In Canada, the non-recognition of foreign credentials remains a considerable policy issue as well as a challenge for skilled immigrants. Many studies have shed light on the difficulties that foreign professionals face when seeking a placement in the Canadian job market. This thesis focused on the experiences of professional women from Morocco on the basis of the premise that every racialized group’s immigration experience deserves a space in the literature to voice their realities and inspire policy considerations. As a result, this study focused on examining the experiences of Moroccan women in the Canadian job market and the impact thereof, on their socio-economic status, and as such, health and well-being. In order to effectively capture the experiences of this particular community, a fieldwork study was conducted in the form of semi-structured individual interviews with twelve women who immigrated to Canada from Morocco with professional qualifications. Based on the participants’ accounts, I described that systemic discrimination as manifested in Othering and racialization remain major obstacles to the realization of equal access in the Canadian labour market. All in all, this research provides valuable insight into the plight of skilled immigrants in Canada and thus, offers strong policy recommendations to facilitate a more effective integration process for this group into the Canadian Job market.

In Canada, the non-recognition of foreign credentials remains a considerable policy issue as well as a challenge for skilled immigrants. Many studies have shed light on the difficulties that foreign professionals face when seeking a placement in the Canadian job market. This thesis focused on the experiences of professional women from Morocco on the basis of the premise that every racialized group’s immigration experience deserves a space in the literature to voice their realities and inspire policy considerations. As a result, this study focused on examining the experiences of Moroccan women in the Canadian job market and the impact thereof, on their socio-economic status, and as such, health and well-being. In order to effectively capture the experiences of this particular community, a fieldwork study was conducted in the form of semi-structured individual interviews with twelve women who immigrated to Canada from Morocco with professional qualifications. Based on the participants’ accounts, I described that systemic discrimination as manifested in Othering and racialization remain major obstacles to the realization of equal access in the Canadian labour market. All in all, this research provides valuable insight into the plight of skilled immigrants in Canada and thus, offers strong policy recommendations to facilitate a more effective integration process for this group into the Canadian Job market.

In Canada, the non-recognition of foreign credentials remains a considerable policy issue as well as a challenge for skilled immigrants. Many studies have shed light on the difficulties that foreign professionals face when seeking a placement in the Canadian job market. This thesis focused on the experiences of professional women from Morocco on the basis of the premise that every racialized group’s immigration experience deserves a space in the literature to voice their realities and inspire policy considerations. As a result, this study focused on examining the experiences of Moroccan women in the Canadian job market and the impact thereof, on their socio-economic status, and as such, health and well-being. In order to effectively capture the experiences of this particular community, a fieldwork study was conducted in the form of semi-structured individual interviews with twelve women who immigrated to Canada from Morocco with professional qualifications. Based on the participants’ accounts, I described that systemic discrimination as manifested in Othering and racialization remain major obstacles to the realization of equal access in the Canadian labour market. All in all, this research provides valuable insight into the plight of skilled immigrants in Canada and thus, offers strong policy recommendations to facilitate a more effective integration process for this group into the Canadian Job market.

In Canada, the non-recognition of foreign credentials remains a considerable policy issue as well as a challenge for skilled immigrants. Many studies have shed light on the difficulties that foreign professionals face when seeking a placement in the Canadian job market. This thesis focused on the experiences of professional women from Morocco on the basis of the premise that every racialized group’s immigration experience deserves a space in the literature to voice their realities and inspire policy considerations. As a result, this study focused on examining the experiences of Moroccan women in the Canadian job market and the impact thereof, on their socio-economic status, and as such, health and well-being. In order to effectively capture the experiences of this particular community, a fieldwork study was conducted in the form of semi-structured individual interviews with twelve women who immigrated to Canada from Morocco with professional qualifications. Based on the participants’ accounts, I described that systemic discrimination as manifested in Othering and racialization remain major obstacles to the realization of equal access in the Canadian labour market. All in all, this research provides valuable insight into the plight of skilled immigrants in Canada and thus, offers strong policy recommendations to facilitate a more effective integration process for this group into the Canadian Job market.

La France et la Belgique sont deux pays qui ont attiré massivement l'immigration marocaine dans les années soixante/soixante-dix. Beaucoup de ces immigrés ont vieilli dans les pays d’accueil. Parmi eux, des femmes, qui sont venues seules ou ont rejoint leurs maris du fait du regroupement familial. Nous nous sommes intéressée à une catégorie de femmes particulièrement vulnérables, les femmes de 50/60 ans vivant seules et arrivant à l’âge de la retraite. Elles sont veuves, célibataires, divorcées ou abandonnées par leur mari et ont de petits revenus. Notre étude qualitative de terrain a porté sur leur histoire de vie et la perception qu’elles ont de leur vie et de leur avenir. Ces femmes enquêtées vivent dans deux lieux géographiques différents, la région parisienne et la région bruxelloise. Ce choix a été dicté par des contextes d’intégration différents, en France et en Belgique, du point de vue institutionnel et de celui des politiques migratoires. En effet, ces deux pays ont des approches de l’intégration comportant certaines divergences historiques et idéologiques qui peuvent influer sur le mode de vie et les perceptions des immigrés. Citons un point particulièrement sensible : la France prône l’intégration républicaine alors que la Belgique reconnait les communautés culturelles.Cependant, quelque soit leur lieu de vie, ces femmes subissent la « triple peine » d'immigrée, de personne âgée et de femme. Elles n'ont pas pu, au cours de leur trajectoire de vie, accéder à l'ensemble des dispositifs du droit commun auxquels elles auraient pu prétendre. / France and Belgium have both massively attracted Moroccan immigration in the nineteen sixties and seventies. Many among those immigrants got old in their new country. Among them were women who had come on their own or to join their husbands for family gathering and settlement.We have directed our research onto a category of particularly vulnerable women in their fifties and sixties who live on their own and are approaching the age of retirement. Widowed, single, divorced or abandoned by their husbands, they live on low income. Our qualitative field study focused on their story and their own perceptions of their past life and future.The women we've interviewed live in two different locations—Paris and its suburbs, and the Brussels area. This choice was imposed on us because the two contexts of immigration are different in France and in Belgium, as far as institutions and immigration policies are concerned. Here is a very sensitive related issue—Republican integration is advocated in France while cultural communities are recognized in Blegium.Whatever their social standards, however, those women undergo the triple penalty of being immigrants, elderly and women. They were not able, during their lifetime, to get an access to all the legal devices they could have claimed for.

A l'échelle mondiale, le cancer du col de l'utérus (CCU) constitue un problème majeur de santé publique touchant 528 000 femmes, il est responsable de 266 000 décès chaque année. Son taux d'incidence varie d'un pays à l'autre et reste remarquablement plus élève dans les pays en voie de | développement où l'accès aux soins, même primaires reste précaire. De nombreuses études I épidémiologiques ont démontré qu'environ 99,7 % des cancers du col de l'utérus sont associés à l'infection par des Papillomavirus Humains (HPV) oncogènes, en particulier les HPV16 et 18. Ces données ont permis le développement de vaccins prophylactiques dirigés contre ces deux génotypes viraux. Il s'agit d'un des! cancers les plus faciles à prévenir et à traiter a condition qu'il soit détecté suffisamment tôt et traité| correctement. L'objectif de ce travail de thèse était d'étudier deux populations de femmes à risque du CCU qui vivent sur deux continents différents (Afrique/Europe). Ces deux populations étaient référées auprès de médecins hospitaliers pour des problèmes gynécologiques. La majorité des femmes n'avaient pas été dépistées (femmes marocaines), ou avaient été sous-dépistées selon les recommandations de l'ANAES (femmes françaises de plus de 65 ans). Au cours de cette étude, les femmes ont eu un frottis cervico-utérin (FCU) pour une analyse cytologique et une recherche d'ADN d'HPV, soit par amplification de cible (PCR ; population marocaine), soit par amplification de signa! (test hc2 ; population française). Les échantillons; HPV positifs ont ensuite été génotypes, soit par génotypage complet (INNO-LiPA ; population marocaine),| soit par génotypage partiel (qPCR HPV16,18 et 45 ; population française). Les frottis étaient normaux dans la majorité des cas : chez 81,9% des femmes marocaines et 68,6% des femmes françaises. Les frottis de signification indéterminée (ASC-US) ont été diagnostiqués chez 15,8% des femmes françaises. Les frottis en faveur d'une lésion de bas grade (LGSIL) étaient observes chez 12,9% des femmes marocaines et 7,4% des femmes françaises. Les frottis en faveur d'une lésion de haut grade (HGSIL) étaient de 5,2% chez les femmes marocaines et 4% chez les femmes françaises. Les frottis évocateurs de cancer ont été décelés uniquement dans la population française (2,9%). La prévalence d'HPV était du même ordre de grandeur (23%) dans les 2 populations et augmentait avec la sévérité de la lésion cytologique pour atteindre 75% dans les frottis HGSIL chez les femmes marocaines et plus de 90% chez les femmes françaises. La quasi-totalité des échantillons en faveur d'un CCU étaient infectés par un HPV. Par ailleurs, dans les deux populations, le génotype prévalent dans tous les types de frottis était THPV16, génotype le plus cardnogène. Un tiers (36,2%) de la cohorte des femmes marocaines était infecté par le VIH, qui s'est avéré le plus important facteur prédictif de l'infection HPV, indépendamment des autres facteurs de risqueI étudiés (caractéristiques sociodémographiques, comportement sexuel, tabagisme...). En France, le dépistage du CCU est préconisé tous les trois ans chez les femmes de 25 à 65 ans. Toutefois, les femmes âgées de plus de 65 ans dont l'espérance de vie est élevée et qui n'ont pas été ou qui ont été mal dépistées pourraient bénéficier d'un test HPV dont la Valeur Prédictive Négative est très élevée. Au Maroc, en l'absence de dépistage organise, il est aussi souhaitable de proposer un test HPV dans le cadre du dépistage j du CCU. La vaccination anti-HPV pourrait aussi prévenir ce cancer. / Worldwide, cervical cancer (CC) is a major public health problem affecting 528 000 women and responsible for 266 000 deaths every year. Its incidence rate varies from one country to another and remains remarkably higher in developing countries where access to care, even primary remains precarious. Many epidemiological studies have shown that approximately 99.7% of cancers of the cervix are associated with infection with oncogenic Human Papillomavirus (HPV), especially HPV16 and 18. These data allowed the development of prophylactic vaccines directed against these two viral genotypes. It is one of the easiest cancers to prevent by early detection of precancerous lesions. The objective of this PhD thesis work was to study two populations of women at risk of CC who live on two different continents (Africa / Europe). These two populations were referred to hospital doctors for gynecological problems. The majority of women were not screened (Moroccan women) or were under-screened according to ANAES recommendations (French women over 65 years). At entry in the study, women had a cervical smear for cytology and HPV DNA research, either by target amplification (PCR; Moroccan population) or signal amplification (hc2 test; French population). HPV positive samples were then genotyped, either with full genotyping (INNO-LiPA; Moroccan population) or with partial genotyping (qPCR targeting HPV16,18 and 45; French population). Smears were normal in most cases: in 81.9% of Moroccan women and 68.6 % of French women. Atypical Squamous Cells of Undetermined Significance (ASC-US) were diagnosed in 15.8% of French women. Smears in favour of low grade lesion (LGSIL) were observed in 12.9% of Moroccan women and 7.4 % of French women. Smears in favour of high grade lesion (HGSIL) were in 5.2 % of Moroccan women and 4% of French women. Smears suggestive of cancer were detected only in the French population (2.9%). The prevalence of HPV was of the same order of magnitude (23%) in both populations; and increased with the severity of cytological lesions to reach 75% in HGSIL smears among: Moroccan women and over 90% among French women. Almost ail samples with CC were infected with high risk HPV. Furthermore, in both populations, the most prevalent genotype in ail types of smear wasHPV16, known to be the most carcinogenic. One third (36.2%) of the cohort of Moroccan women was infected with HIV, which was the most powerful predictor of HPV infection, independent of other risk factors studied (sociodemographic characteristics, sexual behavior, smoking ...).In France, CC screening is recommended every three years for women 25 to 65 years. However, women over 65 whose life expectancy is high and who have not been or have been poorly screened could benefit from an HPV test. In Morocco, in absence of organized screening, it is also desirable to provide an HPV test as a part of CC screening. The HPV vaccines could improve the situation by reducing the incidence and mortality from this cancer