The raising of immigration standards for entry into Canada
in recent years has resulted in many Chinese immigrant women from
Hong Kong being admitted as "independent applicants", on the
strength of their academic standing, official language
proficiency, and professional training. However, many of them
are not able to access jobs for which they would seem to have the
appropriate credentials. No studies have yet systematically
examined the barriers these women face in the job market in
Vancouver.
A literature review shows two main approaches to the
problems of immigrants adapting to life in their new country.
The cultural approach concentrates on the effects of the
immigrants' own culture on the adaptation process, and the
cultural conflicts between the mainstream culture and the culture
immigrants bring with them. The structural approach emphasizes
the impact of the social structure of the host country on
immigrants, and examines structural barriers which bar immigrants
from moving upward in the labour market.
The first approach concentrates on immigrants and their
culture while the second focuses on the structural constraints
experienced by immigrants. The present research argues that
examining employment issues of immigrants from only one of these
two approaches is inadequate. Both perspectives are important.
other informal barriers which could not be categorized under
these two approaches should not be ignored.
This is a qualitative study based on in-depth interviews
with 20 Chinese immigrant women from Hong Kong. The research
problem is limited to the employment experiences, as well as to
the meanings of events and processes, described by these women.
The central questions are: (1) What do Chinese immigrant women
who come as "independent applicants" experience in the workplace
in Vancouver? (2) What does their work in Vancouver mean to
them? And (3) What are the factors, in terms of cultural
barriers, structural barriers or other elements, that affect
these women in the process of job transferability? Suggestions
to eliminate barriers are proposed, and recommendations for
further studies are presented. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/6890 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Chiu, Siu-Miu Luda |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 17917448 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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