The Lived Experiences of Aging Immigrants A Narrative

104 Pages·2017·10.25 MB·English

The Lived Experiences of Aging Immigrants
A Narrative-Photovoice Project
2014-2017

Shari Brotman
Sharon Koehn
Ilyan Ferrer

May 11, 2017

© 2017 S. Brotman, S. Koehn & I. Ferrer

www.mcgill.ca/soc-gerontology/research

1
© 2017 S. Brotman, S. Koehn & I. Ferrer
McGill School of Social Work

2
The lived experiences of aging immigrants:
a narrative-photovoice study

ﯽﺳﺎﮑﻋ و شﺮﮕﻧ لﻮﻤﺸﻣ هدرﻮﺨﻟﺎﺳ ﻦﯾﺮﺟﺎﮭﻣ برﺎﺠﺗ

Les expériences de personnes âgées immigrantes:
Une étude narrative - « photovoix »

Las Experiencias vitales de inmigrantes ancianos
Un Proyecto de foto-narraciones

Ang mga karanasan ng mga tumatandang Pilipinong nangingibang lupain:
proyektong sanaysay mula sa mga litrato

گرزﺑ نﯾرﺟﺎﮩﻣ ﮯﮐ ﯽﺷﺋﺎﮨر تﺎﺑرﺟﺗ : یرﯾوﺻﺗ نﺎﯾﺑ

This project was funded by an Insight
Development Grant from the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada,
project # 430-2014-00506

3
4
This project is brought to you by…

Investigators

Shari Brotman, McGill School of Social Work
Sharon Koehn, Department of Gerontology Simon Fraser University
Ilyan Ferrer, University of Calgary Faculty of Social Work

Research Team

Quebec
Kaylee Sohng, Shimmon Hutchinson, Alexandra Lang, Nina Hermes, Nauveen Dubash,
Syeda Bukhari, Pascual Delgado, Jassie Badion, Denis Dubé, Kharoll-Ann Souffrant,
Marjorie Aude Rabiau

British Columbia
Melissa Badger, Neville Li, Latifah Jawansheer, Maria Sanhueza, Eun Jung Oh,
Anita Nieveras-Aguirre

Advisory Groups

Quebec
Caroline Bouchard (Le Réseau FADOQ)
Syeda Bukhari (diversity consultant)
Pascual Delgado (Alliance des communautés culturelles pour l’égalité dans la santé et
services sociaux ACCESSS)
Cecilia Diocson (National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada)
Christine Kabayiza (Appui Montreal)
Emmanuel Sayo (National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada)

British Columbia
James Broesch (Population Health, Vancouver Coastal Health)
Mhairi Campbell (West End Seniors’ Network (WESN))
Clemencia Gomez (South Granville Seniors)
Joanna Habdank (Coordinator of Community Outreach Program, MOSAIC)
Krista James (Canadian Centre for Elder Law)
Anthony Kupferschmidt (WESN & City of Vancouver Seniors’ Advisory Council)
Kahir Lalji (Better at Home Project, United Way)
Shabnam Sadeqi (Afghan seniors’ coordinator-Immigrant Services Society of BC)

We are affiliated with the following Quebec research teams:

5
6
Table of contents…

Introduction 9

Objectives 10

Methods & Framework 11

A word about the stories that follow… 13

Portraits of participants 15

Quebec 17

Donicia 19

Isabel 20

Shabnam 22

Cesar 24

Ann 27

Mercedes 28

Yulha 30

Ken 32

Rafi 34

Son Chan Mi 36

British Columbia 39

Malena 40

Julio 42
7
Divine 44

Azim 46

Kim Young Chul 48

Farzana 50

Maleeha 52

Son Jung Suk 54

Robert 56

Themes 59

Housing and transportation 61

Precarious employment 67

Trauma of the past 73

Family and care 79

Community engagement 85

Resilience 91

Final reflections… 99

8
Introduction…

Immigrant seniors have unique and important stories to share about aging in
Canada. They have demonstrated strength and resilience in the face of many
challenges throughout their lives. The process of immigration shapes their
experiences over the life course and into old age. This is true whether they
immigrated in the past as young adults or more recently, and whether they came
to Canada as independent class immigrants, refugees, temporary workers, live-in
caregivers or sponsored members of families. Immigrant seniors living in Canada
have much to teach us.

Despite our rich history of immigration in Canada, we do not know a lot about
the impact of immigration on aging members of our communities. Most research
about older immigrants tends to group very different people together based upon
the region they came from, or the language they speak. Country of origin and
language are important - but so is gender, family status, citizenship, religion,
relationships, work, family roles, living arrangement, and many other aspects of
people’s identities and lives.

We want to know what challenges and barriers people face so that we can lobby
for changes to programs and policies that affect immigrant seniors (like health
and social services, immigration, work, family caregiving and retirement
policies). We also want to pay attention to how older people identify themselves
and how they feel about such issues as family, community and belonging.

Our study takes these ideas into account, and creates a space to learn from and
with immigrant seniors. We used two theoretical ideas —“intersectionality” and
“the life course”—to help us understand people’s unique life stories and the ways
in which barriers and discrimination might operate in their daily lives. We spoke
to 19 seniors from Quebec and British Columbia, who immigrated at different
times and under different programs. We spoke with them about their journeys
and experiences and gave them cameras to take pictures of their daily lives. We
present both their challenges (such as barriers and discrimination, poverty and
family disruption) and celebrations (such as building community, caring for
others in the family, contributing to society, faith and resilience). This narrative-
“photovoice” project is a testament to the strength, resilience and determination
of every immigrant senior we interviewed! Their stories highlight how policies
and services need to be more supportive, flexible, and accessible. We are grateful
for their participation in our project and for sharing their rich stories and photos
with us.

9
Objectives…

 To explore lived experiences of immigrant seniors.

 To study the impact of immigration on aging within
the context of life histories.

 To understand the intersections of identity, social
location and structural discrimination across the
lifespan.

 To explore the ways in which structural
discrimination across the lifecourse shapes
interactions with family, community and formal
services.

 To encourage knowledge exchange with service
providers and policymakers.

10