Labour market integration experiences of immigrant women from Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

This thesis utilizes an integrative analysis of gender, race and class to understand and explain the labour market integration experiences of women from sub-Saharan Africa in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The research moves from macro, to meso and micro considerations. Colonialism and the effects of current forces of globalization, as well as the particular historical racialization processes in Nova Scotia, provide a socio-historical backdrop to the lived experiences of the migration and settlement processes of sixteen women from Sub-Saharan Africa in Halifax. The study highlights the interface of work, family and community. The argument is made that systematic discrimination, rooted in both gendered norms and racialization (past and present), contribute to employers' devaluation of foreign educational credentials and international work experience and contribute to practices that marginalize immigrant women from Sub-Saharan Africa in the labour market. Nonetheless, these women as active agents have challenged and resisted such experiences. The study offers a number of suggestions to overcome the barriers immigrant women in general, and those from sub-Saharan Africa in particular, face in the Canadian labour market.