The family and transnational networks of three refugee women's generations in Quebec

Las redes familiares y transnacionales de tres generaciones de mujeres refugiadas en Canad Michle Vatz Laaroussi Universit de Sherbrooke, Canad

The purposes of the presentation



To share the reflection and the analysis about the roles of transnational and family networks for refugee women. To talk about methodology to lead investigations with family and transnational networks To identify the knowledge transmitted and constructed by different refugee women generations about care and development. To understand the strategies of care for refugee women of different generations and from diverse countries of origin. To analyse the care in the two senses: the self care and the care of others.

The theoretical framework: family and transnational networks



Immigrant networks have family and transnational aspects The actual migrations are structured around informal networks and family links in three different ways: with ethnic and religious networks, with familial immigration for migrant workers within the framework of the procedures of family entry and settlement for the refugees We will focus in that presentation on that third case: the refugees and their family in Quebec.

  

The investigation


A qualitative investigation about mutual aid, transmission and co-construction of knowledge for three generations refugee cowomen in Quebec, French part of Canada. Themes: the care (for the elderly and the children, for the family members, for oneself and for the others), school and work, language learning, relations between women and men, relations between generations, integration and adaptation to unknown situations. These three generations are living in the same housing or very closely.

Methodology


Intercultural focus groups with each generation: grandmothers, mothers and daughters (8) Focus groups with professionals of health and welfare organisations (2) and of education (1) Interviews with family intergenerational trios: grandmother, mother and daughter of 18 and more years old (30 trios) One semi-structured interview with each woman of semithe trio and one interview with the three women of the trio together.

The trios
 

  

 

They are living in different regions of Quebec: Sherbrooke, Qubec, Joliette and Montreal. They are public refugees so they have obtained the refugee visa in their country of origin or in refugee camps. 8 trios are coming from Colombia 5 from other south American countries (Salvador, Peru) 8 are coming from the region of Grands Lacs in Africa (Rwanda, Burundi, Rpublique dmocratique du Congo) 6 are coming from Ex-Yugoslavia (Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia). Ex3 others are from new waves of refugees who are arriving actually in Quebec: Iraq, Afghanistan and Bhoutan. They have arrived since less than 15 years.

Methodological issues for investigations with family and immigrant networks



Characteristics of the team of research: multicultural, multilingual, multigenerational. Composed of senior researchers, of junior students and of practitioners in community groups. Here with women, specifically women. Proximity, engagement, intercultural listening, interest and creativity. Intercultural analysis of focus groups and interviews: debate, confrontation of interpretations, of cultural and theoretical frames, of languages contextualization etc Egalitarian structure in the team of research as with the interviewed women: feminist and antiracist theories.

Methodology and creativity



To use new and creative strategies during the interviews ( the map of networks, the trajectory of life, the critical incidents, the objects of transmission, to take and to give photos to the interviewed women) To use new strategies to recruit trios or networks (a networking recruitment) To use new and illustrative methods for the analysis (photos, movies, discussions, schemas, visual material) To use and create new and original modalities to transfer the issues of the research (movies, videos, WEB: to use Skype, to build blogs, public events as forums, expositions etc.)

Intergenerational trajectory: a tool of analysis

Dplacements

Dates darrive

Ce quon produit

vnements Grand mre Mre Fille

Rseaux

Ce quon veut transmettre

The transmissions and constructions



  

Different trajectories which have impact on the transmissions. Do the three generations arrive together or separately? Did they have forced mobility before coming to Canada? Who arrives first and for which reasons? Who learns first the French language? Which is the professional integration of every woman? Are these women alone or with husband when they arrive?

Three different cases

Grouped arrival


The three generations arrive together after a common mobility before coming to Quebec. They have the refugee visa because their life and their safety (of the family) was threatened. The case of certain Colombian women: they were living forced mobility in Colombia and many of them are widows. The husbands, fathers and sons have been killed in Colombia. The other case of African who were living in refugee camps during many years. For most of them, they have been separated in camps and sometimes the family reunification is made on arrival in Quebec. The three generations are living the process of insertion together: going to school to learn the language, trying to understand the new society, discovering the resources of that society, discovering the courses for the employment

Separate arrivals: one first



One generation arrives first and is settling, the others women arrive after as family member with a special program and visa. There is a form of dependence. The woman who arrived first is responsible of insertion of the others and she also feels guilty and responsible of their migration. It may be the mother or the grandmother. Sometimes she is also widow. Case of certain Colombian women who are threatened for their activity in Colombia: activists for the rights of the persons; lawyers for the missing persons; union activists Case of African women when the family reunification happens after the arrival of the mother for example.

The responsability of the others insertion



Oui, jai appris parler franais dabord. Je suis retourne luniversit. a ctait dure avec mon ge suivre le rythme des travaux. Quand tu veux faire des travaux de groupe, les jeunes refusent de travailler avec toi parce que pour eux tu es moins intelligent cause de ton ge. Je nai pas baiss les bras. Au contraire, jai travaill fort. Japprochais les immigrants pour travailler avec eux. Je me suis battue comme toujours. On communiquait beaucoup avec ma belle fille quand elle est arrive avec les enfants, il faut faire les dmarches, apprendre le franais. Jai aid un peu pour faire les travaux. Trouver lappartement ici. Avec les petites, je les ai appris connaitre un peu le pays. On sest beaucoup promenes dans la ville. Sans a, elles allaient beaucoup se perdre. Cest grand ici. A grandmother from Colombia who arrived the first in Quebec city.

Separate arrivals: the grandmother lastly



Two generations arrive together (mother and daughter) with the nuclear family. The grandmother is coming several years later as sponsored refugee with a commitment of the family to take care of her in the different areas: economic, social, health Its a total dependence. Case of ex-Yugoslavian women: the nuclear family exarrived during the war and the grandmother is coming later because she is alone in the origin country or because she is now widow.

The arrival of a grandmother from ex-Yugoslavia ex

Mon mari est mort et je suis reste toute seule dans notre pays. Mes enfants m'ont invite venir ici chez eux. Ils ont fait tous les documents ncessaires. Je ne connais pas quoi que ce soit au sujet du Qubec. J'ai regard sur la map o est le Qubec. Je n'ai pas pos de questions ma fille. Je ne connaissais personne et je n'ai pas contact personne. Ctait difficile pour moi quitter mon pays.

Issues about transmission



There is a form of linear transmission: grandmothers towards the mothers and the daughters. But sometimes directly from grandmothers to granddaughters. Family story, anecdotes and mythical characters, music, songs, tales for children, recipes, religious practices, national and cultural feasts, precious objects by their story and in the family story.

The transmission of objects

Recuerdos tristes de un pasado alegre

Transmission

The books to transmit the mother tongue to children

Transmissions for care



Linear transmission: for special events or periods, the delivery and the period after the delivery, for the new mother and for the baby. During periods of disease and during the deaths: practices, funeral, religious and cultural rites. Importance of the grandmother as link with the origin country and the family network during these periods. The transmission is circulation of information, knowledge and practices, up to bottom but also from here to there.

A grandmother from Colombia: the support of the network during sad periods


Trois mois aprs de notre arrive au Canada nous avons connu la terrible nouvelle quun de mes fils avait tait tu par la gurilla en Colombie; jai voulu me frapper avec les murs du dsespoir et comme je viens de dire, de la douleur Cest du soutien surtout, que nous avons eu de la part dun cercle damis colombiens trs proche, ces personnes nous ont accompagnes pour prier, pour nous donner du soutien. Nous avons beaucoup apprci ses gestes damiti et solidarit. (Grand-mre colombienne) (Grand-

New strategies and construction

 

Autonomy and intergenerational share Ici, cest plus facile vieillir. Ici, nous pouvons profiter. Nous pouvons nous reposer, nous promener, pour faire diverses activits. Ici, cest beaucoup mieux pour les personnes ges que chez nous. (grandmother of Ex-Yugoslavia). ExSome grandmothers are living alone in Quebec in one apartment for the first time: the apartments are too small for several persons and they must have their own housing to benefit from social welfare allowances. They allowances. apreciate that new autonomy and they explain that they feel free But they continue to organize parties to gether the family: during these parties, they transmit and share recipes, dance, music They associate a new form of autonomy and of transmission But for other grandmothers there is a great dependance because of the language and because of the misundestanding of the culture and of the resources of the society. Importance of the granddaughters.

New intergenerational practices for grandmothers



Take care of oneself for the grandmothers: pay attention on the good food, make of the physical activity, stop smoking, participate in community activities, insure her own social participation Take care of the granddaughter when the grandmother has not educated her own daughter (because of the help of the domestics or of the widened family: mother, sisters)

  

New intergenerational learnings from granddaughters to grandmothers Take care of the grandmother for the granddaughter: accompany her at the doctor's, go shopping. Help her learning French Help her learning Skype Accompany her for transnational contacts (with Skype, for travels in origin country,) Help her to find friends, even one boyfriend on Web

The roles of the mothers

   

Not usual role of transmission and care between grandmother and granddaughter. Role of social and economic integration of the family Supplier for the family and the three generations For several, they have skills for the care and they invest it in their jobs with persons out of the family: they do training courses of adaptation and they are nurses aides in hospitals or at home with elderly. For many others they are educators of young children in day nurseries. Finally others are reinvesting their skills in community groups with women, elderly or victims of violence for example.

Strategies of care by intergenerational alliances



GrandmothersGrandmothers-granddaughters: the daily care and the mutual learnings. The acceleration of the transmission and of the co-production of new practices. The care coas value and solidarity. GrandmothersGrandmothers-mothers: the mutual help and the economic support. The care as financial investment (support and constraint). MothersMothers-daughters: the learnings of the social and economic integration. The co-production of strategies coof integration. The care as skill.

Conclusion: from trio to transnational network

 

  

New definitions of the care in these family refugee situations. These new definitions and meanings are transmitted through the family transnational networks and may have impact in the origin country. New meanings of intergenerational transmission and relationships. New possibilities of alliances New choices New visions of the migration and the roles of the women.

Rsum


Les rseaux transnationaux des familles immigrantes et rfugies jouent des rles de soutien, dentraide et dinformation tant auprs de leurs membres dans les pays dimmigration quauprs de ceux qui sont rests dans les pays de dpart. partir de recherches menes sur plusieurs gnrations de femmes rfugies au Qubec et provenant de Colombie, Salvador, de lAfrique des Grands Lacs et dex Yougoslavie, nous nous intresserons plus spcifiquement trois points : 1) la mthodologie interculturelle mettre en uvre pour accder ces rseaux, les analyser et leur transmettre le fruit des recherches; 2) lanalyse des savoirs transmis et co-construits au sein de ces rseaux entre les diffrentes cognrations de femmes rfugies et ce de manire locale et transnationale. Nous identifierons plus spcifiquement ces savoirs sur le plan de la sant et du dveloppement des femmes. 3) le portrait des stratgies de soin des femmes rfugies selon leur pays dorigine et les rseaux transnationaux qui sy dploient mais aussi selon les types de changement social et culturel quelles construisent tant dans le pays daccueil que dans le pays de dpart. Nous rfrerons autant au soin delles mmes quau soin des membres de leur famille ici et l bas. Nous conclurons sur limportance dune rflexion transnationale pour mieux saisir les changements intergnrationnels et pour soutenir rellement les femmes dans les actions de soins quelles mettent en uvre au quotidien.

Resumen


Las redes transnacionales de familias immigrantes y refugiadas juegan roles de apoyo, de ayuda y de informacin tanto para los miembros de la familia que estn en el pas de acogida que para los miembros de la familia que se quedaron en el pas de origen. A partir de investigaciones llevadas a cabo sobre varias generaciones de mujeres refugiadas provenientes de Colombia, Salvador, de Grandes Lagos en Africa y de la ExYougoslavia, y residentes actualmente en Quebec, nosotros nos interesamos principalmente a tres aspectos: 1) La metodologa intercultural a utilizar por acceder a estas redes, analizarlas y transmitirles el fruto de la investigacin. 2) EL anlisis de saberes transmitidos y co-construidos en el seno de estas redes entre las diferentes cogeneraciones de mujeres refugiadas tanto de manera local que transnacional. Identificaremos especficamente los saberes sobre el rea de la salud y del desarrollo de las mujeres. 3) La estrategias de cuidado de las mujeres refugiadas segn su pas de origen y las redes transnacionales que se utilizan teniendo en cuenta tambin los tipos de cambios sociales y culturales que ellas construyen tanto en el pas de de acogida como en el pas de origen. Haremos referencia tanto al cuidado de ellas mismas que de los miembros de su familia aqu en Quebec y en sus pases. Concluiremos remarcando la importancia de una reflexin transnacional para comprender y discernir mejor los cambios intergeneracionales y para apoyar realmente a las mujeres en las acciones de cuidados que ellas realizan en su vida cotidiana.