Research Project Revisiting Personal is Political:
Immigrant Women’s Health Promotion
Collaborative project between the Faculty of Nursing, University of
Toronto and Women’s Health in Women’s Hands Community Health
Centre (WHIWH)
Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
Principal Investigator: Denise Gastaldo
Co-Investigators: Nazilla Khanlou, Notisha Massaquoi, Deone Curling
Research Coordinator: Amoaba Gooden
Introduction
Study undertaken between Sept 02-Dec 04
 Two phases

1st – focus groups with 33 recent immigrant
women
 2nd – PAR with 13 participants

Methodology

The 1st phase was exploratory
using focus groups with immigrant
and refugee women from various
cultural backgrounds to examine
their perception of their health in the
context of displacement and gender
relations, and the strategies and
resources they employed to
promote their own health.
Methodology (2)

The 2nd phase was participatory and actionoriented. Participants were recent
immigrants who met bi-weekly to discuss
their experiences. Particular attention was
paid to place and gender as analytical
categories. In the last part of the project, the
action phase, the participants and
researchers put together the knowledge
collectively created and produced
information for other immigrants in the
format of a webpage, a poetry book, and a
video.
Difficulties in the Action Phase





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Participatory phases: easy, “natural”
experience
3-month action phase: Resistance,
participants felt de-skilled
Strategies used: identifying skills and
knowledge (18 languages, artistic, practical,
and academic knowledge)
Researchers acted as resource persons
Work in small groups to facilitate interactions
No budget to cover all initiatives
Results
Three main analytical categories:

Experiences of displacement

Becoming an immigrant

Limits to empowerment
Experiences of Displacement


In my country I was
happy, I was loved.
I had a house, a
car, and many
friends.
In Toronto, I live in
a 2nd floor, 2bedroom apartment
with balcony.
On Strength (incomplete)
I used to be happy, lively,
But now something has
changed
It’s not the same me I used to
be at home
Oh no
Not at all
First of all, I’m not doing a job
I feel I should be doing
Willing to start it
Make sure that at least I get a
job,
Which will make me happy
So that rules my life
So I want to do something
Which I’ll feel good about
myself
So I’m no longer myself at
all
I’m a different person totally
A different person
Yes, but I try to pretend I am
happy, but right now…
I’m not
So many changes
So it’s not the me...
I used to know myself as I
am, but…
Good Test
When I’m given a good test,
I’m very happy
When I learn English,
I’m very happy
If I’m learning… learning is good
Then I have a good job
For a better life
Because of this very good country
I can go to school,
I can learn, um, higher school and university…
When I no problem with English
I’m going to learn
Because I’m very like learning and education
Becoming an immigrant



In 2 or 3 years in Toronto, no participant had
found a job equivalent to her degree of
preparation.
Those who experienced the intersections of
gender, race, aging or disability were
unemployed or had particularly bad jobs.
The explanation for the phenomenon of
underemployment or unemployment was the
participants’ level of fluency in English.
Language was seen as the main tool for
social and economic inclusion.
The bridge
Immigration is like entering a bridge
When you get onto a bridge, you know there is an entrance
and an exit
My problem is that I got onto the bridge,
However I don’t know whether I am at
The beginning, the middle
Or the end of the bridge
I also don’t know where the bridge will take me
I feel anxious; I don’t know how much longer I have to keep
going
I can’t tell if I am just at the beginning or if I am almost out of
the bridge
My only hope is to reach the end; this is what keeps me
moving
But this is such a hard process
I never thought the bridge was this long
Others see, others don’t
see, we see
When people look at us they see new immigrants
We look like new immigrants because of our appearance,
Our physical features, our accents
Some think we are competition for jobs
Others see us as perfect to do the jobs Canadians don’t want
to do
Also, people don’t see what we bring
Our degree of preparation
We see ourselves as people with many capacities
People with good training who face challenges in Canada
We see ourselves as friendly, warm people who can offer a lot
to this country
We also see we are not used according to our potential, our
talents
Canada is losing big time
Three strategies
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Poems written by the researcher:


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Poems’ themes selected by the participants and
organized by the researcher:


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Previous project – interpretation of verbatim
English (SL) not corrected
Very close to verbatim
Limited to themes participants identified as
central to explain their experiences
Poems written by the participants:


7 poems; translated; not so pedagogical
Greater importance to authors
Challenges
Deciding what can be considered
art/poetry + what is useful
 Identifying emotion in the verbatim (only
negative feelings?)
 Disliking others’ poetry
 Negotiating styles due to academic
purposes
 Funding (CIHR call)

Poetry website
Free download at:
www.nursing.utoronto.ca/immigrationguide/
30_poems_by_recent_immigrant_women
OR
www.nursing.utoronto.ca/immigrationguide
Click link to Poetry Book