Identity Construction of Immigrant Mothers and Daughters in

Multiracial Local, National and Global Diaspora Space

Helen Ralston, Ph.D.

Professor Emerita of Sociology

Saint Mary's University

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Canada  B3H 3C3

Telephone: (1-902) 420-5878

Facsimile: (1-902) 420-5121

E-mail: Helen.Ralston@StMarys.ca

Working Paper

Sixth International Metropolis Conference

Session 36: "Identity, Citizenship and Territory: Neighbourhoods as

both Contexts and Sources  of Local, National and Global Attachments"

Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 26-30 November 2001

Introduction: immigration policies construct the face of Canada and Australia*

This paper addresses the question of the transformation of multicultural Canada and Australia and especially their major metropolises, by the steady flow of Asian immigrants over the past three decades. I focus on a particular case of settlement, that of South Asian immigrant women and their second-generation daughters. I explore and compare the interactive processes involved in identity construction in the respective metropolises, neighourhoods and countries of settlement. I examine the interconnectedness of race, gender and class in migration, settlement and everyday life experience and identity experience. 

I have argued elsewhere (Ralston 1994) that historical analysis and contemporary research have indicated the interconnections of gender, race and class in state policies and practices regarding the immigration of South Asian women to Canada and Australia.  The policies and regulations have been relatively relaxed or very restrictive in terms of each country's own political and economic needs as well as its position in the international political economy.  From the colonial era in Australia, and from early post-Confederation years in Canada, up until the 1960s in Canada and the mid-1970s in Australia, exclusionary and discriminatory immigration policies were based on principles which were ideological distortions of rational arguments (Richmond, 1988:98-9).  Racist ideologies intertwined with assimilationist ideologies to exclude South Asians of an allegedly unsuitable climatic and cultural origin. Racist and classist ideologies combined to exclude and discriminate against South Asian male labour, which white male working class in the Australian colonies and in British Columbia perceived as a threat. Family and sexist ideologies interacted with racist ideologies to preclude South Asian women from accompanying or joining their immigrant husbands and thereby fulfilling their ideologically constructed role of social reproduction. Sexist and racist ideologies informed classificatory distinctions among Anglo-Indians and their spouses. In consequence, neighbourhoods, towns and cities reflected a "White Australia Policy" and, indeed, a virtually White Canada. With the explicit elimination of overt race and ethnic origin discrimination in 1967 in Canada and in 1973 in Australia, gender discrimination persisted. One of the most explicit contradictions and evident gender biases in Canadian and Australian immigration policies is the implicit assumption that skilled immigrants destined for the productive labour force are males and that married women are admitted for domestic life, no matter how skilled they may be. This gender biased family ideology not only reproduces relative advantages and disadvantages in family relations, but it also denies the reality that the majority of immigrant women work outside the home.

Immigration policies since the mid-1960s have transformed the cartography of Canada and Australia and created visibly multiracial and multireligious, neighbourhoods, cities and nations. Where once church steeples marked the skyline of cities, now we see temples, gurdwaras and mosques. Because of removal of discriminatory clauses in immigration policies, Asia has become a main continental source of immigrants to Canada and Australia - two Commonwealth countries, which share a British colonial heritage with India, the former jewel inthe imperial crown.[i] Consequently, there has been a significant change not only in the volume and the ratio of foreign born to native-born in these countries, but also in the racial, ethnic and religious composition of their populations. According to the 1991 Census of Canada,[ii] 16% of the total population of approximately 27 million persons were foreign-born. In the 1991 Australia census,[iii] 22 per cent of the total population of approximately 17 million persons were overseas-born; a further 19% had a least one parent overseas-born. In the 1996 census, foreign-born comprised 17 per cent of the Canadian population.[iv] The overseas-born proportion in Australia had risen to 22 per cent; 60 per cent of the overseas born population had been born in non-English speaking countries; 40 per cent had been born in the main English speaking countries;.[v] By 1999, the overseas born proportion of the Australian populationn was 24 per cent.[vi]

Canada and Australia gather census data on ethnic origin in different ways. In the Census of Canada, "ethnic origin" is self-identified and refers to cultural origin of oneself or one's ancestors in matrilineal and patrilineal lineage.[vii] South Asian is a relatively new social construct in Canadian society,[viii] which has been shaped and reshaped by the immigrants themselves and by other Canadians in their day-to-day activities.[ix] In the Census of Australia, by contrast, there is no self-identification of "ethnic origin". Rather, the Australian Bureau of Statistics gathers census data on ancestry[x] and birthplace, as well as languages spoken in the home and religion.[xi]

Both Canada and Australia abandoned policies and discourses of immigrant assimilation in favour of multiculturalism. Canada and Australia have differed, however, in their interpretation and implementation of multiculturalism. First, I give a brief overview of multiculturalism in the two countries. I then outline the socio-demographic characteristics of the specific Canadian and Australian metropolises of the projects. I thus establish the context of settlement for the immigrant women and their daughters of my studies. Following that, I outline the theoretical and  methodological approach and present summary profiles of the mothers and daughters. Next, I analyze the interactive processes involved in identity construction in the respective metropolises and countries of settlement. Finally, I present my conclusions. I raise theoretical and policy questions with respect to (1) the workings of gender, race and sexuality and identity in political, civil and social citizenship, and (2) multiculturalism, multicultural/anti-racist and anti-sexist education and globalization.  

Multiculturalism in Canada and Australia

Multiculturalism emerged as a policy in Canada in the context of a country that the Confederation Act of 1867 defined as constituting two "founding" nations with two languages and two cultures. Volume Four of the Report of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism (Canada 1970) defined Canada as multicultural and multilingual and made a series of recommendations to foster languages other than English and French. On October 7, 1971, the Liberal Government under Pierre Eliott Trudeau's leadership implemented a policy of multiculturalism within a bilingual framework (Canada 1971). The policy proclaimed the principles of equality of status for all ethnic groups; ethno-cultural pluralism as the essence of Canadian identity and unity; protection of civil and human rights for all citizens-in an officially bilingual nation. The Multiculturalism Act of 1988 (Canada 1988) enshrined the philosophy, principles and ideology of Canadian multiculturalism. With the Multiculturalism Act, there was explicit recognition of "the cultural and racial diversity of Canadian society." The Act provided that all federal institutions should promote policies, programmes and practices that ensured that Canadians of all origins have an equal opportunity to obtain employment and advancement in those institutions. In 1997, the Liberal Government under Jean Chrétien announced a Renewed Multicultural Program. Its explicit goals are to achieve "a cohesive, respectful and equal society." (Canada 2000). Recognition of the increasing ethnic, racial, linguistic and religious diversity challenges federal institutions to evaluate the impacts and effectiveness of their policies, programmes and practices in achieving those goals. 

Multiculturalism as a policy for Australia emerged with the Whitlam Labor Government (1972-1975), and, like Canadian policy, has gone through several stages since then. As Castles (1992:184) has observed, "Each stage is concerned with both social policy and the definition of national identity, and is determined by a number of factors: the political agenda of the government in power, the changing economic and social context, patterns of migration and settlement, the need to secure public support for immigration policies, and the desire for good community relations." The Whitlam Labor government abolished the White Australia policy and acted on the basic tenet that ethnic communities enriched Australia and that no Australians, irrespective of their origins, should be at a disadvantage in terms of fundamental human needs.

The Liberal National Country Party Government under the leadership of Malcolm Fraser (1975-1983) reaffirmed the policy of multiculturalism, with an emphasis on the concept of cultural pluralism and on consultation with ethnic communities for policy formulation and implementation. The Labor Governments (1983-1996), led, first, by Bob Hawke, then, by Paul Keating, shifted the conception of multiculturalism from integration to emphasis on access and equity, as part of a broad policy of social justice for a multicultural Australia. Access and Equity became the key terms, priorities and goals in all rhetoric, programs and activities from 1986 onwards. Initially, the government applied the concept of "access and equity" to overseas-born Australians. Later, a major document, A National Agenda for a Multicultural Australia in 1989 (OMA 1989), redefined multiculturalism as a series of rights and freedoms of all citizens in a democratic state-not in terms of cultural pluralism or minority rights (Castles 1992:190). The National Agenda identified three dimensions of multicultural policy: "(1) cultural identity-the right of all Australians to express and share their individual cultural heritage, including their language and religion; (2) social justice-the right of all Australians to equality of treatment and opportunity, and the removal of barriers of race, ethnicity, culture, religion, language, gender or place of birth; and (3) economic efficiency-the need to maintain, develop and utilize effectively the skills and talents of all Australians, regardless of background." Significantly, the National Agenda explicitly recognized inequality in Australian society and acknowledged the reality of discrimination based on gender, race and ethnicity. The Labor Government's uttered its last word on access and equity in its January 1996 report, A Fair Go for All: Report on Migrant Access and Equity (Morris 1996). The report documented institutional barriers to recognition in various professions (engineers, architects, certified practicing accountants).[xii]

In contrast to Canada, Australia has based multiculturalism more on government policies and special agencies rather than on philosophy and specific laws (Castles 1992:192). Because of this pragmatic, administrative approach, the advent of the Australian Coalition Government of John Howard in March 1996 meant the dismantling of various offices and departments and the withdrawal of funding for many multicultural programs, projects and centres. The Coalition government has retained the Special Boadcasting Service. The principal function of SBS is "to  provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect Australia's multicultural society." (ABS 2001:516). However, policies, programmes and discourse under Howard's Coalition government, now into its third term, have downplayed multiculturalism.[xiii] Along with the incumbent government, as Jayasuriya (1998:5-6) has cogently argued, critics of multiculturalism and immigration have adopted the "new racism" where "difference is no longer constructed in trrms of racial or biologically determined group differences, but in terms of culture and ethnicity."

The socio-demographic context: Canadian and Australian metropolises

South Asians are unevenly distributed throughout Canada. In the 1996 census, 723,345 persons self-identified as being of South Asian ethnic origin. The proportion of all South Asians residing in Ontario had risen to 59 per cent, as compared to 55 per cent in 1991; 23 per cent were in British Columbia, as compared to 25 per cent in 1991; less than 1 per cent were in Atlantic Canada in both 1991 and 1996.[xiv] It is important to note, however, that the proportion of South Asians relative to the total provincial population was greater in British Columbia than in Ontario: 4.5 per cent in British Columbia; 4.0 per cent in Ontario. South Asians comprised 6.8 per cent of the total population of CMA Vancouver; they comprised 8.4 per cent of CMA Toronto total population; and they comprised less than 1 per cent of CMA Halifax total population. In other words, Canadians of South Asian origin are concentrated in the major metropolises.[xv]

The flow of Asian immigrants has transformed the major metropolises. Conversely, the concentration of South Asians in a place of settlement affects the experience of South Asian women.  Vancouver and Halifax are very different metropolises - demographically, historically and socially. In the 1991 census of Canada, the total population of the four Atlantic provinces was just over two and a quarter million, with 4,175 of South Asian origin. In the 1996 census, the total population of South Asian origin in Atlantic Canada had risen only marginally to 4,510. By contrast, in 1991 British Columbia had a rapidly growing population of over 3 million, with 103,545 of South Asian origin.[xvi] By 1996, the population of South Asian origin in British Columbia had risen to 141,750[xvii] in a province with a total population of over three and a half million.[xviii] In 1991, the census metropolitan area (CMA) Vancouver had a population of almost one and a half million with approximately 80,000 of South Asian ethnic origin (including Indo-Fijians). By 1996, the total population of Vancouver had risen to 1,831,665; the South Asian population to 125,350.[xix] In 1991, CMA Halifax had a population of 317,630, with 1,825 of South Asian origin. By 1996, CMA Halifax population had increased to 332, 515, with 2,875 of South Asian origin.[xx] In the 1991 census, 74 per cent of the South Asians of British Columbia were concentrated in the large metropolitan centre of Vancouver, whereas only 44 per cent of the South Asians in the Atlantic region resided in the major metropolitan centre of Halifax. By 1996, 88 per cent of South Asians in British Columbia were concentrated in Vancouver; the proportion in Halifax remained the same as in 1991. In other words, not only was the total South Asian population twenty-five times greater in British Columbia than in the whole Atlantic region, but South Asians were much more scattered in the Atlantic region than in British Columbia. Furthermore, in the past two decades, Halifax has received relatively few internal or international migrants. Vancouver, on the other hand, has become a principal city of destination for internal and international migrants. Historically, Vancouver was the port of entry for the initial South Asian immigrants at the turn of this century. South Asians migrated to Atlantic Canada only after World War II. Today, Vancouver has a large population of diverse Asian ethnic origins; Halifax has relatively few people of Asian origin. Furthermore, South Asians who migrated to British Columbia a century ago were mainly male Sikh Punjabi farmers. South Asian immigrants of recent decades have comprised a heterogeneous population in terms of regional, linguistic, religious and national origins.

Australia moved more slowly than Canada towards migration policies and practices that were racially non-discriminatory towards South Asians (Ralston 1994).[xxi]  As in Canada, there was urgent need for population increase after the Second World War in the interests of post-war reconstruction. India and Pakistan's independence in 1947 and Ceylon's in 1948 created a pool of potential mixed-race emigrants who had now acquired minority status in those countries.  Whereas Canada established a racially non-discriminatory quota of entrants for each of the new independent countries, Australia admitted South Asians only if they could prove British or European ancestry.  Both countries, however, accepted only skilled, professional Asians, whereas they admitted thousands of unskilled European workers.  Moreover, the immigrants were male workers, whether unskilled Europeans or skilled Asians.  The gendered nature of immigration policy persisted along with its racial discrimination.

Because of acceptance of skilled Indian-born British citizens and Anglo-Indians who had left India, "the number of Indians migrating to Australia started to increase" (Jayaraman, 1988:543).  In the 1950s, limited entry was granted to part-Europeans (those of mixed descent) who could provide evidence of European ancestry, such as those of part-Dutch origin from Indonesia, Burghers from Sri Lanka, Anglo-Indians and Anglo-Burmese (Jayasuria and Sang 1990:6).  Burghers, Anglo-Indians and Anglo-Burmese settled principally in Melbourne. At the 1961 census, however, there were only 367 foreign-born Indian females in Australia; the number of foreign-born Indian males was 2,683.  India was most favoured Asian nation, but Indians took little advantage of the favours accorded them (Yarwood 1964:138-140).  In particular, few resident Indian men took advantage of the right to bring in their wives.

"The White Australia policy remained in force for 72 years.  The Immigration Restriction Act was eventually replaced by the Migration Act of 1958 which left the policy unchanged but substituted ministerial discretion for the 'dictation test' method of exclusion" (Hawkins, 1989:15). The Australian Labor Party dropped the White Australia Policy from its party platform in 1965.  When the Labor government under Gough Whitlam came into power in 1973, it abolished the White Australia policy. Between 1975 and 1985 migrants were selected for entry to Australia, as in Canada, on the three criteria of employability, family reunion or refugee status.  In assessing employability, while racial and national origin no longer mattered, gender discrimination persisted.  Fincher and Foster (1992:15) have noted, "Women were marginalised in that they were not recognised as having the sorts of skills that characterised the ideal migrant.  For skill, in Australia (and, one might add, in Canada), has been constructed historically as a property of males." Fincher and Foster make the telling point that those occupations perceived as requiring skill disproportionately employ men. Women applicants are more likely to have skills in occupations that earn them fewer points.  For the most part, women were assumed to enter as dependent wives of male applicants or in the family reunion category.

Australia maintained a high level of immigration during the 1980s, despite the economic recession with high levels of unemployment (Inglis, 1992:6). The South Asian immigrants of the 1960s to the present, unlike those of the past, are of diverse religious, linguistic, cultural and regional groups. Moreover, they came as families, not as individual male labourers, hawkers, merchants, business people or students. South Asian immigrant women, however, have continued to enter and to be legally and socially defined and constructed as wives of the principal male migrant despite the elimination of discriminatory legislation.

In the 1991 Australian census, 121,726 persons were born in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Fiji (those assumed to be of Indian ethnic origin).[xxii] Charles Price (1997) has developed a methodology to measure what he calls "ethnic strength" to estimate South Asian contribution to Australian population in 1999 as 1.2 per cent.[xxiii] All Asians contributed 6.4 per cent. South Asians are mainly settled in the capital cities of New South Wales and Victoria, Sydney and Melbourne, respectively, and, to a lesser extent, in Perth, Western Australia.[xxiv] As in Canada, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth differ demographically, historically and socially. Australia is one of the most urbanized countries in the world. In the 1996 Census, the Statistical Division[xxv] of Sydney had a total population of 3,741,290. Of these persons, 31 per cent were overseas born; of those overseas born, 73 per cent were born in non-English speaking countries. Melbourne had a population of 3,138,147 of whom 29 per cent were overseas born; 74 per cent of overseas born were born in non-English speaking countries. Perth had a population of 1,244,320 of whom 32 per cent were overseas born; 45 per cent of the overseas born were born in non-English speaking countries. By 1999, Sydney and Melbourne had populations of 4,041,381 and 3,417,218, respectively. Perth, with a population of 1.3 million, ranks fourth (after Brisbane) in population of metropolitan centres. All are coastal cities. Sydney, which was settled by Europeans in 1788, is the oldest European settlement of Australia. Melbourne was first settled by Europeans only in 1835. It was proclaimed a city in the mid-nineteenth century. As a result of the gold rush, it became the largest city in Australia in the 1860s. At federation in 1901, Melbourne was the site of the first Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia and was the capital of Australia until 1927. Canberra was constructed as a planned National Capital. Perth on the south-west coast, is distinguished by its isolation from the densely populated eastern region of Australia. Perth is closer to Singapore than it is to Sydney 

Samples, data collection and methodological approach 

It was with the socio-demographic factors and the various methods of census data collection in mind that I drew samples of South Asian immigrant women for interviews in the respective regions and countries.[xxvi]  The original Canadian samples comprised 48 women in metropolitan Halifax and 74 women in metropolitan Vancouver. The original Australian sample comprised 44 women in the metropolises of Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. All the South Asian mothers of daughters in the later studies migrated to Canada or Australia between the late 1960s and the early 1980s. Their daughters grew up in the heyday of multicultural policy, programs and practices in the respective countries.

The data were gathered in face-to-face semi-structured interviews: (1) with South Asian immigrant mothers in Atlantic Canada between 1988 and 1990, and in British Columbia between 1993 and 1995; (2) with South Asian migrant mothers in Australia in 1995. During January and February 1999, I located and interviewed 8 Halifax daughters and 10 Vancouver daughters of the original Halifax and Vancouver mothers. Between January and March 2000, in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, Australia, I interviewed 10 daughters of mothers whom I had interviewed in 1995.

Strictly speaking, the term "second-generation" refers to children who have been born in a settlement country to which both their parents have migrated. In fact, I have found that such daughters prefer to call themselves first-generation Canadians or Australians. In my projects, as well as children born in Canada or Australia, respectively, daughters who migrated there at the age of 5 years or less were included in this category. The major proportion of primary socialization of such children and all their secondary socialization and schooling occurred in the settlement country (cf. Brah 1978:197). I examined profiles of the 48 metropolitan Halifax women, of the 74 metropolitan Vancouver women and of the 44 Sydney, Melbourne and Perth  women in the original studies of South Asian immigrant women to identify eligible daughters, according to the selected criteria.

Getting the desired samples of daughters who fulfilled the established criteria presented many challenges. For example, in order to locate eligible daughters, I first had to find the selected mothers from the original samples. I then contacted each mother by a letter in which I outlined the project. I obtained samples of twenty-eight 15 to 34 year old daughters (8 in Halifax, 10 in Vancouver and 10 in Australia) from women of diverse backgrounds. When a daughter consented to an interview, it was often a problem to set a mutually suitable time (which was frequently changed) with daughters, who had very active, busy lives. Finally, I had to revise the semi-structured interview schedule in the light of what the first interviews revealed.

The relationship I had with the mothers in the first-generation samples made it especially important to establish the confidentiality of interviews with their daughters. In two Canadian cases, a mother spoke on behalf of the daughter and said that she was not interested in participating. On the other hand, in some cases my introductory letter had not been received or the mother was away and the daughter herself responded to a follow-up telephone call. Both mothers in the original studies and daughters agreed to the interview in a preliminary telephone call and gave written consent at the outset of the interview. A research assistant and I interviewed the mothers.[xxvii] I conducted all the interviews with daughters.[xxviii] Each interview was audio-taped, with the consent of the participant. The interviewee chose the location of the interview. She was the first to propose a convenient time for her. Only one of the daughters whom I contacted declined to participate in the study. The mothers of two young women in high school said that they did not want to participate; the mother of another married daughter in her mid-twenties did not want me to contact her.

Having glanced at the interview description and signed the consent form, none of the participant daughters showed the slightest concern about confidentiality of the interview. Only once did a daughter stop in her tracks, when about to tell me of her first date, and comment with a laugh, "You won't tell my mother about this?" The daughters were entirely at ease and freely communicative in the interview situation. They offered me refreshment in an informal casual manner; I did the same when the interview occurred at my residence or office. In general, their mothers had been more formal in offering customary refreshments.

In all projects, my research assistants and I started from the standpoint of immigrant women or their daughters. Our approach was drawn from feminist theories, as explicated by Dorothy Smith (1974, 1987, 1992), Nancy Hartsock (1983), Sandra Harding (1991, 1993) and others. The women described their everyday lived experience. The concept "lived experience" is to be understood in terms of practical activities in all spheres of everyday life. We explored what actually happened, what the women did rather than their "perceived experience" of the situations in which they found themselves. By exploring these activities, women's lived experience is made visible, their voices audible. As Roxana Ng (1984:1) has pointed out, Dorothy Smith's method of inquiry "grounds the sociological problematic in the actual conditions of people's lives rather than the academic discourse."

 In practice, in the process of gathering interview data, "taking the standpoint of the immigrant woman" involves an initial and ever-developing awareness of the personal and structural barriers and boundaries between interviewer and interviewee. These real and symbolic barriers of race, ethnicity, class, language, education, religion, citizenship, age, generation  and so on, can blind the researcher to the institutional and structural barriers that the immigrant woman and her daughter encounter in everyday life. Insofar as it is possible, the researcher situates herself in the same critical space as the participants. She steps out of her well-worn shoes of native-born or long-term settler to put on the newer shoes of migrant woman or her daughter to look at the world with her eyes.[xxix]

Feminist standpoint theory has its critics, of course.[xxx] Nevertheless, I would argue that a standpoint theoretical and methodological approach has produced fruitful research. It comes from a feminist consciousness of the material realities of women's lives. There is also a heightened awareness of the alienating realities of migration and migrantness, especially for women of colour. These realities are analyzed as "structural consequences of an unjust social order . (that) can become a resource for social transformation" (Code 1995:41).

Face-to-face semi-structured interviews establish personal contact and interaction between interviewer and interviewee and allow participants to talk freely about experiences and issues of concern to them, while at the same time maintaining a common base for comparative purposes. A qualitative feminist methodological approach puts women at the centre of inquiry, enables them to articulate their experience, and is directed towards social change. It involves a plurality of research practices.[xxxi] The interviews provided basic demographic life data and allowed open discussion of aspects of identity and lived experience in the focal areas of the research programme. In Dorothy Smith's approach of "institutional ethnography" (1987:160-161), interviewing, recollections of institutional experience-in family, school, work, various organizations, for example-and other methods "are constrained by the practicalities of investigation of social relations as actual practices." The women interviewees "are indeed the expert practitioners of their everyday world" (p. 161). It is the role of the researcher to investigate and to disclose "the extralocal determinations of (their) everyday experience" (p. 161).

Profiles of mothers and daughters

In this paper, I discuss data pertaining second-generation daughters and to first-generation mothers whose daughters fulfilled the research criteria. Both Canadian and Australian mothers and daughters, respectively, were of diverse backgrounds in terms of age, birth order, heritage language, parents' national origin and religious identification. The Canadian mothers were born in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Fiji and Indonesia; Australian mothers in India, Fiji, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Bangladesh. Mother tongues of Canadian mothers included Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu, Malayalam, Tamil and Sindhi; of Australian  mothers: Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Urdu, Sinhalese, Kannada, Bangla and English. Over half of both Canadian and Australian mothers were fluent in English at migration. However, four Canadian mothers and two Australian mothers were very poor in English, and three Canadian and one Australian spoke functional English at migration. Canadian or Australian English accent and vocabulary presented problems for all, including those who were very fluent in the English language. The vocabulary was generally less of a problem to women who migrated to Australia than to those who migrated to Canada. Religious affiliation of Canadian mothers included Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam and Christianity; of Australian  mothers: Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism and Christianity. The birth dates of Canadian mothers ranged from 1932 to 1952; of the Australian mothers, from 1922 to 1961, with the majority of both samples in the 1940s. At migration, Canadian mothers ranged in age from 20 years to 31 years; Australian mothers, from 20 to 46 years. Canadian mothers had migrated between 1964 and 1979; Australian mothers between 1967 and 1985.

Among Canadian daughters, all but three Vancouver and three Halifax daughters, respectively, were born in Canada. Two daughters in Vancouver and one in Halifax were married; the remaining daughters in each sample had never married. Three women had partners, but only one lived with her partner. Five Vancouver daughters and three Halifax daughters named a caste membership; others had no knowledge of their caste. Both parents of all daughters were living, except in the case of one daughter in Vancouver, whose mother was a single parent, and one in Halifax, whose father had died when she was aged 12 years.

Among Australian daughters, all but three were born in Australia. Two were married and one had a partner, but did not live permanently with him. Four daughters identified a caste membership. Of these, a daughter of Fijian parents had learned of her caste origin recently in India; her mother did not claim any caste identity in her interview. In another case, a married daughter readily claimed caste identity, whereas her mother had identified her caste, but immediately added, "We do not hold to that." The two other daughters who stated their caste identity were high-caste Hindus; both their mothers had also identified with their caste. More than one daughter was puzzled by the question, "Do you identify with a particular caste?"

The majority of the mothers were highly educated before migration. All but one of the Australian mothers had some post-secondary education. The Vancouver mothers had all earned certificates, diplomas or degrees beyond high school; all had some further education in Canada. While five of the eight Halifax mothers had post-graduate education, three of them had not completed high school and had no further education after migration. Six of the ten Australian mothers had some further education in Australia.

The highly-educated Halifax and Vancouver mothers had worked as educational or medical professionals in their source country. Similarly, the highly-educated Australian mothers had worked as educational and other professionals. Five of the Australian mothers had never worked outside the home in the source country. A highly-educated, high caste Australian mother had never worked in her home country nor in Australia and had never tried to have her qualifications recognized. By contrast, her three daughters were qualifying or already qualified professionals. Three Vancouver mothers and the less highly educated Halifax mothers had not worked in their source country. One of the latter Halifax mothers became a successful self-employed businesswoman after migration. Many of the mothers, especially in Canada, found that the qualifications and experience earned in the source country were not recognized or were downgraded after migration. Although working at the time of the interview, the type of job was not commensurate with their qualifications. For example, a woman who held a Master's degree and had been a language teacher in her source country worked in Canada as a secretary; a qualified health professional worked in a low-paid, low-skilled hospital job.

All the daughters in both Canada and Australia samples were highly educated. The youngest women were completing high-school diplomas or certificates and had plans for college or university. Among the others, post-secondary education completed or in progress, was the norm. In Halifax, Vancouver, and Australia, respectively, two daughters were completing post-graduate degrees. In addition, two daughters in Australia were completing double Law and Computing Science degrees.

In terms of paid work, among Canadians, two daughters (both in Vancouver) had full-time paid work - one as a lawyer, the other as a marketing agent for a telephone company. Four in Vancouver and four in Halifax had permanent part-time paid work-tutoring, marking for university professors, working in a cafe, customer service with a cable company, regular baby-sitting; one in Vancouver and one in Halifax had casual work. Of those without paid jobs, two in Vancouver and three in Halifax were full-time students; one in Vancouver was "between jobs" and one in Halifax was a full-time homemaker and caregiver of 9-month old twins.

Among Australians, two daughters had full-time paid work as professionals; a third professional daughter was on paid maternity leave. Four student daughters had part-time work; three students had never had paid work, two of these were Muslim young women.

Theoretical approach

The research project brings together a number of conceptual considerations: (1) interconnections of ethnicity, race, caste, class and gender as social constructions and "relations of ruling"; (2) "lived experience" and its associated methodology; (3) gender and agency; (4) identity construction/reconstruction; (5) citizenship: political, civil and social' (6) diaspora, diaspora consciousness and diaspora space; and (7) transnational diaspora space and multiple transnational identities.

I conceptualize gender, ethnicity, race, class and caste as interconnected social constructions. They are produced and maintained in relationships that are characterized by differential power relations-"relations of ruling" in Dorothy Smith's (1987) terms - in struggles over the means of production and reproduction in multicultural and multiracial societies.

Dorothy Smith (1987) has conceptualized "lived experience," as the practical activities of everyday life, be they in the so-called "private" or "public" sphere. We have explored what actually happened-that is, what the women did rather than their "perceived experience" of the situations in which they found themselves.

Recent feminist and anti-racist research has emphasized the discrimination, oppression and victimization experienced by women of colour.[xxxii] In so doing, there has been a tendency to overlook their agency in everyday life and their construction of a creative and dynamic identity in negotiated social spaces. By agency, I mean that women are conscious actors, not passive subjects in the various situations of their everyday life.

Identity and culture are "inextricably linked concepts" (Brah 1996: 21). Culture is not a static collection of customs, beliefs and practices which migrant women carry in their bodies or their baggage and transmit to their children when they leave their homeland and cross territorial borders. Rather, historical, social and economic relations of ruling along many axes (such as race, gender, ethnicity, caste, religion and national origin) continually shape and reconstruct, subjectively and socially, identity and culture - as much for the native-born dominant Anglo-Saxon residents as immigrants and their children (cf. Hall 1990:225).

I examine the processes and institutional frameworks within which individuals and groups are identified and represented and how race, racism and racialization enter into these processes.[xxxiii] Racialization, in Robert Miles's (1989:75) conception, refers to the process of using biological characteristics to differentiate and structure unequal social relations among collectivities.  As Anthias and Yuval-Davis have observed, this conception emphasizes the social construction of race as being "at the heart of the racialization process.which is converted to racism when it is imbued with negative valuation" (Miles 1989:84 in Anthias and Yuval-Davis 1992:11).

State policies and practices that govern culture, education, employment, organization and citizenship reinforce socially constructed representations and identities.[xxxiv] In particular, multiculturalism as ideology, policy, practice and discourse in Canadian society has been roundly criticized. For example, Himani Bannerji (1996:119) has argued that "Its discourse is concocted through ruling relations and the practical administration of a supposed reconciliation of 'differences'."

In my description and analysis I follow those who conceptualize so called second generation immigrant women of colour as dynamic and creative agents in constructing identity and shaping experience.[xxxv] I explore how daughters in the research samples construct a space for themselves in multicultural Canada, how they challenge, contest and resist representations and intersecting race, gender and class relations of ruling;[xxxvi] and how they claim marginality as "a site of radical possibility, a space of resistance" (hooks 1990:149-150).

I argue that mothers and daughters of South Asian origin, in multicultural, multiracial and multireligious societies like Canada and Ausztralia, create, live and operate in "diaspora space." Avtar Brah (1996:16, 181) has coined the term "diaspora space" as a conceptual category. It refers to a space that "is 'inhabited' not only by those who have migrated and their descendants but equally by those who are constructed and represented as indigenous. Diaspora "presupposes the idea of borders. Diaspora space is the point at which boundaries of inclusion and exclusion, of belonging and otherness, of 'us' and 'them', are contested." (Brah 1996: 208) In addition, it illuminates "how and in what ways a group is inserted within the social relations of class, gender, racism, sexuality, or other axes of differentiation in the country (or countries) to which it migrates." According to Brah (1996: 208), "diaspora space references the global condition of 'culture as a site of travel' (Clifford 1992, 1994) which seriously problematises the subject position of the 'native'."[xxxvii] Amita Handa (1997:ii-iii) has claimed "that it is in the moments of crossing and resisting norms that the boundaries around community/cultural/ethnic/racial identity become apparent. Their articulations, challenges and resistances to prevailing narratives of 'South Asian-ness' and 'Canadian-ness' (or  'Australian-ness') set them apart and/or exclude them from dominant readings of what it means to be young South Asian women in Canada (or Australia)." Daughters define and redefine their identity and their self-representation to others. They challenge others' representation of them. They claim the right to their own identity construction and representation in multicultural and multiracial Canada and Australia.

Glick Schiller, Basch and Blanc-Szanton (1992:ix) have coined the term "'transnationalism' to emphasize the emergence of a social process in which migrants establish social fields that cross geographical, cultural, and political borders. Immigrants are understood to be transmigrants when they develop and maintain multiple relations - familial, economic, social, organizational, religious, and political - that span borders."  Arjun Appadurai (1996:178-179), in his consideration of cultural dimension of globalization, uses "the term 'neighborhood' to refer to the actually existing social forms in which locality, as a dimension of value, is variably realized. Neighborhoods, in this usage, are situated communities characterized by their actuality, whether spatial or virtual, and their potential for social reproduction." He has noted (1996:194) that "Fax machines, electronic mail, and other forms of computer-mediated communication have created new possibilities for transnational forms of communication." I extend these notions to consider the construction of multiple transnational identities in transnational diaspora spaces.

Experience and identity reconstruction of South Asian immigrant women upon settlement

In this section, I discuss the impact of migration from the perspective of the immigrant woman. Migration is not a one-time event but a complex ongoing process that involves crossing not only political, territorial and economic borders but also social, psychic and symbolic borders which define relations, membership and belonging. It implies a rupture in the lived experience of cultural identity and group membership in a source country and the reconstruction of a new dynamic and cultural identity that is constantly being transformed in a new settlement country. The migrant is indeed the epitome of Simmel's (1950) "stranger" who comes today and stays tomorrow. If migration from the homeland is an important process of identity awareness and reconstruction, so too is arrival and settlement in the new country. Self-identification is a dynamic process of reconstruction in the unfolding reality of lived experience. Similarly, culture, like identity, is not a static collection of customs, beliefs and practices which women carry in their bodies or their baggage when they leave their homeland and cross territorial borders, but rather dynamic and continually being shaped and reconstructed in relationships with other people in the country of permanent settlement-as much for the native-born Canadians or Australians as for immigrants. Historical, personal, social and power relations among groups transform culture and identity. As Brah (1996:21) has observed, "Identity . is simultaneously subjective and social, and is constituted in and through culture. Indeed, culture and identity are inextricably linked concepts."

South Asian women upon arrival in Canada or Australia often experienced alienation. Their visible and audible differences in characteristics such as skin colour, language or accent, religion, dress, food customs and so on, identified them as "immigrant women." Several women described experiences of representation and exclusion as the "outsider" and the "stranger." For example, a Melbourne woman who migrated in 1981 at age 41 years, reported,[xxxviii]

When I wore a sari, people would stare. I felt like an alien. (Now) I don't wear a sari when I go out. You don't feel left out in the society. Now I only wear traditional dress for Indian functions. How you present yourself depends on you.

This Australian woman freely chose to construct her own identity through her dress in various contexts of Australian society. Other women experienced alienation and outright racist behaviour because of their difference in dress. South Asian Canadian women had similar experiences of alienation and racism because White Canadians identified them as women of colour who wore different dress. For example, a Vancouver woman who migrated in 1976 at age 28 years described an experience of violent racism as an unwanted stranger on a busy city street.

People didn't like the way I was dressed. I had eggs thrown at me on Fraser Street. People would swear at me. It happened to other women also.[xxxix]

Isolation-from family, friends and social relationships-confinement in the home, and racialization of their identity by white immigrants and native-born residents created a profound experience of alienation for both Canadian and Australian women.  Women reported that culturally-prescribed gender roles forbade social relations that might bring them in contact with men (other than close relatives, of whom there were few or none). Such cultural norms added to their isolation and alienation from forming relations with Australians or Canadians, respectively. A Melbourne Muslim woman, who migrated in 1980 at age 20 years, reported,[xl]

I was alone. I missed all my family. My husband went to work. All day I cried.. Our culture did not allow me to go out without my husband.. I had to decide myself that getting married meant this. I did not realize that at marriage, how lonely I would be. It took two years to settle down.

The woman had little spoken English upon settlement. She went to language-training classes at a college for only a week. She related her story, as follows,

I felt uncomfortable, scared. Boys talked to girls. I didn't like it. I told my husband. He didn't like it. I did not want to make trouble for my marriage, my husband/wife relations. I really want to study here but my husband doesn't like boys and girls together. I don't like that either, but I would have stayed in the language class.

Women who had been brought up in a patriarchal feudal society which kept women in seclusion and one form of subservience were faced with a new form of patriarchy in capitalist society which demanded that they entertain for their husbands in mixed company. Activities and responsibilities that were specifically those of middle-class women in a capitalist economy gave them little control over their lives. In the following example of a highly educated professional woman, the links between class and gender demonstrate that the disadvantages of gender outweighed the advantages of class. The Halifax Muslim woman spoke English on arrival in Canada in 1967, came from a well-to-do family, had great wealth and comfort in her family of procreation, lived in a lavish home; yet she was oppressed and subservient in gender relations within the family.

When I first came out of the country into North American society, I had a lot of difficulty, in spite of the fact that I could speak English. I had that because in our region they are conservative people. I used to wear purdah. If I went to school or college then, always I had an escort with me. Here, when I came it's a mixed society and my husband's job was such that I had to go to all these mixed parties. So I wouldn't let it show, but inside it used to be a pressure. If we had a party at home, I was the hostess. I was doing everything all right but I was under pressure all the time. Making myself do things. Even now, I'm here for twenty years, inside I'm making an extra effort.[xli]

Organizational activities of first- and second-generation South Asian immigrant women

South Asian women who settled in metropolitan centres of Canada and Australia in the 1960s to 1980s, especially those who settled in Halifax, were visibly and audibly different from other residents. Like other immigrant groups, South Asian immigrant women formed organizations through which they reconstructed their specific ethnocultural identity and pursued their collective interests and goals. In previous papers (Ralston 1992, 1995a, 1995b), I have documented and analyzed the part played by ethnoreligious and ethnocultural community organizations in personal and social identity reconstruction among South Asian immigrant women. Such organizations provided a social context where people could meet and reconstitute their common identity, language, tradition, values and consciousness of ethnicity and where they could foster the formation of an ethnic identity among their children. They also provided needed social, cultural, recreational and spiritual services. Organizational activities promoted intra-group cohesion among the members and integration within the settlement society, especially for newcomers. The women constructed their identity as immigrant women who were different from mainstream native-born Canadian or Australian women. At the same time, the organizations served to establish  boundaries not only between themselves, other immigrants and other Canadians or Australians, but also among South Asian immigrants of specific regional, cultural, linguistic and religious backgrounds.

Vijay Agnew (1993) has made a useful distinction between service-oriented and advocacy-oriented community organizations. Community organizations are service-oriented in that they provide a forum for recreational, social, cultural and religious exchanges and celebrations. They can empower people by creating a self-conscious awareness of ethnic identity and solidarity. Advocacy-oriented ethnic community organizations, on the other hand, actively seek to translate awareness and articulation of concerns into legislation, policies, programmes and actions that transform unequal and unjust structures and relations of ruling.[xlii] Advocacy organizations are proactive responses to an oppressive reality. Above all, they address race, gender and class discrimination in all areas of life (Agnew 1996). Some advocacy groups may be gender-specific groups which are organized to address the interests of women within the ethnocultural group itself as well as within society as a whole. Feminists organizing to combat the many forms of violence against women and children constitute such gender-specific advocacy-oriented groups.

In Vancouver, many middle-class South Asian immigrant women were actively organized in advocacy-oriented groups to promote consciousness-raising, education, and change among men and among working-class grass roots women in areas of specific concern-violence against women, reproductive technology and amniocentesis clinics, racism, and recognition of foreign credentials and experience. In Halifax, advocacy and change in structures and relations were not the goal; nor were critical gender issues a matter of discourse or action. Organizations among the Australian women were mainly service-oriented. However, there were also advocacy organizational activities in Australia. For example, some advocacy groups actively lobbied governments for appropriate services for women. Other groups had proactive anti-racist goals: such as Melbourne Sri Lanka Tamils seeking human rights and justice in the home country and Sydney Fiji Indians struggling against discrimination in Fiji. Others had anti-sexist goals, such as a Sydney woman's organization called Shakti, which aimed to raise consciousness, to challenge and to change patriarchal family relations, and to combat violence against women.

Overarching secular organizations, like the Indo-Canadian Association of Nova Scotia, the Fiji-Canadian Organization of British Columbia, and the Australia Indian Society served not only to unite South Asians of diverse cultural origins and to integrate newcomers but also to link the ethnic communities to interested Canadians or Australians of other ethnic origins. The membership of these organizations comprised predominantly middle-class educated professional and business people. To some extent, multicultural organizations performed a similar function, especially when the membership comprised Canadians or Australians belonging to dominant Anglo-Celtic or other European ethnic origins.

A Vancouver woman who migrated in 1989 summed up well the perspective of many of the immigrant women whom I interviewed in both Canada and Australia. In bell hooks's terms (1990: 149-150), she claimed marginality or difference as a position of strength and resistance. She made a strong claim to being empowered. She resisted the consequences of the alienating experience of migration and reconstructed a dynamic identity. She had become an active subject in transforming her lived world.

I know I'm different from other women. I think differently. I don't get discouraged. That keeps me going. This is my personal self-evaluation. I set my priorities. I didn't realize these qualities in myself until I came here. You take a deep plunge and see the depth of the river.... Situations at work feel and are different. People are talking about you-the way you do things, are dressed. If you can resist this, if you are happy with who you are and your identity, people start to respect you.[xliii]

Many mothers took their daughters as children to temple, gurdwara, mosque or church to communicate basic value-orientations through instruction in beliefs, rituals and behavioural codes. Such organizations proclaimed daughters and sons as members of the community. They fostered formation of a specific South Asian ethnic identity among their daughters and sons as they grew up in the settlement society. Indeed, one might argue that immigrants formed ethnoreligious and ethnocultural organizations precisely for reaffirming, reconstituting and transmitting a shared symbolic universe, a system of counter-values and standards of behaviour which are "different" from those of the dominant culture in the settlement country. This objective is especially important in areas like premarital relations between boys and girls and in religiously prescribed dress codes, like Muslim girls wearing pants rather than shorts for athletic activities. Such organizations also promoted their children's social relations with families and youth of their own specific ethnoreligious and ethnocultural background.

 Daughters' identity construction, representation and resistance

In marked contrast to their mothers, daughters had relatively little or no involvement in ethnoreligious or ethnocultural organizations. They would go to gurdwara, temple or church for diverse spiritual, cultural and social reasons. 'Once you get beyond that stage (childhood), I don't see that it meets any of your needs,' was a summary comment of one daughter. Daughters also attributed their decline in religious participation to busy lives as students or workers. Some daughters who were college and university students in both Australia and Canada were active in dancing, music and other cultural organizations; a few were office-bearers in the organizations. Some university students belonged to debating, computing and other specific student organizations. Characteristically, daughters in high school were active in clubs and associations open to all, those in paid work belonged to professional and secular organizations; for example, sports associations, United Way or Cancer Society. A Vancouver daughter was active in a human rights organization. A Melbourne daughter belonged to a women's professional organization. A Muslim high school student living in Perth was actively involved as a singer in a national ethnoreligious organization.

Responses to the interviewer's question, "How do you like to identify yourself?" varied widely. Many daughters responded to the question about identity in a laughing tone of voice. The manner in which they made a quick response, together with their further commentaries and self-analysis, suggested that they had to explode a myth.

Daughters made reflective comments on how they responded to others who were curious or puzzled by their identity. They recognized that assumptions and judgments of difference in skin colour aroused such curiosity. They were aware that other Canadians or Australians racialized them as "other" and "different" from the white Canadian or Australian norm. They consciously chose which identity to claim as their own.

In many instances, a daughter would define the situation, then present herself and interact in the situation according to what was expected of a young woman of her age in that sociocultural context.

For example, a Grade 12 Sikh student in Halifax responded as follows,

I see myself as more Canadian than Indian, although the Indian part is there. I'm good at adapting to different situations and people. Indian people are different from ordinary Canadians. For example, in dealing with Indian elders, I'm more proper, submissive, because I'm younger. I'd speak out more [in my volunteer work] with hospital supervisors and social workers and with teachers than I would to a lady at the gurdwara. It would be rude to differ with her or to contradict her.[xliv]

 Nira Yuval-Davis (1994, 1997: 204) refers to this process as "transversal politics." Using terms coined by the Bologna Women's Resource Centre, she describes the process as "rooting and shifting":

The idea is that each participant in the dialogue brings with her the rooting in her own grouping, but tries at the same time to shift in order to put herself in a situation of exchange with women who have different groupings and identities.

For others, religion was an integral part of identity, although they were not believers. A 25-year old Canadian medical student analyzed how she identified herself in these terms,

It's hard for me to answer that because I think I alter my identification a lot depending on who is asking me (my emphasis). For example, suppose an elderly person in hospital wants to know where my parents are from. So, "Pakistani." I would say, "Canadian," if I'm away travelling. That would be my primary identification, I guess. I will say now [at this period of my life], "Muslim." When I was younger, I didn't believe in it, so I wouldn't say Muslim. Now it's part of my identity, even if it's not a part of my belief system. It's more important to me to identify with the Muslim community now that it's targeted in a lot of instances.I don't practice and a lot of people would not consider me Muslim because of that. It's not an easy identification for me, because I don't do the [Muslim] things. But it's not something I want to erase. A question like "Where are you from?" might have bothered me more in the past. For one thing, I've been very protected, I think, from a lot of racial dynamics. And another thing, probably because I am moving into a professional field where you have to deal with a lot of people, what's become more important to me is the spirit in which that question is asked. I think it's likely that a person of colour will be asked, "Where are you from?" .  Personally, it's a dual thing- how I think about myself. I'm not really "Canadian." Not really "Pakistani." I'd have to say that, in my own mind, it's definitely double. It's something I value. I haven't put it with a hyphen. Maybe because I have distanced myself from those Muslim communities to some degree. I don't really feel a part of them. Maybe that's what it is.[xlv]

This daughter shifted her self-representation to others in terms of the social and geographical context. Moreover, for her own self-identification, she chose "Muslim" as the most salient marker of identity. For her, a non-believer, religious identity was crucial. Her self-identification was a pro-active statement of resistance to a transnational negative representation of Muslims. Her comments as a Canadian supported Modood's (1997: 158) contention that, "Religion is much more central to British Asian ethnicity than many anti-racists would like to acknowledge."

Two Australian daughters, one in Melbourne, the other in Perth, both high school students, aged 15 and 17 years, respectively, identified themselves as Muslims. Each accepted not dating as part of her religious and cultural identity.  The 17-year old Muslim daughter, a lively young woman in her last year of high school, struggled to deal with my question, "How do you like to identify yourself?" In the following dialogue, she attempted to address important questions about who is Australian.

I usually say to people, "I'm Pakistani" - even though I was born here. [Interviewer: Do you know why you say 'Even though I was born here'?] For no real reason. When you say you are Australian, it's more like . When you say "Pakistani," it's more like your background, your parents and your culture and all that. [Interviewer: Can you finish that sentence, 'When you say you are Australian it's more like .?]   I can't explain it. Maybe they think you have that kind of culture, like Australians. You know, how they have a different kind of lifestyle. [Interviewer: Who?] Australians! (Laughs) [Interviewer: Whom do you mean by Australians?] At my school, everyone knows that we are all Australians. So we don't say that we are Australians. We say that we are Pakistani or Fiji or whatever. Everyone knows you are Australian, but they don't know your background, your religion, your culture - that kind of thing. [Interviewer: Have you anyone in your school who will say to you, "Well I'm Australian"?] [Laughs] I don't know. I have never really thought about it. Australian to me means different, different culture. I have quite a few friends who really are Australian. [Interviewer: What do you mean by that?] Well, they are English background, Irish, Scottish background, Anglo-Celtic. But they are not really Australians. They are not really different from me. If someone says they are Australian, they think of all different people, a multicultural country. That's Australian. But I have never really thought about it. It depends on where you are. Springvale (suburb) is mostly Chinese. But most suburbs are not like that.[xlvi]

Daughters addressed how they had experienced multiculturalism working out in their lives and in their identity construction. In general, they described positive experiences of multiculturalism. Multiculturalism was an integral aspect of being Canadian. Some of their responses were as follows,

I'm Canadian (her emphasis). I'm very proud to be born in Sri Lanka. It's not that I'm Indo-Canadian. Being Canadian includes multiculturalism. You don't need to add "Indo" on.[xlvii]

Another young woman saw multicultural Canada as mirroring the multiracial and multireligious world, namely,

It's a great country. It's full of multicultural communities. That's what the world is made of, all races, religions. Colour shouldn't be a differentiation for what a person is.[xlviii]

Another daughter commented that it gives one a specific ethnic identity and experience that one has in common with others and that one can share with other Canadians.[xlix] Another highlighted that multiculturalism validated "being different," yet Canadian:

It (multiculturalism) lets them (immigrants) know that it's okay to be different, to keep their own culture, especially the daughters. Mothers have tried to change and to keep their culture. They have gone through enough tribulation. They want their daughters to keep the culture and to understand it but also to let them grow as a Canadian, keeping morals, values and beliefs of their mothers. The morals and values of different ethnic backgrounds affect their daughters. Mine are very similar to my mother's morals, which were probably similar to her mother's.[l]

Probably the most telling indicator of how the young women lived out multiculturalism was provided by their accounts of whom they socialized with, dated or married. For example, at school, interviewees made friends and had discussions with students of many different cultures.

I learned about other cultures through friends. I was always interested in other cultures. I have been to Spain and other places.[li]

Another Halifax student related,

I think that multiculturalism is very important. Instead of just being in your own little circle for the rest of your life.. Our class is very mixed. There are Indians Pakistanis, Palestinians, Greeks, Canadians. It's a very mixed class. About 22 or 30. We have huge discussions in English class. It's a great class. It (i.e. Multiculturalism) is important. In our school especially. Our school is very proud to be the most multicultural school east of Montreal. It's good.[lii]

A 24-year old Vancouver student told a similar story of her high school experience. She stressed the anti-racist value of a multicultural educational experience for living in an interracial society as follows:

Because I went to a multicultural school, my friends to this day are Italian descent, Laotian descent, African-American decent, Muslim. We all are basically a MOSAIC ourselves. They are my friends. I feel that if you have multicultural education in school, it will help you and everyone around you. Those are the steps in avoiding racism. If you have the education, you will be able to fit into an interracial community; you will be more accepting of everyone else, more accepting of difference. It goes all the way back. That's why I'm so strong. I was raised in a multicultural society, having friends and knowing Italian, Filipino, Chinese, Black culture. There's so much religion and food difference, but so similar, so the same. The values and morals taught are the same.[liii]

A married woman expressed her reservations about the results of multiculturalism with respect to first- and second-generation immigrant women. Her hope for a better future with gender equity lay in education of the next generation and interracial marriages.

On the other hand, a Canadian post-secondary students articulated clearly the processes of boundary construction among ethnic and racial groups that "co-exist" together in a society. Her experience lent support to Anthias and Yuval-Davis's (1992:11-12) contention that racism does not necessarily involve a racialization process (as conceived by Miles), but may refer rather to the process of "inferiorizing ethnic groups." Some ethnic groups are constructed as inferior "not on the premise of a supposed racial categorization, but as cultural, political or national outsiders and undesirables."[liv] In this interviewee's reflection on experience, her own ethnic group practised racism towards other ethnic groups of recent migrant origins. For her, building a multicultural and multiracial community in a democratic society implied and demanded crossing ethnic and racial boundaries in friendships and everyday activities. At the same time, multicultural relationships shaped her own sense of identity."[lv] This thoughtful young woman attributed her commitment to multiculturalism and her choice of ongoing multicultural friendships to her socialization in family and early schooling contexts.

Nevertheless, a 23-year old Halifax interviewee had a less rosy view of the reality of multicultural Canada. She expressed awareness that multicultural discourse masked racism. Other Halifax interviewees observed that living, studying or working in a multiracial context made a difference to experience of racialization. In small towns, for example, women of colour were perceived and treated as "different" from the local norm.

Despite their experience of racialization of identity, by and large, and contrary to expectation, the Canadian interviewees expressed little experience of racist discrimination in their lives. In elementary school, several interviewees first encountered racism among their peers. They described children's taunting behaviour and derogatory racist remarks. They related how they responded or resisted racialization practices.

On the other hand, a Halifax university student perceptively described the interconnection of race and gender in her experience with a teacher as follows,

I would say that I have had sexism experiences. It's hard for me to identify racially enmeshed phenomena. I think of them more in terms of gender than in terms of race. Most are pretty subtle: for example, my instructor misunderstood my performance. We work in small groups, students and instructor. Right now, I'm being shut up by (male) persons in the group, as are other girls in the group. But my tutor is criticizing me for not speaking up. I don't think he understands that it's because I'm being intimidated [by men]. So it's a very subtle thing. More a lack of recognition. He doesn't see what's going on. More than that, it's an active sexist thing. But I think that it's a phenomenon he doesn't see. It's something that's not being reflected on when I get evaluated.[lvi]

In many ways, especially in school experiences, multiculturalism generally enhanced the lives of the Canadian young women in my studies. At the same time, from their perspective, multiculturalism fostered greater understanding and acceptance of cultural and religious diversity among other Canadians. For the most part, they had a rosy vision of the Canada of their future.

Bannerji (1993, 1996, 2000), Handa (1997) and other researchers have emphasized that race intersects with class, gender, sexuality and other factors, such as religion, in shaping identity, representation and lived experience. Racialization processes and racist practices, patriarchal sexism and classism set boundaries to daughters' inclusion, recognition and self-realization in Canadian or Australian society, respectively. Despite the daughters' birth in Canada or Australia and their accent, white Canadians or Australians identified them as "different" and "not really normal" Canadians or Australians because of their "colour visibility." Members of the dominant society racialized "Whiteness" as normative for "real" Canadians or Australians.[lvii] I would add that they also encoded Christian culture (as opposed to Christian belief-systems, spiritualities or institutions) as "normal" and superior. Canadians can recall the fuss over Sikh men claiming the right to wear their religious headdress as members of that icon of "Canadian-ness": the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.[lviii]

 White residents who posed questions like "Where are you from?" - then refused to accept the name of a Canadian or Australian city as a valid response  - represented the women as "other" than the norm. Cultural racism was superimposed upon biological racism[lix] in relations of ruling between socially defined and constructed Brown and White citizens.

The young women in my studies claimed their right to both South Asian-ness and Canadian-ness or Australian-ness. Neither Canadian nor Australian participants offered any significant critique of multiculturalism as a state policy, ideology or discourse that perpetuates a ruling apparatus of hegemonic Anglo-Celtic Christian European Canadian-ness or Australian-ness. Some interviewees conceded that multiculturalism had not made Canada or Australia an anti-racist utopia. They were unaware of critiques of multiculturalism in Canadian or Australian society.[lx]

Summary and conclusions

First-generation migrant women and their second-generation daughters in the multicultural and multiracial societies of Canada and Australia create, live and operate in "diaspora space" (Brah 1996). In that diasporic space, they constantly mediate and negotiate their identities and resisted racialization processes in everyday life. Articulating race, gender and class relations of ruling have been the catalyst for pro-active anti-racist and anti-sexist social criticism and resistance. Despite alienation from institutions of society and conditions of estrangement and disempowerment, migrant women in my studies created a positive personal and social identity as Canadians or Australians, respectively. They were rooted in their settlement country. At the same time they maintained multiple linkages with their source country and with extended family in the South Asian diaspora. They were, in Glick Schiller, Basch and Szanton Blanc's terms (1995), "transnational migrants."

Rooted in their mothers' cultural and religious identities, daughters in the studies consciously chose how they would act within family, their community and the larger society of their everyday world. They shared the popular culture of other youth. As daughters of South Asian immigrant women, they "subvert(ed) the normative boundaries of 'community' set by their parents" (Werbner 1997:18). In struggling with their own identity consciousness, "they often unsettle, contest and resist normative constructions.

Anti-racist and anti-sexist agency on the part of immigrant women and their daughters in social relations with other Canadians or Australians in diaspora spaces have fostered social transformation of multicultural and multiracial settlement societies. In terms of social policies and strategies, the evidence indicates that there is need for sharper focus on inequality, intersecting generational differences, gender, class and race relations, citizenship rights, minority status and anti-racism in pluralistic societies like Canada and Australia. (cf. Jayasuriya 1998, 1999).

My research suggested that some daughters, at least, if not some mothers also, construct transnational identities. Through travel to their parents' homeland and elsewhere, electronic communications and career patterns, their diaspora space of negotiation becomes transnational as well as local and national. They belong, in fact, to what Appadurai (1996:195) has referred to as "virtual neighborhoods of electronic communication." Their ability to shift identities in different social and cultural contexts 'at home' in their Canadian or Australian neighbourhood enables them to adapt to multiple cultural contexts in the transnational spaces of globalization.

Endnotes