Caribbean Caregiver Migration: Spaces Of Socioeconomic Influence Amongst Caribbean Families In Toronto

Abstract

One of the most pressing, yet undertheorized concerns in Canada is the social mobility of the children of immigrants. Research on immigrant integration has focused on measuring immigrant success through adaptation and integration in Canada, with little theoretical engagement with Caribbean migration to Toronto. While studies examine the intersectional spatialities of migrant domestic worker programs across the home, school, neighbourhood, and transnational space, little attention has been given to how these intersectionalities are articulated within the next generation of Caribbean immigrants. The purpose of this research is to fill this gap and ask: How do the conditions created by domestic worker programs shape the experiences of the next generation in Caribbean families? Through semi-structured oral life history interviews with six caregiver-child pairs, this research examines how Caribbean caregiver children experience space as constraint and possibility, demonstrating how trajectories are influenced by geographies of race, gender, class, migration, and settlement.