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Walking between two worlds : the bicultural experience of second-generation East Indian Canadian women

Second-generation East Indian women represent a visible ethnic minority group in need of culturally sensitive research to facilitate an understanding of their integration into Canadian society. There is a scarcity of systematic qualitative inquires into the experience of this contemporary second-generation population within a North American context. Hence, the primary objective of this study is to understand the bicultural experience of a select group of second-generation East Indian women using a focused ethnography as a research tool. The central questions guiding this inquiry are (a) What are the salient aspects in the subjective experience of second-generation East Indian women as they grow up within both an East Indian and Canadian cultural context? (b) What are some of the challenges they face as a result of their biculturalism, and (c) How do they negotiate these challenges? / The sample pool consisted of 16 second-generation East Indian women between the ages of 20 and 40 years who were either working or attending university and who were English speaking. Data collection focused on individual and follow-up interviews, each lasting 60 to 90 minutes. A latent content analysis was used to analyze the interview data and focused on looking for general themes, patterns and trends in the data set. Results suggest that the bicultural experience of this population is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that reflects the intersection of multiple identities including race, ethnicity, gender and cultural values.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.84517
Date January 2003
CreatorsJustin, Monica
ContributorsMaroun, T. J. (advisor)
PublisherMcGill University
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Formatapplication/pdf
CoverageDoctor of Philosophy (Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology.)
RightsAll items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
Relationalephsysno: 002083215, proquestno: AAINQ98284, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest.

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