Foregrounding the Experiences of Skilled Immigrant Women from the Caribbean in the Canadian Labour Market

Abstract

This qualitative study focuses on the lived experiences of women from the Caribbean in the Canadian labour market who migrate to Canada as skilled workers. It examines their lived experiences of racism and sexism to scope out connections with the historical and contemporary constructions of race and gender in Canada, especially for women who identify as Black. The study centers the lived experiences of participants as viable knowledge and amplifies their voices for empowerment. The study also positions their experiences alongside mainstream narratives on skilled migration.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) is used as the primary theoretical framework to focus on dynamics of race and racism, along with Canadian Anti-racist Feminist Thought (ARFT) to tease out understandings of feminist theorizing on race and gender more distinctly. The study uses Critical Race methodology to investigate the lived experiences of fifteen skilled immigrant women from three English-speaking Caribbean islands. It uses one-on-one in-depth semi-structured face-to-face interviews for data collection. Participants resided in the Greater Toronto and surrounding Area (GTA).

The study reveals patterns of discrimination that perpetuate racist and patriarchal practices and reinforce White privilege. The study provides counternarratives to dominant accounts on skilled migration, which omits the impact of race and gender on the post-migration employment experiences of especially Black skilled immigrant women. The study highlights ways in which participants resisted aspects of the ongoing discrimination and sheds light on their collective experiences. Overall, findings reveal that the stories that participants share establish linkages to similar patterns of unfair practices directed towards Black women in Canada historically, that are in line with stratified inequity.