Expanding Policy-Based Conceptualizations of ‘Successful Integration’: Negotiating Integration through Occupation following International Migration

Abstract

The immigration of French-speakers to Canada and their successful integration into Francophone minority communities has become a priority for the country's federal government. A critical ethnography served to challenge assumptions regarding successful integration embedded within government documents and to raise awareness of the challenges faced by French-speaking immigrants from visible minority groups residing within London, Ontario, Canada. A theoretical framework applying Goffman's concept of performance and Bourdieu's concepts of field, habitus, and capital guided the study. Eight migrants participated in up to five sessions including narrative and in-depth interviews, Occupational Mapping, and participation in occupations. Findings highlight that integration involves a process of ‘starting over,’ which entails becoming aware of differences in fields and habitus within and between home and host societies, learning ‘how things work’ in the host community, and negotiating performances in social interactions. This negotiation, enacted primarily through occupation, is influenced by differential access to forms of capital. It is further related to ways immigrants' intersecting identity markers are constructed within particular places and embedded in broader social systems and structures. These findings challenge the linear and individualized process of integration identified within government documents, and the narrow focus on economic productivity as the occupation-based marker of integration.