The Process of Social Identification for Visible Immigrant Women in a Multicultural Context

Abstract

Haitian and Indian women rated their identification with (self-perceptions), and the extent to which they believed majority Canadians perceived them as being (metaperceptions), Haitian or Indian, immigrant, and Canadian. Self-perceptions and metaperceptions were compared in order to understand the quality of integration for the two sample An attempt was made to predict self-perceptions on the basis of pragmatic (years in Canada, age at arrival, citizenship status) and social psychological (motivation for culture retention, perceived discrimination) predictors in a series of multiple regression analyses. Although both samples expressed a strong identification with their ethnic groups, different results emerged for immigrant and Canadian identifications. Identity perceptions for these labels were more closely related to pragmatic predictors for the Indian, whereas social psychological variables were more predictive for the Haitian. The results are discussed in relation to the different visibility of the two groups as well as other salient factors in a multicultural context.