POST GRADUATE WORK PERMIT AND SOCIAL SUFFERING

Abstract

This study is an art-based autoethnography that examines the author’s first-hand experience of immigration-related adversities in four drawings created during transitioning to permanent residency in Canada via the Post Graduate Work Permit Program. The article takes a different route from the studies which acknowledge immigrants’ experiences of social suffering yet, explore the possibilities of eventual integration through adaptation and acculturation for immigrants. This article argues that marking suffering as an organic part of integration normalizes suffering and, even can be perceived as an attempt to eliminate the presence of suffering from the discourse. More importantly, this article emphasizes that the social suffering of immigrants cannot be comprehended separately from the entirety of a society that undoubtedly plays a part in inducing their suffering. Artistic content includes the researcher’s drawings made during her time under PGWPP that express her relation to the social landscape in Canada as an international post-graduate transitioning to permanent residency.