how access to or exclusion from certain environments may shape the performance of identities by enabling or constraining opportunities for occupational engagement. We examined the role of minority community spaces (e.g. schools, places of worship, community centres) for supporting participation in occupations among French-speaking immigrants and refugees in Canada who settled in two Anglophone dominant cities. Fifty six people from diverse countries participated in eight focus groups (four in each city) conducted as part of a larger, four stage comparative case study. An intersectional lens was adopted for the theoretical analysis of verbatim transcripts. We present findings according to three themes. First we discuss the implications for occupation of living in an Anglophone dominant context as an official linguistic minority. Second, we attend to the paradoxical role of the Francophone minority community in the integration experiences of French-speaking immigrants and refugees. Third we explore the role of minority community spaces for supporting their occupational engagement and performance of intersecting identities. We contend that community spaces can provide important opportunities for linguistic minority community members to engage in meaningful occupations, but these must attend to the heterogeneity of the populations they serve.