Critical Analysis Students develop their own critical analysis of three assigned readings (covered prior to the due date). Articles and chapters can be taken from multiple topics to compare and contr

Canada’s immigrant population continues to grow. In the 2016 census immi- grants made up 21.9% of the population; that number is expected to rise to 28.2% by 2036 (Statistics Canada, 2017). Women make up 52.4% of the current immigrant population in Canada, compared to 47.6% men (Statistics C anada, 2018a). The predominance of female immigrants in Canada is consistent with the gender pattern worldwide, especially since the beginning of the Syrian refu - gee crisis (UNICEF, 2018). Internationally, women make up 48% of all m igrants (United Nations, 2017). The main cities that attract Canadian immigrant women are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, with the remainder spread across other parts of the country (Statistics Canada, 2017). A unique feature of the Canad - ian population profile is that one out of three of the 22.3% who are racialized are new immigrants (Statistics Canada, 2017). Currently the majority of immi - grants come from South Asia along with the Philippines and China (Statistics Canada, 2017). In 2018, 59.9% of Canadian immigrants were employed and 6.1% were un - employed (Statistics Canada, 2018b). Immigrant women were employed at a rate of 54.5%, compared to 65.8% of men (Statistics Canada, 2018b). The unemploy - ment rate was 6.4% for women and 5.7% for men (Statistics Canada, 2018b).

Thus, more immigrant men than women are part of the labour force, whether employed or searching for work.

C HAP TER   5 immigrant Women’s Work: Paid and Unpaid l a bour in the n e oliberal e c onomy Leslie Nichols, Vappu Tyyskä, and Pramila Aggarwal Working_Women.indd 95 09/08/19 2:15 PM Working Women in Canada : An Intersectional Approach, edited by Leslie Nichols, Canadian Scholars, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/umanitoba/detail.action?docID=6282096.

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Copyright © 2019. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. 96  Working Women in Canada Many studies have found that immigrant women tend to work in survival forms of employment with low wages, little guarantee of regular employment, few benefits, and little job security (Nichols, 2018; Premji & Shakya, 2017; Premji, Shakya, Spasevski, Merolli, & Athar, 2014). Immigrant women often accept survival jobs to support the family while their husbands search for employment or become accredited in their profession in Canada. Immigrant women often experience underemployment and unemployment as well as difficulties finding work due to deskilling, rejection of their foreign credentials by potential employ - ers, discrimination, language barriers, lack of access to professional services such as job networks and workshops, and their immigration status (Premji & Shakya, 2017; Premji et al., 2014). Almost half of immigrant women work in sales, ser - vice, business, finance, and administration (Hudon, 2015), pointing to a lack of support for immigrant women in science, technology, engineering, and math - ematics (STEM) careers (Muzaffar, 2017). Immigrant women’s ability to improve their employment situation with full-time work or searching for better-paid work is compromised by the ex - pectation that they will do all or most of household labour, resulting in time poverty (Nichols, Etemadi, & Ty yskä, 2018). At the same time, social supports for settlement and employment have been cut back during the neoliberal era ( Nichols, 2016; Nichols et al., 2018). This chapter explores immigrant women’s experience of paid and unpaid work through an intersectional lens, considering how they are impacted by their race, immigration status, migration stream, low socioeconomic status, age, and racialized status. The chapter begins with an understanding of how the concept of immigrant women has been socially constructed since Canada’s colonial hist - ory, followed by an account of the connections between wage work and the fam - ily life of immigrant women. THE S OC IAL C ONS TRUCTION OF I M MIGRANT W OM EN How immigrant women are viewed by the society around them has a major im - pact on their integration into the labour force and their success there. Limiting stereotypes of Canadian immigrant women have been entrenched from the cre - ation of the nation-state to the current immigration policy. In Canada’s founding years, British women were considered the ideal “mothers of the nation” (Folson, 2004; Guo, 2009) to help expand the country: “The nation was the home and the home was the women; all were best British” (Roberts, 1979, p. 201). Through this ideology, immigrant and racialized women were othered. Over time, the Working_Women.indd 96 09/08/19 2:15 PM Working Women in Canada : An Intersectional Approach, edited by Leslie Nichols, Canadian Scholars, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/umanitoba/detail.action?docID=6282096.

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Copyright © 2019. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. Chapter 5  im migrant Women’s Work: p a id and Unpaid Labour in the n e oliberal e c onomy  97 term immigrant woman came to include any woman who did not fit the image of the ideal British lady, making any racialized woman appear to be an immigrant woman (Nichols & Ty yskä, 2015). This ideal of white British women formed the basis of Canada’s early immi - gration policy as racialized non-British women were denied entry in an effort to keep Canada white (Folson, 2004). While Chinese men were recruited to build the first transcontinental railroad in the 1880s, their wives were not allowed to accompany them (Das Gupta, 2000). South Asian women were denied entry into Canada in the early 20th century due to fears that they would set up families and increase the nonwhite population (Dua, 2004). Othering of immigrants—the practice of excluding people by labelling them as outsiders to a dominant social group—continued well into the time when women were allowed to migrate to Canada and work here. For the first part of the 20th century immigration policy favoured British and Finnish do - mestic workers (Das Gupta, 2000) because they fit the stereotype of the Can - adian woman. In the second half of the 20th century, the immigration system allowed Caribbean women to enter Canada as domestic workers, but they were not granted permanent residency like their white precursors. In 1981 the policy was changed to allow these domestic workers to apply for permanent status after two years of employment. The implication that they were less desirable than other immigrants was clear. The view of immigrant women as less desirable continues to impact them today across a wide range of employment fields as they experience discrimination and racism in their job search (Nichols, 2018), as well as exploitation on the job due to their immigrant status and cultural background.

THE I M PACT OF N E OLIBERALISM ON I M MIGRANT  W OM EN Neoliberalism—the “hands-off ” policy characterized by a reduced role for gov - ernment in regulating the economy and employment and declining support for citizens’ social and economic needs that has been in force across the West since the 1980s—has had profound impacts for all workers. Scott-Marshall (2007, p. 22) cites these impacts of neoliberalism:

1. D eskilling: the elimination of skilled jobs by hiring unskilled workers or using technolog y 2.

D ecreased full-time jobs Working_Women.indd 97 09/08/19 2:15 PM Working Women in Canada : An Intersectional Approach, edited by Leslie Nichols, Canadian Scholars, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/umanitoba/detail.action?docID=6282096.

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Copyright © 2019. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. 98  Working Women in Canada 3. W age stagnation 4. A n increase in precarious employment (part-time, temporary jobs) 5.

F ewer promotion opportunities 6.

A n increase in overtime hours so that employers can hire fewer employees Immigrant women confront those issues associated with neoliberalism and others as well. Under neoliberalism, funding for immigrant settlement services such as job and language training and assistance finding housing and employment has been reduced. In 2010 the national budget for Citizenship and Immigration Canada for immigrant settlement services was cut by $53 million (Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants [OCASI], n.d.). The OCASI 2016 report on the impact of settlement services funding cuts noted that from 2014/2015 to 2015/2016, 47 agencies or 69% reported funding cuts, with one organization suffering the largest cut of $640,000. The lost funding resulted in employee layoffs, salary cuts by way of reduced hours, and intensified worker stress due to increased workload (OCASI, 2016). Those who lost their employ - ment were most frequently full-time employees working as program or support staff, who are an essential resource for immigrants through their settlement period. These cuts reflect a pervasive view of immigrants as a burden on the C anadian state and its resources, even though it is also widely acknowledged that immigrants are essential to growing the Canadian economy. Funding for settlement services has changed from ethno-specific organiza - tions to large multi-ethnic organizations, which are more successful in compet - ing for funds from shrinking sources, leaving smaller agencies struggling to find funding and to meet the needs of specific immigrant populations (Ku, 2011).

Mohsinni (2017) examined the case of a small ethno-specific agency in Toronto called the Afghan Women’s Organization, whose mission is to support refugees and women. She found that many immigrant women prefer gender-specific pro - gramming, including language classes, due to their greater comfort with other women and with being served by an agency that supports their specific cultural and language needs. This agency receives 90% of its funding from the federal government. As funding has been reduced while the demand for services has simultaneously increased, agencies like the Afghan Women’s Organization have experienced financial strain. Settlement agencies are important for economic integration of newcomers because they provide immigrants with cultural knowledge, contacts with the local community, and instruction in job-hunting strategies. Agencies’ success at Working_Women.indd 98 09/08/19 2:15 PM Working Women in Canada : An Intersectional Approach, edited by Leslie Nichols, Canadian Scholars, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/umanitoba/detail.action?docID=6282096.

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Copyright © 2019. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. Chapter 5  im migrant Women’s Work: p a id and Unpaid Labour in the n e oliberal e c onomy  99 achieving this is compromised by lack of funding, the short duration of services, and a focus on women’s domestic duties rather than job skills in settlement pro- grams, which has the effect of channelling them into cheap precarious labour.

In these ways, inadequate settlement programs may reinforce the devaluation of immigrant women’s skills (Creese & Wiebe, 2012). Thus, neoliberalism has negatively impacted immigrant women’s employ - ment opportunities through both direct impacts on the labour market and a reduction of the support systems they need to obtain better employment in a challenging labour market.

GENDER AND I M MIGRATION C A TEGORIES In the 1960s Canada finally ended its policy of designating immigrants as desir - able according to their country, religion, and other traits—which inevitably in - cluded race, even if that was not acknowledged—and adopted a new system that aimed to identify immigrants who had skills that would benefit the C anadian economy. The need for skilled workers has become increasingly urgent as the Canadian population ages and the birth rate declines. In 1967 a point system was instituted to evaluate immigrants’ economic potential based on factors such as their education, work experience, and language skills. While this system appears well reasoned on the surface, the mechanisms of the policy continue the trad - ition of viewing some immigrants, namely men, as more desirable than others. In the economic immigration class, one spouse is designated as the primary applicant and the other spouse and children are admitted as dependents. In the majority of cases, the husband is the primary applicant. This aspect of the immi - gration policy has important repercussions, because only the skills of the primary applicant are evaluated, reflecting a belief that only men will make a significant contribution to the Canadian economy. Women are considered on par with chil - dren, implying that they have no more economic value than children. In fact the government is wholly unaware of what immigrant women might bring to the economy beyond their roles as wives and mothers, because no effort is made to inquire about their skills. Entering Canada as dependents has long-term impacts on immigrant wom - en’s daily life and their labour market experience. Canadian immigration policy r epeats and reinforces traditional gender biases at work in this country and in many immigrant countries of origin, whereby men work and women perform unpaid household labour. Thus, it is not surprising that dependent applicants do not suc - ceed in improving their employment status over time (Banerjee & Phan, 2015). Working_Women.indd 99 09/08/19 2:15 PM Working Women in Canada : An Intersectional Approach, edited by Leslie Nichols, Canadian Scholars, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/umanitoba/detail.action?docID=6282096.

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Copyright © 2019. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. 100  Working Women in Canada One explanation for this is that because the husband ’s economic progress is pri - oritized, the wife will take on survival employment to support the family while the husband does the “more important” work of attending school or job training programs or searching for professional employment. If he is successful in that, the wife may reduce her work hours or leave the labour market altogether. When men are favoured during the immigration process, the message to women and men is that women’s work is less important than their husband ’s.

In a time of escalating refugee migration to Canada, as has occurred during the Syrian civil war, settlement resources become severely strained, limiting the support available to immigrant women to improve their economic prospects. If immigration policy were changed to evaluate the skills of both male and female applicants in the economic class, without dividing them into primary and sec - ondary applicants, the government would be better able to assess the support needs of all applicants.

DES k I LLING AND P R ECARIOUS E M PLOYMENT A major hardship for immigrants is employers’ rejection of the education and experience that they acquired in their home country due to a belief that their foreign credentials and knowledge are not on par with Canadian standards. This reinforces the perception that immigrants are different (othering) and contrib - utes to exploitation in the labour market. In Canada there are five organizations that evaluate foreign credentials based on “level and type of learning; duration of study program; status of issu - ing institutions; the education system of the country concerned; and authentic - ity, currency, relevance, trustworthiness, and transferability of credential ” (Guo, 2009, p. 42). Guo found that these organizations assess immigrants’ credentials inconsistently and that even when immigrants present verified credentials, this does not necessarily lead to employment or licensing in their profession. While deskilling can happen to any immigrant, Guo (2009) writes that “the category of immigrant women has served to commodify these workers, reinforc - ing their class position in providing cheap, docile labour to their employers under the watchful eyes of the state and under exploitive conditions that are often permeated with racism and sexism” (p. 44). Deskilling is a greater risk for immi - grant women because their education and credentials are not as valued as men’s to begin with. Moreover, not all immigrant women are treated in the same way.

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Copyright © 2019. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. Chapter 5  im migrant Women’s Work: p a id and Unpaid Labour in the n e oliberal e c onomy  101 are able to regain their previous professional status in Canada (Guo, 2009). Others face deskilling due to their country of origin, gender, and race, continuing the pattern of devaluing them that begins during their application for immigration (Man, 20 0 4). When educated immigrants migrate en masse, it creates a “ brain drain” that impacts the economy and society of the home country. Ironically, these same i mmigrants are then relegated to deskilled jobs in Canada for which they are overqualified. Deskilling forces many immigrant women into precarious part- time or temporary jobs (Man, 2004) with low wages and limited or no benefits, few chances for advancement, and a lack of government oversight of working conditions (PEPSO, 2018). Close to half of recent women immigrants are pre - cariously employed (Noack & Vosko, 2011). Immigrant women suffer broadly from low-wage employment. On average Canadian women face a 30% gender wage gap, increasing to 39% for immigrant women (Faraday, 2017). The gender wage gap varies by country of origin as in some countries cultural norms dictate that women are not educated and work only in the home (Frank & Huo, 2015).

Ex P LOITATION ON THE J OB Many scholars have found evidence that immigrant women are exploited in the labour market (Nichols, 2018; Nichols & Ty yskä, 2015; Premji et al., 2014). Their exploitation is related to both their precarious employment and discrimi n ation.

Gottfried et al. (2016) studied East Toronto immigrants and reported that dif - ficulties with language comprehension can lead to exploitation when employ - ers use immigrants’ lack of English comprehension to violate employment laws, such as by denying employees breaks and vacation pay. They found that exploi - t ation often pushes immigrants into the underground or shadow economy, where cash payments for wages are difficult or impossible to track, making employ - ees ineligible for some government programs, such as Employment Insurance.

Aktar, Topkara-Sarsu, and Dyson’s 2013 study on the shadow economy in the east end of Toronto found that 38% of immigrants faced bullying or harassment in the workplace. Many scholars and think tanks have reported on the failure of employers to comply with employment standards for newcomers (Aktar et al., 2013; G ottfried et al., 2016). Studies have documented the lack of compliance specifically in the case of immigrant women (Dlamini, Anucha, & Wolfe, 2012; Nichols, 2018).

Employers use immigrants’ lack of awareness of their employee rights to exploit Working_Women.indd 101 09/08/19 2:15 PM Working Women in Canada : An Intersectional Approach, edited by Leslie Nichols, Canadian Scholars, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/umanitoba/detail.action?docID=6282096.

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Copyright © 2019. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. 102  Working Women in Canada workers (Gottfried et al., 2016). Similarly Aktar, Topkara-Sarsu, and Dyson (2013) reported key statistics from their study of 453 newcomer households in the east end of Toronto. They found that 41% experienced violations of employ - ment standards and that knowledge of employment standards was poor: 48% did not know how many days of vacation they deserved, 34% did not know that injured workers were entitled to benefits, and 16% did not know the min - imum wage. More than half of study participants said that they would not report health and safety violations due to potential impacts on their employment. In a study of newcomer women in the Greater Toronto Area (Nichols, 2018), 7 out of 30 participants were not aware of any drawbacks of being paid under the table. They believed, as their employer told them, that they would earn more with unreported cash payments. They did not understand that failing to report their wages to the government meant that they were ineligible for supports such as Employment Insurance (see also Nichols, 2016). Dlamini, Anucha, and Wolfe (2012) explored employment violations against immigrant women in Windsor, Ontario. They found that the overwhelming majority of immigrant women (35 out of 37) would not report unfair labour practices due to fear of being fired.

DOMESTIC W OR kE RS Immigrant women have a long history of migrating to Canada as domestic work - ers, beginning with British and Finnish domestics who were granted permanent residency in the early 1900s. From World War II to the 1970s Caribbean women came to Canada under the Caribbean Domestic Scheme. They could apply for landed status (now called permanent residency) after one year of live-in domes - tic work. From 1973 to 1981 a new program, the Temporary Authorization Program, was instituted to recruit Filipino women, who were granted tempo - r ary status and no citizenship. From 1981 to 1992, under the Foreign Domestic Movement Program, Filipino women could apply for permanent residency after two years of domestic work. From 1992 to 2014 the program was opened to other countries under the same regulations and renamed the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP; Hsiung & Nichol, 2010). There has been a sustained need for domestic childcare workers in Canada due to the lack of a universal childcare program. Canadians have long relied on women from the Global South to care for their children, most recently under the government-run Caregiver Program (Salami, 2016). In 2014 there were 16,238 permitted immigrant caregivers (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 2014). Working_Women.indd 102 09/08/19 2:15 PM Working Women in Canada : An Intersectional Approach, edited by Leslie Nichols, Canadian Scholars, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/umanitoba/detail.action?docID=6282096.

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Copyright © 2019. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. Chapter 5  im migrant Women’s Work: pa id and Unpaid Labour in the n e oliberal ec onomy  103 Immigrant women serving as caregivers experience labour exploitation such as being forced to work overtime without pay and being on-call around the clock, seven days a week. When they complete their domestic contract they experi - ence further inequality in the Canadian labour market as a result of “stigmatiza - tion, having to take costly educational upgrading courses while simultaneously working in ‘survival jobs,’ and having to be their families’ sole breadwinner” ( Tungohan et al., 2015, p. 87). In order to be eligible for permanent residency, care workers in the LCP were required to live and work in their employer’s home for 24 months over a four-year period, leaving women vulnerable to violations of their privacy and their person and exploitive working conditions. This popula - tion of domestic workers consisted of younger women, as the program require - ments included an age restriction of 18 to 40 years old. Prokopenko and Hou (2018) report that 86.9% of live-in caregivers become permanent residents, while 12.6% leave C anada within 10 years of their arrival. Following the acknowledge- ment of abuse and exploitation by employers and recruiters in the LCP, the most r ecent Caregiver Program, which expired in November 2018, was divided into two streams, one for workers who cared for adults and one for childcare workers ( Salami, 2016). The program allowed caregivers to live in or out of their e mployers’ home and to work in health-care institutions like long-term care facilities. Domestic work in Canada is highly racialized (Hsiung & Nichol, 2010).

Caribbean women first entered Canada under immigration policies such as the 1910 Caribbean Domestic Scheme and the 1955 Household Service Work - ers Scheme. Entry in other categories was very limited due to the perception that Caribbean women “were or would become single parents and likely wel - fare r ecipients” ( James, 2009, p. 95). While these domestic worker schemes have since been eliminated, their legacy has been the construction of Caribbean immigrant women as low-skilled domestic workers. As James (2009) writes, “Despite more than a quarter century since [the] elimination [of these programs], many African-Caribbean Canadian women continue to work as caregivers and unskilled employees” (p. 96) regardless of how much education they have. The global care chain provides a theoretical explanation of domestic worker migration (Salami & Nelson, 2014). Fudge (2011) defines global care chains as “transnational networks that are formed for the purpose of maintaining daily life. These networks comprise households that transfer their caregiving tasks across borders” (p. 240). Female domestic workers are extracted from the South by the North in an unequal distribution of wealth and racial equality (Salami & Nelson, 2014). For example, Filipino women enter Canada through the Care - giver Program to take care of Canadian families, but they still must financially Working_Women.indd 103 09/08/19 2:15 PM Working Women in Canada : An Intersectional Approach, edited by Leslie Nichols, Canadian Scholars, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/umanitoba/detail.action?docID=6282096.

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Copyright © 2019. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. 104  Working Women in Canada support their families back in the Philippines and find others to care for their own children, from whom they are separated for long periods before being able to reunite with them.

UNPAID H O USEHOLD L A BOUR AND T I ME P OvE RTY Immigrant women’s economic prospects are greatly impacted by having to do “double shifts,” working at paid jobs and also performing many hours a week of unpaid household labour. Native-born Canadian women labour under similar conditions, performing more household labour than their husbands even when both are employed (Nichols et al., 2018). But immigrant women sometimes deal with stronger cultural gender norms as well as extra demands imposed by their family structure.

Immigrant families are often modelled on the multigenerational extended family rather than the Western nuclear family. An immigrant household may house multiple families and generations in the same dwelling, with a strong presence of grandparents and in-laws. Although a larger household may mean that more adults are available to care for children, that advantage is sometimes offset by the cultural expectation that women will care for their husband, in-laws, parents, and grandparents, all while working part-time or full-time. This results in time povert y (Nichols et al., 2018)—a lack of time for self-care, education, social activities, and leisure in addition to performing required tasks. In a 2018 study (Nichols et al., 2018) in the Toronto area, Pakistani immigrant women reported doing 21 to 28 hours a week of unpaid household labour, compared to 14 hours a week for native-born Canadian women, even though they spent less time on childcare than native Canadian women. Much of their time at home was spent caring for in-laws and preparing elaborate Pakistani meals. Time poverty is not only about lack of leisure for immigrant women.

When unpaid household labour becomes excessive, these women are unable to improve their job prospects through education and training programs or the time-consuming task of job hunting. Like all women, they then risk becom - ing dependent on male earners and trapped in unsafe relationships (Nichols & Ty y s k ä , 2 0 1 5 ) . Grandmothers are a case of two-way exploitation. As mentioned, i mmigrant women may be required by cultural norms to care for grandparents; however, some grandmothers are brought to Canada by their families who are established here for the specific purpose of providing unpaid childcare for their grandchil - dren (Nichols, 2016). Aggarwal and Das Gupta (2013) studied Sikh Punjabi Working_Women.indd 104 09/08/19 2:15 PM Working Women in Canada : An Intersectional Approach, edited by Leslie Nichols, Canadian Scholars, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/umanitoba/detail.action?docID=6282096.

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Copyright © 2019. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. Chapter 5  im migrant Women’s Work: p a id and Unpaid Labour in the n e oliberal e c onomy  105 grandmothers in Toronto who were sponsored by their adult children. They found that these women “effectively [became] unpaid ‘live-in caregivers’ for their families who cannot afford daycare fees” (p. 81). The fact that immigrant P akistani women report doing fewer childcare hours than native-born Canadian women (Nichols, 2018) points to the shifting of this task to grandmothers, who are under the same cultural pressures to supply this labour as their daughters and daughters-in-law despite their advanced age. The outcome in both cases is that immigrant men have more time than women for major life activities and eco - nomic advancement. This situation highlights difficult issues surrounding, on the one hand, respect for cultural norms of other countries and, on the other hand, Canadian values of freedom and equality for women. Yet native-born Canadian women struggle with a similar disconnect between values, laws, and family practices as they try to balance their desire for the satisfaction and economic independ - ence that come from meaningful work against continuing gender practices that reinforce their inequality in the workplace and in the home.

CONCLUSION For immigrants, work is essential for survival in their new host country. While both immigrant men and women’s work experience in Canada is impacted by restrictive Canadian immigration policies emphasizing social capital , women are uniquely disadvantaged by immigration policies. The majority of immigrant women migrate to Canada as dependents, and their status and employment suc - cess are commonly dependent on their male partner. The immigration point sys - tem has the effect of dividing men and women into “primary” and “dependent” categories and works against socioeconomic equality for immigrant women. As a result, their preexisting professional status may be downgraded or hidden, and they often take on low-wage survival forms of employment in addition to their unpaid household labour. While a large percentage of Canadian women struggle with reactionary s ocial attitudes around their roles in the home and the workplace that are slow to change despite gender equality laws, immigrant women bear added burdens related to deskilling, rejection of their previous training and experience, race, religion, language, culture, and family structure that trap them in low-wage jobs and make them vulnerable to exploitation by employers. The predominance of neoliberal social and economic policies in Canada, as in other countries of the Global North, opens a large precarious space in the labour market that is often Working_Women.indd 105 09/08/19 2:15 PM Working Women in Canada : An Intersectional Approach, edited by Leslie Nichols, Canadian Scholars, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/umanitoba/detail.action?docID=6282096.

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Copyright © 2019. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. 106  Working Women in Canada filled by immigrant women. The immigrant woman’s individual ambition and effort may not be sufficient to overcome these obstacles in a system designed to benefit the traditional individual and corporate holders of wealth and power.

kEY R EADINGS Fudge, J. (2011). Global care chains, employment agencies, and the conundrum of jurisdic - tion: Decent work for domestic workers in Canada. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law , 23(1), 2 35 –2 6 4 .

Hudon, T. (2015). Immigrant women. In Women in Canada: A gender-based statistical report (7th ed.). Retrieved from http://w w w.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-03x/2015001/article/14217- eng.htm Nichols, L. (2018). Newcomer women’s experience of immigration and precarious work in Toronto. Women’s Health and Urban Life , 14(1), 7–3 0 .

DISCUSSION Q UE STIONS 1. W hy is it important that we reflect on the work of older women and grandmothers in a discussion about racialized and immigrant women workers?

2.

H ow has usage of the term immigrant woman changed in the last few decades in C anada?

What led to these changes?

3.

H ow do race and culture impact immigrant women’s work experience?

4.

W ith respect to work, how should we deal with conflicts bet ween the aspirations and rights of Canadian women and gender norms in other countries? Do you think Canada should accommodate gender norms of other countries that impact immigrant women’s work, or should we encourage immigrants to adopt Canadian norms?

REFERENCES Aggar wal, P., & Das Gupta, T. (2013). Conversations with Sikh Punjabi grandmothers in Toronto. South Asian Diaspora , 5(1), 7 7–9 0 .

Aktar, N., Topkara-Sarsu, S., & Dyson, D. (2013). Shadow economies: Economic survival strategies of Toronto immigrant communities . Toronto: Wellesley Institute. Retrieved from http://w w w.wellesleyinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Shadow-Economies- FINAL.pdf Banerjee, R., & Phan, M. B. (2015). Do tied movers get tied down? The occupational dis - placement of dependent applicant immigrants in Canada. Journal of International Mi - gration and Integration , 16(2), 333 –353. doi:10.10 07/s12134- 014- 0341-9 Working_Women.indd 106 09/08/19 2:15 PM Working Women in Canada : An Intersectional Approach, edited by Leslie Nichols, Canadian Scholars, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/umanitoba/detail.action?docID=6282096.

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Copyright © 2019. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. Chapter 5  im migrant Women’s Work: p a id and Unpaid Labour in the n e oliberal e c onomy  107 Citizenship and Immigration Canada. (2014). Canada facts and figures: Immigration over- view; Temporary residents. Ottawa: Author. Retrieved from http://w w w.cic.gc.ca/ e nglish/pdf/2014-Facts-Figures-Temporary.pdf Creese, G., & Wiebe, B. (2012). “Survival employment”: Gender and deskilling among African immigrants in Canada. International Migration , 50(5), 56 –76.

Das Gupta, T. (2000). Families of Native peoples, immigrants and people of colour. In B. Crow & L. Gotell (Eds.), Open boundaries: A Canadian women’s studies reader (pp. 215–230). Toronto: Prentice Hall Canada.

Dlamini, N., Anucha, U., & Wolfe, B. (2012). Negotiated positions: Immigrant women’s views and experiences of employment in Canada. Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Wo rk , 27(4), 420 –434.

Dua, E. (2004). “The Hindu woman’s question”: Canadian nation building and the social construction of gender for South Asian-Canadian women. In A. Calliste & G. J. Sefa Dei (Eds.), Anti-racist feminism: Critical race and gender studies (pp. 55–72). Halifa x:

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Copyright © 2019. Canadian Scholars. All rights reserved. Working_Women.indd 110 09/08/19 2:15 PMWorking Women in Canada : An Intersectional Approach, edited by Leslie Nichols, Canadian Scholars, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/umanitoba/detail.action?docID=6282096.

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