Immigrant woman in Canada and the United States
Immigration policies in Canada and the United States are heavily socially constructed in different dimensions, specifically on the grounds of age, gender, and race despite their underpinning policy of multiculturalism. However, the most fundamental aspect is the social construction exported by immigrant women from their initial settings to these different settings. Despite the campaigns for gender equality, still, more than 50% of social environments are patriarchal. For instance, women are portrayed as the most prone to cultural erosion compared to males when exposed to new cultural backgrounds. Therefore, most immigrant women, especially from Asia, tend to suffer from a lack of self-expression and freedom to protect their culture from erosion by mingling with other people from a different culture.
Despite the emancipation done by this reading on my understanding of immigration, social construction, and citizenship, I would still like to understand why there are barriers in immigration policies against individual races or gender orientation when all that matters is the immigrant’s contribution at the end of the day. The aspect of the two governments connecting immigration and economic development was the most important thing I read: it is based on this statement that I question the reason for barriers within set policies. After all, the end justifies the means.
I owe to this reading that I now know that the rate of immigration of older women into the U.S and Canada is even higher than that of the young. This finding would sound ambiguous at its first mention since it is logically expected that the youth should be the ones immigrating more for the search for better jobs, opportunities, and settle.
Reply
This discussion analyzed critical pointers of the readings in the same way that it was clear to me while going through the text. However, I would also like to add that racial, social constructions in immigration exist and should be openly discussed to establish long-lasting solutions. Otherwise, this was an excellent post on the subject.