Reading their way through immigration: The leisure reading practices of Russian-speaking immigrants in Canada

Abstract

In the vastly diverse academic literature on reading, ethnic readerships and immigrant reader stories are notably under-researched. To fill this gap, empirical data from a sample of Russian-speaking immigrant readers residing in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada, were collected and analyzed using an innovative combination of two previously disparate scholarships—immigration research and reading research. Reading is a contextually dependent experience, and these findings are situated in the context of acculturation attitudes of the ethnic readership in question. Immigration causes acculturation stress in the sphere of leisure reading and affects immigrant reading practices in numerous ways, including the types of chosen books, book selection criteria, and the methods of finding out about new titles and accessing items of interest. An in-depth and thorough understanding of leisure reading practices can improve insight into immigrant acculturation. Therefore, these findings and discussion will be valuable for librarians, LIS scholars, and reading researchers who interact with immigrant readers.