Imagining collective futures in settlement education: Perspectives of Tamil-Canadian immigrant women

Abstract

Literature on adult settlement and integration education in Canada documents the limits of public services supporting the settlement of female newcomers. This study provokes deeper understandings of these limitations by examining the gendered experiences of mature Tamil women who have resided in the province of Ontario, Canada for more than 10 years. Using personal interviews and archival immigration policy documents, this paper argues that despite interacting closely with settlement education programs, mature Tamil immigrant women continue to face gendered and classed barriers to social integration within and outside their communities. Settlement education policies produce temporariness in mature women by making them ineligible for services and supports, thus further scripting their lives on the fringes of their communities. However, mature Tamil immigrant women reject the essentialization of their narratives as continuous historical victims by engaging in relationships with their peers. Friendships between migrant and diaspora women emerge as a unique space to explore agentic resistance to homogenising settlement and integration structures. Theoretical frameworks of this study are anchored in literature discussing neoliberalism, multiculturalism, settlement education, and transnational feminism.