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TRANSNATIONAL MIGRATION AND GENDER RELATIONS: THE CASE OF
LIBERIAN IMMIGRANT FAMILIES IN HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
by
Joseph Nyemah Nyemah
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Master of Arts
at
Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia
December 2007
© Copyright by Joseph Nyemah Nyemah, 2007
ii
DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT STUDIES
The undersigned hereby certify that they have read and recommend to the Faculty
of Graduate Studies for acceptance a thesis entitled
Transnational Migration and Gender Relations: The Case of Liberian Immigrant
Families in Halifax, Nova Scotia
By
Joseph Nyemah Nyemah
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts
Dated: _______________________________________
Supervisor: ________________________________
Dr. Pauline Gardiner Barber
Readers: ________________________________
Dr. Rebecca Tiessen
________________________________
Dr. David Black
iii
DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY
DATE: December 6th, 2007
AUTHOR: Joseph Nyemah Nyemah
TITLE: Transnational Migration and Gender Relations: The Case of Liberian Immigrant Families in Halifax, Nova Scotia
DEPARTMENT OR SCHOOL: Department of International Development Studies
DEGREE: MA CONVOCATION: May YEAR: 2008
Permission is herewith granted to Dalhousie University to circulate and to have copied for non-commercial purposes, at its discretion, the above title upon the request of
individuals or institutions.
______________________________
Signature of Author
The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the thesis nor extensive extracts
from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author‟s written permission.
The author attests that permission has been obtained for the use of any copyright material
appearing in the thesis (other than the brief excerpts requiring only proper
acknowledgement in scholarly writing), and that all such use is clearly acknowledged.
iv
DEDICATION
I will do myself injustice if I do not dedicate this thesis to myself. My story is the
story of the poor African child who grew up in a village where there is no telephone, a
trained physician and electricity even in the year 2007. I cannot remember how many
times I have had malaria. The distance between my dwelling house and schools I
attended was always not less than three kilometers, yet I traveled on foot. I must
appreciate my courage, perseverance and resilience from the poverty of the developing
world – a reason why I have studied development. Coming from a war ravaged country
like Liberia, obtaining a graduate degree from Dalhousie University in Canada is an
illustrious fulfillment of a huge dream.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication ………………………………...………………………………………...…....iv
Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………….vii
List of Abbreviations Used……………………………………………………………...viii
Glossary …………………………………………………………….................................ix
Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………….............x
Chapter One: Introduction……………………………………………………………...1
Chapter Two: Theoretical Underpinnings and Regional Profile …………………….4
2.1. Gender ……………………………………………………………………………......5
2.2. Transnationalism ………………………………………....…………………...….....12
2.3. Globalization ………………………………………………………………………..17
2.4. Regional Profiles ……………………………………………………………………25
2.4.1. Racism, Forced Migration and the Creation of Liberia…………………...25
2.4.2. Liberia, a Mockery of Freedom and a Unique Form of Colonialism …….28
2.4.3. Freed Slaves and the Natives: a Cycle of Oppression ……………………29
2.4.4. Civil War, Displacement and Transnationalism ……………………….…31
2.4.5. A Geopolitical Perspective on the Liberian Conflict within West Africa ..32
2.4.6. The Canadian Immigration Context ………………………………………33
Chapter Three: Key Concepts and Research Methodology…………………………38
3.1. The Household: a Key Site for Gender Relations …………………….………...…..38
3.2. Patriarchy: Control over Financial Income and Procreation ……………………..…47
3.3. Capitalism and Gender Relations …………………...………………………………52
3.4. Masculinities and Culture as Concepts of Gender Relations ……………………….59
3.5. Power and Culture as Gender Concepts ………………………………………….....64
3.6. Methodology ………………….…………………………………………………….67
3.7. Semi-Structured Interview Guide ……………………………………………….….68
3.8. Recruitment Process ……………………………………………..………………….70
3.9. Data Collection ……………………………………………………………………..71
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3.10. Data Analysis ………………………………………………………………...……73
3.11. Challenges..…………………………………………..…………………………….74
Chapter Four: Migrating From Liberia to Canada: Implications for Gender
Relations…………………………………………………………………………………75
4.1. Profiles of the Participants ………………………………………………………….75
4.2. Migrating to Canada: Why Canada? Decision-Making within the Family, and the Role of Aid Agencies …………………………………………………………….…79
4.3. Refugee Life and Constructed Male Power ………… …………………………..…83
4.4. The Family Head: a Contested Position upon Arrival in Canada………….………..86
4.5. Employment, Control of Income and Gender Relations in Canada ………….……..89
4.6. Domestic Budgeting and Gender Relations ………………………………….……..91
4.7. Gender Divisions of Labor and Migration ………………………………………….93
4.8. Domestic Technology, Western Life and Gender Relations ……………………….96
4.9. Challenges and Opportunities after Migrating to Canada ………………………….97
4.10. Differences Between Canadian and Liberian Families ……………….…………..99
Chapter Five: New Citizenship Priorities; New Gender Norms ….……………….101
5.1. The Dream of “Living in the Cold” ……………………………………………….101
5.2. Gender Citizenship ………………………………………………………………...103
Chapter Six: Conclusion ……………………………………………………………..111
Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………...115
Appendix 1: Consent Form …………………………………………………………….129
vii
ABSTRACT
This thesis investigates whether there is a relationship between transnationalism and changing gender relations within Liberian immigrant couples in Halifax, Nova
Scotia, Canada. Drawing on feminist research, a qualitative approach is used to study the migration histories of five Liberian couples. The thesis argues that migration is accompanied by a renegotiation of gender relations in decision-making processes
concerning domestic budgeting, household labor, and control over personal income. Concepts of gendered citizenship, such as employment, freedom, male and female
equality, and language are identified as critical factors which influence changing gender relations in the context of transnationalism. The thesis posits that by granting resettlement opportunities to couples from some developing countries, Canada is indirectly
contributing to the promotion of gender equality.
viii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED
ACS: American Colonization Society
ADAM: African Diaspora Association of the Maritimes
AWPSG: African Women Peace Support Group
CAD: Canadian Dollar
DR Congo: Democratic Republic of Congo
DVD: Digital Video Disc
ECOWAS: Economic Communities of West African States
GFA: Globalization from Above
GFB: Globalization from Below
IMF: International Monetary Funds
MISA: Metropolitan Immigrant Settlement Association
NGOs: Non Governmental Organizations
SAPs: Structural Adjustment Programs
UN: United Nations
UNHCR: United Nations High Commissions for Refugees
USD: United States Dollar
WB: World Bank
WFP: World Food Program
WTO: World Trade Organization
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GLOSSARY
Khran: An ethnic group in Liberia. This was the ethnic group of former President
Samuel Doe.
Women’s palaver not be easy: This is an expression in the local English of Liberia and
Sierra Leone, meaning women are troublesome
Family size: The extended family system in Liberia and the African context in general
makes this term very fluid. It can refer to a couple, their children and ageing parents,
siblings, cousins, and friends; it can also be limited to people contributing to and eating
from the same pot. The latter is what I refer to in this thesis.
x
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Dr. Pauline Gardiner Barber, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology
and Social Anthropology, Dalhousie University is an inspirational person. I took lots of
confidence and courage from the respect she showed for my thoughts. Without her
support as my supervisor, I would not have completed this thesis in 2007. I am also
appreciative of the supervision of Dr. Rebecca Tiessen, former chair of the Department of
International Development Studies, Dalhousie University. Despite being relocated to
Kingston, Ontario, Dr. Tiessen showed great commitment and interest in supervising me.
I will always remember working with her. My third reader, Dr. David Black who is the
current chair of the Department of International Development Studies was also a
contributor to the successful completion of this thesis. A three minute telephone call from
Dr. Barber was enough to convince him to serve as my third reader. I am very
appreciative of the support from all of them.
1
Chapter One
Introduction
This thesis investigates whether there is any relationship between transnational
migration and changing gender relations. Incessant political instabilities, inequitable
sharing of resources and natural disasters in many parts of the world are uprooting
millions of people from their homes. While most of these people are internally displaced
within their home countries, a significant number are forced across national borders.
Some remain in refugee camps indefinitely, while others are resettled in western
countries. Also, on a daily basis, economic globalization influences the movements of
huge numbers of people across national borders. Proprietors of big and small
corporations are looking for cheap labors and high profits, while the poor search for
employment, better incomes and improved living conditions. Often, these movements
involve married couples who have to adapt to a new political, economic, social and
cultural context of life.
My thesis contributes to a new chapter in the history of gender scholarship, by
exploring the links between transnationalism and gender relations among the immigrant
population in Halifax, Canada, from Liberia which is also my home country. Uprooted by
a devastating civil conflict, the Liberian immigrant population transited through refugee
camps in West Africa before settling in Canada. Between 2004 and 2007, the United
Nations assisted 90,000 Liberian refugees who had been repeatedly displaced and
continued to search for permanent settlement around the world (UNCHR, 2007). There is
limited research that comparatively analyses women‟s experiences as they migrate from
place to place as a consequence of conflict (see Preston et al., 2004; Giles and Hyndman,
2
2004). My thesis helps break this silence by looking at the potentially changing and
dynamic gender relations within the context of Liberian immigrants in Halifax, Nova
Scotia.
Drawing upon socialist feminist research as a guide, this thesis asks how gender
relations, including power differences, decision-making processes, household budget
management and divisions of labor have been affected within Liberian couples during
their sojourn in refugee camps, and settlement in Canada. Settling into a new country
involves the ability to integrate and the exercise of a new citizenship. In businesses, on
buses, in churches, and at work, Liberians are regularly encountering Canadian ways of
life. Modern media, including televisions, the internet and mobile phones provide regular
exposure to different aspects of Canadian culture for members of the Liberian immigrant
community. Using qualitative research methodologies I examine how the Liberian
community reacts to these encounters with a focus on gender relations.
Migration entails crossing cultural boundaries, experiencing another culture, and
making a new home in a new country (Tastsoglou, 1998). In the context of refugee life,
dependence on food aid and remittances, and not having the legal status to work do not
exempt people from some of the social and economic transformations faced by immigrant
families. My thesis employs open-ended questions to investigate the implications such
transformations have on gender relations particularly, with regards to power and
decision-making processes and control over personal incomes within Liberian immigrant
families. This thesis argues that migration to Canada is indeed accompanied by a
renegotiation of gender relations in the specified areas thereby contributing new insights
to gender scholarship.
3
I have repeatedly used the words “household, family and couple” interchangeably
in the thesis. I acknowledge the risk of generalizing, and hereby caution that both
households and families can take many different forms in different contexts. Considering
the research question of the thesis, combined with the understanding that gender relations
intersect with several social and economic vectors, the study is focused on five Liberian
couples to ensure a thorough examination of the targeted issues. The first chapter reviews
key theoretical issues such as gender, transnationalism and globalization, which are major
concepts guiding my analysis of underpinning factors for population displacement in
Liberia. The chapter ends with a presentation of the regional profile of Liberia and the
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the citizenship and
immigration context within Canada during the study period.
Chapter two explores feminist scholarship and such relevant gender concepts as
the household, patriarchy, masculinities and power. The chapter examines how capitalism
articulates with gender and migration, and ends with the methodological framework of
the research. The third chapter presents results of the field research. The analysis is a
chronological presentation of gender relations within the participant couples during their
stay in Liberia, the sojourn in refugee camps, and their current circumstances in Canada.
At every stage, I examine concepts such as decision-making processes, employment and
the breadwinners‟ roles, control of income and domestic budgeting, and the position of
head of household. The thesis ends with a fourth, fifth and sixth chapters, reviewing the
relevant academic literature that guides my analysis of the field study data. The final
section contains conclusions of the thesis.
4
Chapter Two
Theoretical Underpinnings and Regional Profile
Feminism embraces a strong sensitivity to issues that affect women. In
governmental politics, local economies and the delivery of social services, socialist
feminist researchers have been very productive in pointing out embedded gender
injustices that are often overlooked by society. Feminist analysis reveals that unequal
access to education between boys and girls in Sub-Saharan Africa is linked to retrograde
policies by national governments, and some cultural practices (Bloch et al., 1998). Using
the same framework, the African Women and Peace Support Group (AWPSG) argues
that in the process of ending forced migration and violence against women through the
restoration of peace in Liberia, women made significant contributions, yet they struggled
for accreditation during peace negotiations (AWPSG, 2004). In these circumstances,
socialist feminists have succeeded in exposing structural injustices which are embedded
in dominant practices. Some of these practices often remain unquestioned by society
arguing that they are cultural.
Drawing upon socialist feminist research perspectives, I present in this chapter,
the key theoretical issues – gender, transnaltionalism and globalization, which propelled
this study. I outline the political history of Liberia within the West African regional
context with a particular focus on gender and migration. I also describe the relevant
immigration context for Canada and the province of Nova Scotia with emphasis on the
city of Halifax, where I conducted this research. I argue that governmental politics and
culture can spur migration and counter or exacerbate oppressive gender practices.
5
2.1. Gender
Gender has been repeatedly conceptualized and employed in varying ways by
different authors. Feminists seemed to have initially conceptualized gender to reject
biological determinism by articulating various differences in the cultural constructs of
femininity and masculinity. As gender unfolds as a popular field of study within the
social sciences, new epistemological issues are also introduced. Some scholars see gender
as relations of power manifested in domination and subordination (Mackinnon, 1987;
Gordon, 1988). Gender has been presented as a consequence of language (Spender 1980),
and as a structural feature of labor and power (Connell, 1987). It has been used to
demonstrate the use of power (de Lauretis, 1987; Bartky, 1988; Sawicki, 1991) and to
characterize the structure of the psyche (Chodorow, 1978). Power is a recurrent concept
within many characterizations of gender.
“Gender is a set of roles which like costumes or masks in the [a] theatre,
communicates to other people that we are feminine or masculine” (Mosse, 1993, p. 2).
Often, society informs us as to whom we are. Gender is perceived in terms of status
(Lopata and Thorne 1978), and articulated as an internalized ideology (Grant, 1993), as
socialization (Gilligan 1982; Ruddick, 1980) and the product of attribution (Kessler and
Mckenna, 1978). Gender is referred to as the basis of social organizations of relationships
between men and women (Mackinnon, 1987; Barret, 1980); and employed to analyze
differences in the distribution of burdens and benefits in society (Walby, 1986; Connell,
1987; Boneparth and Stoper, 1988); also, as a structure of consciousness (Rowbotham,
1973). Often, ideological differences about the status of “head of household” and the
6
unequal sharing of domestic work burdens are among the central issues that dominate
discussions gender theories and practices.
Epistemological contributions on the concept of gender are endless. Hawkesworth
(2006) must be credited for developing an inventory of how gender as a concept has been
used by different authors. She discovered that gender has been presented as individual
identity and aspiration (Butler, 1990; Epperson, 1988); as attributes of individuals (Bem,
1983); as interpersonal relations (Spelman, 1998); as a mode of social organization
(Firestone, 1970; Eisenstein, 1979); as a “prison house” (Cornell and Thurschwell, 1986,
p. 17) for some women whose freedom is often denied or restricted by certain gender
beliefs and practices and as inherently liberating (Irigaray, 1985b; Smith, 1992) for some
men who thrive from women‟s oppression. It is conceptualized as a universal
phenomenon (Lerner, 1986) and as an historically specific consequence of modernity‟s
increasing sexualization of women (Laqueur, 1990; Riley, 1988). Gender has been cast in
terms of binary oppositions, variable and varying continua, and in terms of a layering of
personality, also as a difference (Irigaray, 1985a & 1985b). Hawkesworth (2006) argues
that the different views of different authors suggest that their concerns can be
incorporated into a sophisticated, but holistic conceptualization of gender.
Hawkesworth (2006) clearly points out that cognizant of the contributions of the
argument presented by different feminist scholars; postmodern feminists chose to further
conceptualize gender by attempting to incorporate the views of different scholars and by
attending to the nuances of interpretation and individual subjectivities. Hence, she cites
Joan Scott (1986) who defines gender as a concept involving two interrelated but
analytically distinct parts. Scott (1986) claims that gender is a constitutive element of
7
social relationships based on perceived (or interpreted) differences between the sexes. A
key indication, in all of these contributions, is that gender is a constructed ideology.
I do not intend in this thesis to coin another definition of gender, but rather, to
locate gender in the practical contexts of Liberia and Canada respectively. I pay particular
attention to some concepts such as power, subordination, domestic labor sharing, and
consequence of language deployed to navigate the social, cultural and economic contexts
of Liberia and Canada. Like many African countries, Liberia is a patriarchal society built
around a culture of dominant male influences, which asserts men as superior to women
both in the home and in public domains. In rural areas of Liberia where different African
cultures are predominant, men are socially positioned as leaders and major decision
makers, though there are cases where women are elected or appointed as village chiefs.
Within the leadership ranks of government and churches, men pre-dominantly occupy
senior positions as opposed to women, many of whom work as clerks.
I emphasize here that my assertion that women are less powerful in Liberia must
be interpreted with caution. In the public where women are often taken for granted, and at
home where they often face violence, Liberian women have always negotiated for a share
of power. For example, Massa Washington spoke about women‟s lobbying to enter a
conference sponsored by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
in 2003. She said:
We had written to ECOWAS… that the women of Liberia wanted to be represented at this conference, again they did not take us seriously. They thought we were joking, so we proceeded to invite ourselves. We lobbied for tickets and then at the end of the day, we got tickets for six women. But interestingly, most of our benefactors were men…. In the private sector, men from civil society (Massa Washington cited in AWPSG, 2004).
8
Liberian women were also very influential revealing their power in resolving the Liberian
civil conflict. The head of state who organized the first postwar elections was a woman
(Ruth Sando Perry), and another woman (Ellen Johnson Sirleaf) is currently an elected
president of the country. Also, research shows that market women and farming men in
urban cities and rural towns respectively are viewed by the Liberian public as equals,
because they are equally breadwinners in their respective homes (Moran, 1990). Several
women served as military commanders during the conflict and others are currently
serving as elected village chiefs, police officers and senators in government, though they
continue to constitute a minute proportion of women in relation to men.
To better understand male and female disparity both in public and domestic
domains, several factors such as education, poverty and the political history of Liberia
must be considered. A study done in Liberia in 2006 shows that the net enrollment rate
for boys and girls in primary schools is 61.4% males against 34.12% females (Liberia,
2007). Historically, there have been more men who proceed through the educational
system of the country than women. This explains, partly why there are more men who are
employed for wages than women.
There is, also, a cultural element which must be highlighted. Some families in
rural areas would prefer to socialize girls to remain in the domestic sphere while allowing
boys to pursue formal education. This practice is not disconnected from some capitalist
influences, where most jobs are designed to suit men‟s capacities (gendered skills sets
and interests) while keeping women unemployed. For example, the professional
employment sector in Liberia is dominated by field agricultural positions which are
highly physical and regarded by society as unsafe for women. The lack of employment
9
opportunities for women often leaves them economically powerless and therefore they
are positioned in households to function as unpaid “servants” for their husbands. This
demonstrates how gender can be understood as “a prison house” for women (Cornell and
Thurschwell, 1986). Gender norms imprison women, in a sense, by confining them to
particular spaces, roles, identities and activities. The prison metaphor is important
because it reveals the way in which women lack freedom to make choices or the barriers
that prevent them from empowerment. This “prison house” for women and the gender
norms which maintain it are liberating for men (Irigaray, 1985b; Smith, 1992) because
men are freed from the domestic responsibilities and other work that is deemed women‟s
work. Some women are drawn into marriages constituting polygamous families, which
they cannot easily oppose due to a lack of economic autonomy and because of cultural
pressure to marry. And in some contexts, women are directly or indirectly restricted from
participation in public spaces and confined to their homes.
There is no law which forbids women from owning property in Liberia, but most
economically productive property such as land and houses is owned by men. For
example, in many married homes, property is registered under the names of men only.
The contentious justification used in this case is that men are the ones who earn the
money. Inheritance of property also favors male children, confirming the argument that
gender forms the basis for the distribution of economic benefits in society (Walby, 1986;
Connell, 1987; Boneparth and Stoper, 1988). Sons are often the beneficiaries of their
parents‟ patrimony. The explanation is that girls are strangers, who are destined for other
families through marriage. This is synonymous with the argument that gender is an
internalized ideology (Grant, 1993).
10
Language in Liberia as is common within the West African region generally,
often tends to subordinate women, supporting the theoretical argument that gender is
reflected in, if not a consequence of language (Spender, 1980). Another feminist writer,
Pandey (2004) questions the rationale and functionality of the gendered and sexist
representation of women in the work of West African writers. In their popular songs,
Liberian musicians use phrases such as “woman palaver not be easy” or woman is a big
burden, “when you marry yellow woman you take trouble” and “women are tricky.” This
kind of language projects an inferior picture of women as dependents and as liabilities for
men. The work of these writers and artists are popular within the region and influence
gender relations in a way that presents women as inferior to men.
How is gender constructed in Canada and how are the constructed practices
different from the Liberian context? In Canada, equality is legitimized in the legal system
(social justice), and by social norms, while the economic system is governed by a
combination of legal requirements and economic principles (Denis, 2006). The role of
law and social norms in ensuring some forms of nominal equality and equity in the
distribution of resources is not the same as in Liberia. For example, in providing
education as a benefit to Liberian society, donors and governments are focused on
efficiency in their rationales for programs related to girls, not on the philosophy or value
of equity (Stromquist, 1998). This gender difference between the two countries, also
articulates with the argument that gender is used in the distribution of benefits in society
(Walby, 1986; Connell, 1987; Boneparth and Stoper, 1988). On this particular
comparison regarding education, I acknowledge that there are numerous social and
11
economic factors which must be analyzed in such comparison before arriving at a
comprehensive conclusion.
Some of the reasons associated with the limited access to education for many
females in Liberia are related to parental attitudes, the demand for female labor, and early
pregnancy (Brenner, 1998). In some parts of the country, the majority of elementary
school teachers are males. Sadker and Sadker (1984) claim that male teachers have more
interactions in classes with boys than girls. This is not the case in the Canadian
educational system, where females predominate in elementary school education.
It is, however, an injustice to Canadian post-modern feminists to speak about
gender constructions and practices in Canada without pointing out the incidence of
subordinations and discriminations against immigrant women. It is worth noting that it is
not just immigrant women who face gender inequality in Canada. There are multiple
forms of oppression and gender-based inequalities for women in all socio-economic
groups and ethnic groups. “On the Canadian Labor market, immigrant women of color
are increasingly being used as flexible and disposable labor, suited to the demands of the
globalized economy” (De Wolff, 2003; Vosko, & Cranford, 2003; cited in Man, 2004, p.
137). Many of the dirty domestic jobs in the city of Halifax, and other parts of Canada are
occupied by working class and/ or immigrant women, particularly those of color. The
Liberian immigrant women who participated in this study are overwhelmed with such
jobs, which are labor intensive and pay nothing more than minimum wage ($7.15 per
hour). This phenomenon shows that gender issues are often entwined with other factors
such as race, ethnicity and class.
12
2.2. Transnationalism
Over the past two decades, businesses, the communications industry and human
movements have strongly challenged the limitations on mobility inherent in geography.
This has prompted new terms such as transnational corporations, transnational networks
and transnational migration. Transnationalism must be seen with relationship to static and
declining economies and political instability in the global south, declining demographic
structures in the global north, and a booming universal market of prostitution and human
trafficking. As a "global phenomenon, it [transnationalism] takes into account the context
of globalization and economic uncertainty that facilitates the construction of world wide
networks” (Kastoryano, 2002, p. 1). Socialist feminists often associate transnationalism
with social formations spanning national borders (Vertovec, 1999). In this section, I
investigate whether existing scholarly work has uncovered links between the
deconstruction and reformation of gender identities, and transnationalism.
Transnationalism is a social morphology, type of consciousness, mode of cultural
reproduction, avenue of capital, site of political engagement, and (re) construction of
“place” or locality (Vertovec, 1999). A suggestion here is that transnationalism has the
ability to transform an individual, a couple, a family, a group or a community. In such a
context, gender could also be affected. However, over the past 100 years, scholarly
research has not done much to investigate the links between transnationalism and gender
identities (Pessar, 2003). In recent years, it has been argued that transnational studies
should carefully look at how gender identities in post-migration are established in regards
to integration, adaptation, citizenship and civil engagement through a qualitative
13
approach (Tastsoglou, 2006). Such an approach could make significant contributions as
migration and gender are woven into complex social issues.
After migration, families find themselves in situations where they are emotionally
attached to their current and former locations (Chamberlain & Leyesdoff, 2002). They
grapple with multiple cultural practices. This is the psychological dimension of gendered
citizenship which is often accompanied by migration (Tastsoglou, 1998). The
psychological shocks experienced in post-migration raise several questions about the
process of migration. For example, what information do migrants gather before
migrating, and who in the family is most affected by such cultural shocks? On the latter
question, existing research reveal that after migration, women are more likely to
experience a sense of attachment in a new location because they come in close contact
with school boards, local families, and so forth due to their gender-based roles as care-
givers and mothers (Tastsoglou, 1998). While this contribution is useful in
comprehending integration, it doesn‟t reveal to us the person who struggles within
families to maintain or shed cultural attachments with the place of origin. Research is
needed to investigate the shifting gendered responsibilities and the ways in which new
migrants (often women) take on specific gendered responsibilities as a form of cultural
preservation. These same responsibilities, however, in the Canadian context, may
contribute to changing gender relations within the family and the establishment of new
gender norms.
Transnationalism is a “process by which immigrants forge and sustain multi-
stranded social relations that links together their societies of origins and settlement”
(Basch, Glick Schiller and Szanton Blac, 1994, p. 7). A study in London reveals that
14
some Bangladeshi immigrant women resist factory work arguing that they come from
richer families in Bangladesh, where such jobs are viewed as disgraceful by members of
their social class (Kabeer, 2000). This is referred to as the double consciousness of
gender citizenship engendering the interplay of social and economic citizenships of the
countries of origin and settlement (Tastsoglou, 1998). However, I argue here again that
many migration literatures do not provide us an understanding of how men and women
react differently or similarly to contexts of post-migration.
In a study examining transnational migration and gender, Mexican and
Dominican women were found to favor staying in the United States, as opposed to men
who expressed the desire to return home to enjoy their constructed superiority over
women (Pessar and Mahler, 2003). The authors also argue that Guatamalan refugee
camps became strategic sites for struggles over women‟s and men‟s human rights and
citizenship. Refugee women expressed confidence about returning home with new ideas
on gender parity. Morokvasic‟s (1998) contribution to the discussion indicates that
migration may accelerate the process of questioning male power and consciousness
raising for women, not only because it entails economic independence for women from
men but because it frees women from the grip of a binding and watchful community of
origin. This literature suggests that the outcomes of migration have different cultural and
gender implications for women and men.
The impact of transnationalism on gender relations might not always be uniform.
It could be different from couple to couple, or between different cultural groups. Some
migrants “preserve and reinvent their culture in places separated perhaps by an airline
journey of a day or two” (Almeida, 1995, p. 1). Eritrean women in Canada are pressuring
15
their men to get involved in domestic work since they and the men are equally working
outside of the home (Matsuoka et al., 1999). On the contrary, Somali women do not
pressure their husbands arguing that it is important to preserve their culture (Mohamed,
1999). These experiences show that differences in adapting to the context of post-
migration can influence the shaping of cultural values. However, an interesting theme
articulated in this literature is that some of the changes which accompany migration can
be resisted or accepted.
There are, also, situations in which transnationlism stimulates changes in gender
relations within the country of origin, as opposed to the country of settlement. Research
shows that as a consequence of Sri Lankan women‟s migration to the Middle East to seek
employment, changes in gender hierarchies and spousal conflicts arose locally and
nationally (Gamburd, 1995). The author argues that as most of the women were
returning with some sums of money, they began to assume the roles of wage-earners and
breadwinners in their communities and homes respectively. Gamburd (1995) claims that
these changes threatened the positions of men who did not have equal financial power. It
is essential to point out that these changes threatened masculinities and patriarchy. Also,
it is worth noting that these changes were stimulated by a combination of
transnationalism, globalization and capitalism. However, further research is needed to
investigate the sustainability of gender changes introduced by migrant women who return
home from a different culture.
From another vantage point, transnationalism can be accompanied by various
forms of abuses and gender oppressions. The Canadian government‟s immigration
proposal of 1998, which calls for the reinforcement of the family class as the traditional
16
cornerstone of its immigrant program is challenged by several scholars as facilitating
gender violence and oppression in post-migration (Thobani, 1999; Mcdonald, 1999; and
Macklin, 1999). Thobani (1999) argues that in the case of migrant couples, it makes
women dependents upon husbands, and within the economy, it obscures their economic
work. McDonald (1999) argues that often it is the male who applies and receives a visa,
and permanent resident status, before sponsoring the migration of his wife. When a
woman arrives and wants to adapt to the Canadian ways of life by renegotiating male and
female power relations, she faces threats from the man on grounds that he can cancel the
sponsorship. Men who do so often claim that they were forced into marriages of
convenience, which is used by them as a justification to deport wives in those cases
where men become frustrated or unsupportive of women‟s changing roles and position in
society.
The reviewed literature under transnationalism reveals several issues. The
deconstruction and reformation of cultural and gender identities are a crucial issue in
post-migration. Migrants psychologically struggle to adapt to new cultures while at the
same they have to deal with maintaining or abandoning the cultures of their homeland. A
theoretical point that must be highlighted here is that culture is not fixed and can be
reconfigured gradually or rapidly in post-migration. Changes may refer nostalgically to
an idealized past gender hierarchy or a new more equitable concept of gender norms. We
also see that migration has different implications for men and women. Most of the
differences are influenced by their gender constructed roles in society. For example,
women are more likely to encounter the culture of their new locations because of their
involvement with family affairs which often serves as major conduits for cultural values.
17
We also see that transnationalism can encourage women to engage in a renegotiation of
gender relations, though this new attitude can often meet resistance from men.
2.3. Globalization
“In broad terms it [globalization] reflects the growing links between people,
communities, and economies around the world” (World Bank, 2002, p. 325). The Bank
argues that globalization is not new, and can be traced back to the first wave of global
integration between 1870 and 1914, when transportation was improved and tariff barriers
were reduced. This period is also referred to as the “golden age” of globalization (Santo,
2005). Globalization during this period was driven by forces of trade and finance as well
as migration in the “so-called New World” (Santo, 2005, p. 1). In this section of the
thesis, I focus on the interconnections between globalization, the new global economy,
and their corollaries on transnationalism and gender relations.
Globalization is highly related to neoliberal economic theory. Neoliberalism “is
based on the belief that markets are competitive, or can be made competitive by
deregulation, and that competitive markets, based on private ownership, produce the most
efficient economies and highest levels of welfare” (Bowles, 2005, p. 68). It is within the
framework of this argument that we see the flow of international mobile capitals, which
harness the forces of comparative advantage and place producers where production
conditions are best. Increasingly, there are movements of large multinational
corporations from the north to the south. Accompanied by the relocations of these
multinational corporations are numerous human rights abuses, particularly affecting
18
women and children who migrate to urban centers and neighboring countries to work
tirelessly for low wages.
Globalization then is a process by which countries are incorporated into one
competitive international market driven by rapidly growing technology and economies of
scale, sustained by unimpeded market access, and governed by the international financial
institutions – World Bank (WB), International Monetary Funds (IMF) and the World
Trade Organization (WTO). New communication mechanisms are so powerful such that
a garment design conceived in New York can be transmitted electronically to a factory in
Taiwan, and the first batches of the products received in San Francisco in a week‟s time,
(Castells, 1980; cited in Portes, 1997). The crucial issue here is that this new system was
supposed to result in the competitive integration of the global South into the productive
markets of the Northern developed countries (Guthrie, 2006). Sadly, this has not, and will
not easily work due to an inherent power imbalance between poor and rich countries in
the process of globalization.
“Wherever globalization impinges, inequality deepens. From Mexico to Japan, the
rich are getting richer, while the poor are becoming more desperate and numerous”
(Mandle, 2004). One key consequence of the growing inequalities between rich and poor
countries is the phenomenon of migration as citizens of poor countries strive to find
greener economic conditions. For about two decades now, Sub-Saharan Africa continues
to witness a massive movement of young people who are eager to enter Europe by any
means (BBC, 2007). Some of these migrants from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote
D‟Ivoire are driven by political instabilities which are partly fueled by corrupt
international traders who illegally control the resources of these countries. Others from
19
Ghana and Nigeria are simply driven by economic inequalities and poverty, which are
partly propelled by neoliberal policies of the international financial institutions.
Closely related to the neocolonial aspects of globalization is its undemocratic or
even anti-democratic nature. The application of neoliberal policies in the form of
Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) essentially saw the state as an obstacle that
should be removed from the economic sphere. The economies of poor countries were
opened to foreign companies (Sassen, 2000). Restructuring policies forcibly rolled back
the state apparatus and in so doing brought economic policy to the global system level,
outside the realm of the popular masses, particularly women and children, who bear the
brunt of the policies (Niva, 1999). SAPs threaten women farmers‟ abilities to earn an
income and to ensure household food security (Kabeer, 1994; Giles & Hyndman, 2004).
In his article entitled „who calls the shots” Fraser (2005) argues that SAPs stimulated
unemployment, closure of traditional industries oriented to local contexts and has
promoted wide spread of poverty. Many people in Africa, and even some government
officials who were in some ways involved in planning and implementing the SAP project,
would agree with this claim.
Feminists are concerned about the undermining of the nation-state and the social
consequences – gender, race, class and migrant status. Globalization challenges the
ability of the nation-state to ensure that sufficient resources are provided to their citizens
on an everyday basis, thus creating a crisis of legitimacy within such states (Giles &
Hyndman, 2004). Deleterious upshots of globalization, such as reduced access to health
care, education, child care, and other state-provided benefits and services, have been
experienced disproportionately and painfully by women throughout the world, from war
20
zones to refugee camps, factories offices, and homes. As women need to support their
families, they have been forced to take a central stage in the phenomenon of migration, as
evidenced in Asia and Latin America. This trend has feminized survival processes within
the era of globalization (Sassen, 2000). In these processes of migration, women are often
exploited and abused as they seek to access better resources for family survival.
Effects of globalization are strongly associated with transnationalism.
“Contemporary core-bound immigration is not an optional process, but one driven by the
structural requirements of advanced capitalist accumulation” (Portes, 1997, p. 7). The
author claims that in Germany and France, despite official closure of the foreign guest
worker program in the 1970s, immigrant communities have continued to grow. Germany
currently has a foreign population of about 7 million (Portes, 1997). In ethnically
homogenous Japan, labor scarcity is also stimulating various forms of migration
programs. Portes (1997) contends that people who travel should not be called immigrants
but transnationals because they contribute to the economic conditions of host countries.
The current immigration crisis, which pits ordinary Americans concerned about their job
security and feeling threatened by immigrants against the interests of corporate
Americans selling low waged jobs, is a good example of this controversial phenomenon.
Globalization serves as a conduit for resource exploitation and various forms of
political instability in the global south particularly in Africa. The articulation of global
capital investment from the North with armed conflict in the South is synonymous to
earlier colonial intervention on the continent (Macklin, 2004). The “blood diamond”
trade in Angola, Sierra Leone and Liberia for example, fueled conflicts in those countries
by paying for arms and deepening militarization among ethnic, religious and political
21
groups. Three companies (Rex Diamond, AmCan Minerals, and DiamondWorks) that
were involved in the diamond trade of Sierra Leone were also trading on Canadian stock
exchanges (Smilie, Gaberie, and Hazelton, 2000). Such trade links question the
development agendas of northern countries. But more perturbing is the correlation which
exists between the international trade of these resources and gendered violence against
women.
There are other cases in which the flow of international capitals directly
depopulates entire villages to take full control of their resources. In recent years,
Canadians have been embarrassed by activities of Canadian companies in the oil industry
of Sudan. Talisman, a Canadian company, contributed to the displacement of a
significant population of Sudanese, who ended up as refugees in Canada (Giles &
Hyndman, 2004). Talisman and other companies working in Sudan expect the dictatorial
and brutal Sudanese government to protect oil fields from locals, particularly women who
are seen by their advocates as deserving to live on the land of their ancestors (Amnesty
International 2000; cited in Macklin, 2004). The links between oil related development
and forced displacement of local people is not disconnected from human rights
violations. Women and children are insidiously affected.
Globalization contributes to the continuation of colonial divisions of labor and
undemocratic forms of governance (Guthrie, 2006). Expanding on the division of labor,
Pessar (1995) argues that women who migrate to developed countries are caught in
menial and low paying domestic jobs. Some of the Liberian immigrant women who took
part in this study are good examples of the phenomenon of difficult work (cleaning
homes and hotels) over long hours (8 to 12 hours per day) only for minimum wage ($7.20
22
CAD per hour). Parrenas (2000), and Stasiulis and Bakan (2000) also raise serious
questions about the involvement of immigrant women in dirty domestic work in Western
countries. Others who remain in their countries are drawn into low safety and labor
intensive factory jobs (Kabeer, 2000). There are numerous cases in Southeast Asia today.
Another vulnerable group, particularly young girls, continue to fall prey to
international tycoons who profit from the business of prostitution (Miles, 2003). “The sex
industry, previously considered marginal, has come to occupy a strategic and central
position in the development of international capitalism” (Richard, 2003, p. 2). The
industrialization of sex trade and its legalization in many western countries such as
Holland and Italy provide more incentives for trafficking women, and raise serious
questions about the commitment of these countries in improving the status of women
worldwide.
As I have earlier mentioned, it is evidenced that globalization weakens the state,
but while it has weakened some states, it has deliberately enhanced the power of others.
This perspective holds that the core capitalist states have used globalization to expand
their own power, often at the expense of the developing world (Guthrie, 2006). The
imperialist nature of neoliberal globalization can be illustrated in a number of ways.
First, it draws upon an econocentric theory developed in the North being imposed on the
South as a condition of financial assistance. Second, current practices by the European
Union and the United States regarding domestic agricultural support painfully shadows
the unequal treaties of imperial conquest (Nyemah, 2006). The core capitalist countries
force developing countries to tear down all barriers to trade and open their markets;
23
however, the developed countries keep in place their multi-billion dollar per year subsidy
programs allowing them to dominate international markets.
One consequence of such imperialist policy leaves African countries in particular,
to remain largely driven towards the export of raw materials which leaves them at the
mercy of the North for more profitable manufactured goods (Alemayehu, 2000).
Countries such as Ghana and Cote D‟Ivoire both produce primarily cocoa and compete
against one another for cheap wage bottom lines at the expense of developing productive,
differentiated local and regional trading systems (Guthrie, 2006). This is but one
example. Thus this system pits North against South in the division of labor, and also
South against South in the fight to offer labor at the cheapest prices, regardless of social
consequences (Niva, 1999). Key among the social consequences are political instability,
increased hardships for women and children and out-migration.
Globalization is also rife with contradictions. “Processes of globalization have
also liberated women from economic constraints and marginalization by providing them
with the means to generate solidarity across class and gender lines, thus creating formal
and informal networks in the workplace, community and family” (Zaman, 1999a, p. 159).
“It [globalization] promotes interconnectedness in all aspects of contemporary social life”
(Held et al. 1999, p.2). We have seen how feminist movements from western countries
continue to empathically accept and oppose oppressions of women in southern countries.
Their advocacy has produced enormous results in raising the consciousness of various
stakeholders in fighting for gender equality.
Globalization as a phenomenon is not consistent, unitary or unified in affecting
the lives of people positively or negatively. It breeds mixed patterns of poverty, wealth
24
and marginalization, as well as a binary of freedom and oppression for women. Winkin
(1999) presents an analysis of globalization, which shows it as a danger and a benefit.
The author uses the heuristic distinction of “globalization from above” (GFA) and
“globalization from below” (GFB). Winkin (1999) presents the GFA as the “imposition
and acceptance of the new global liberal economic norms such as liberalization,
privatization and deregulation” (38). He claims that this process is the public form of
decision-making processes, which is “anti-democratic, anti-needs-satisfaction and
reinforcing unequal social power between classes” (39). These public norms are often
opposed by feminists due to the inherent marginalization of women‟s voices, and
sufferings which are forced on them.
Winkin (1999) then presents GFB as “diverse and fragmented forms of resistance
and support for the processes of expanding private social power at the expense of the
common good and the satisfaction of needs in general” (39). This is a clever argument, as
it recognizes the multiplicity of actors and unequal processes of globalization. However,
it fails to highlight classism and unequal power dynamics at different levels of
globalization. For example, within a single group of local people who might be opposed
to globalization, it is highly likely that there are differences in power, social status and
interests, which might marginalize others. Even the term “local people” is flawed with
generalizations within the context of globalization. We have seen protests against SAPs
in many African countries by “local people” being ignited by westerners who choose to
disassociate themselves from the autocratic “philosopher kings” (Guthrie, 2006, p. 4) of
their societies. For example, in 2005 Oxfam‟s expatriate staff led a series of protests
against SAPs in Ghana and Ethiopia (Oxfam, 2005).
25
In the reconstruction process of Kosova, several international organizations
undemocratically ushered in their democratization agendas, governed by global interests,
in ways that excluded women (Klein, 2004). From the United States, religious
conservatists used the reconstruction process of Kosova to impose their ideas on local
women, by campaigning to deny reproductive rights to women, and promoting their anti-
abortion agendas (Concerned Women for America, 1999). Our current generation is
witnessing the experimentation of “regime change” in Iraq. Not now, but years later, we
will realize how women are greatly affected by this new philosophy. Historical accounts
of the two decades beginning in the 1990s will be characterized by how globalization has
greatly shaped the world.
2.4. Regional Profiles
2.4.1. Racism, Forced Migration and the Creation of Liberia
Political and ethnic conflicts, as well as forced migration have always been
associated with Liberians and Liberia as a nation. Liberia was created and conceived by
Americans as a way of ridding black people or freed slaves out of the United States. By
the 1800s, the number of freed slaves in the United States was about a quarter of a
million (Barnes, 2004). Some of these former slaves were gradually being educated and
had begun to voice the need for their rights in the United States. Others began to rebel
against brutal plantation owners whom they worked for (Ellis, 1999). Though a few
whites sympathized with them, the American public began to quickly panic about the
threats that the presence of these freed slaves represented to the sustenance of white
supremacy.
26
Pressured by their constituencies, politicians in Washington began to do exactly
what they were petitioned to do. They began to debate and advocate for the removal of
freed slaves from the United States. House Speaker, Henry Clay said:
can there be a nobler cause than that which, whilst it proposed to rid our country of a useless and pernicious, if not dangerous portion of its population, contemplates the spreading of civilized life, and the possible redemption from ignorance and barbarism of a benighted quarter of the
globe. Rotberg, (1999, p. 210).
President Thomas Jefferson made a much stronger case that appealed to the racist
ideology and xenophobia of Americans:
They secrete less by the kidnies[sic], and more by glands of the skins, which gives them a very strong and disagreeable odor …. They seem to require less sleep…. They are more ardent after their females: but love seems with them to be more of an eager desire than a tender delicate mixture of sentiment and sensation. Their griefs are transient…. I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distant race, or made distant by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in endowment both of body and mind. West, (1970, p. 95)
White Americans were prepared to force the freed slaves out of the country. The idea of
removing blacks from the United States was so popular that it attracted the support of
religious leaders who were also quiet during the active period of the Trans Atlantic slave
trade. Their endorsement of the slave trade and removal discourse prompted Ikeji to ask
“where was the God of heavens” (Ikechi, 1999, p. 34)? Many people in the world today
continue to seek answers to the numerous questions about the moral underpinnings of
slavery.
As a consequence of the political, racial and xenophobic attitudes of the American
public, the American Colonization Society (ACS) was created in 1817 (Fairhead et al,
2003). The objective of the ACS was to “rescue” freed slaves of color and colonize them
outside of the United States where they would live with liberty (Wilson, 1947). Congress
27
quickly passed the Slave Trade Act in 1819, empowering the US president to arrange for
the repatriation of stranded blacks in the US (Ikechi, 1999). Though the words rescue and
liberty are mentioned here, it is hardly conceivable that freedom was the objective of this
venture.
Liberia was a direct creation of the ACS and its supporters, including
industrialists, missionaries and plantation owners who believed that African people did
not deserve the rights of living among them as equals. Between 1821 and 1860, the
society influenced about 13,000 Africans to return home (Johnson, 2005). However, there
were hesitations and debates among freed African slaves about migrating to Africa or
remaining in the US to establish a nation within the nation (Padmore, 1956). Johnson
(2005) provides four reasons behind the hesitance of the freed slaves: First, it was
believed that remaining in America would be cheaper than repatriating to Africa. Second,
they would face the problem of assimilating into a foreign African culture that most in
America had lost contact with. Third, they would not have to struggle with understanding
African languages and dialects. Fourth, there would be no problem of cultural integration
and development. Assimilating and integrating into a new culture, as raised by the freed
slaves are always argued by scholars of gender and migration as critical challenges facing
migrant populations. Understanding these challenges is crucial to the analysis contained
within this thesis.
As this thesis is focused on the migration of Liberian immigrants in Halifax, Nova
Scotia, it is interesting to point out that some of the freed slaves from the United States
opted to come to Halifax, Nova Scotia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and
remain here as African Nova Scotians (Johnson, 2005). However, I do not claim here that
28
the migration of the Liberian immigrants to Halifax is in anyway connected to the
presence of the Black Nova Scotians. Despite the historical connections, there are no
unique links or activities between the Black Nova Scotians and the Liberian immigrant
community in Halifax. My intention here is to highlight this historical connection within
the context of Nova Scotia, where I conducted this study.
2.4.2. Liberia, a Mockery of Freedom and a Unique Form of Colonialism
Liberia is referred to as the oldest independent African nation. Paradoxically, it is
also among the most undeveloped of countries and also one of the most inexperienced in
the management of their resources on the African Continent. After its creation, Liberia
served American governmental and plantation interests. Africans participated only
marginally in the management of the colony. For the most part, Liberian policies
reflected the racism, paternalism, and hypocrisy of its American founders (Johnson,
2005). Returned Africans were still controlled by their former masters who disguised
themselves as missionaries and managed the colony. The missionaries navigated different
parts of the country with the Bible and a high political authority (Moses, 1998). The
“spiritually rescued” people were still controlled, but more importantly, this was the
beginning of the creation of a nation that remained in ongoing conflicts. The church
could not be differentiated from the state: those who headed the church also headed
government; hence discriminations and oppression in government were also in the
church.
In 1824, deep frustration led the repatriates to rebel against agents of the
American Colonization Society (ACS) through an armed insurrection (Moses, 1998).
29
Consequently, the American agents were forced to adopt a liberal land grant policy. In
1839, the colony split into several parts under the “commonwealth of Liberia”. One
colony, Maryland of Africa refused to join until the country became independent in 1847.
There was even segregation among mixed color settlers, dark skinned settlers and the
indigenous residents (Barnes, 2004). Language also caused internal rifts among settlers –
those who came from New Orleans spoke only French and felt oppressed by the
predominant English settlers (Moses, 1998). The French and British who were directly
colonizing Africa, had more peace in their territories and put in place better economic
infrastructure than the American creation of a nation nearby.
2.4.3. Freed Slaves and the Natives: a Cycle of Oppression
In 1847, Liberia became the first independent nation in Africa. The American
agents were gone and the freed slaves were in control of government for the first time in
their lives. The naming of cities and states, for example, West Point and Maryland, and
the form of government which they set up were a distant duplication of America. Their
relationship with the indigenous was a repeat of the brutal treatment they received from
the Americans. Many questions arise as to why the circle of conflicts has continued?
Why did the freed slaves choose to do exactly what their white masters did to them? The
answers might be historical but with a psycho-social connection. The Americans
themselves right after having been freed from British oppression repeated the same
account of brutality over black people (Edward, 1994). If the psycho-social connection
argued by Edward (1994) is correct, then the oppression of indigenous Liberians by the
freed slaves was not a surprise.
30
Another author perfectly describes the behavior of the freed slaves:
As the psychology of many of the settlers closely resembled that of their former Virginia and cotton-belt masters, the Africans wee regarded as a peon class. Such settlers immediately planned to dominate Africans as the white planters in America had dominated them …… Having come to Africa to escape the strictures of slavery, many of the colonists did not want to engage in the manual labor with which they had been so closely associated. Fraenkel (1965, p. 13).
Many of the freed slaves wore American clothing in order to distinguish
themselves from the indigenous Africans, even though the tropical heat made them
extremely uncomfortable. Others built large homes that resembled those owned by
plantation owners who were their masters (Johnson, 2005). Another problem was a total
disconnection between the indigenous and the freed slaves. Having very little knowledge
about the indigenous populations, the freed slaves shared the paternalistic views of their
former masters therefore they failed to establish, through diplomatic channels, a smooth
integration.
Everything that the freed slaves did in Liberia only reflected the ideas and
phenomenon of a marginalized majority (Padmore, 1956). For example, the motto of the
country reads: “the love of liberty brought us here”. As the situation of a marginalized
majority continued, tensions developed and a series of violent incidents occurred between
the natives and the freed slaves. In the interior, indigenous residents were discriminated
against in employment and in churches. The rampant economic injustices prompted the
League of Nations to investigate abuses within the Liberian government (Liebenow,
1969). According to Liebenow (1969), one of the recommendations of the League of
Nations was that “Liberia should abandon the policy of holding a “closed door” on the
natives. However, this intervention did very little to quench the brutal ambitions of the
freed slaves who did everything possible to dominate the natives by far in the majority.
31
The indigenous only occupied junior posts in government while dominating the national
army as ordinary or lowly ranked officers.
2.4.4. Civil War, Displacement and Transnationalism
Throughout the 1960s and 70s, it appeared as though Liberia was immune to the
recurrent coup plots and political assassinations within the West African region. By early
1980, a group of predominately non-commissioned officers realized that the guns, which
they carried to protect their brutal masters, could also be used to drive them away. A little
known Master Sergeant Samuel Doe had succeeded in overthrowing the more than 100
years of the successions of repressive freed slave governments. But the story did not end,
as Doe began to exclusively bring his ethnic group – the Khran into government, while
oppressing the rest of the population. The circle of oppression from white Americans, to
freed slaves was still alive though steered by a new freed group – one sector of the
indigenous people.
In 1985, Doe rigged the Liberian national elections, but the US government under
Ronald Reagan, recognized the results arguing that a fraudulent election was better than
no elections (Ellis, 1999). Different forms of violence began to engulf the country. By the
end of the 1980s, opposition against Doe has grown inside of Liberia and within its
neighboring countries, like the Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. In 1983, a former junior
minister, Charles Taylor fled to the United Sates after being charged for embezzling
government funds (Barnes, 2004). He was arrested and jailed in Massachusetts. While
awaiting extradition, he mysteriously escaped and ended up in military training camps in
Libya. During the 1970s and 1980s, the Libyan leader Colonel Mohammad Khadafi, was
32
a mentor and a strong supporter of anyone who wanted to counter American interests.
Destabilizing Liberia would serve the interest of uprooting the huge American military
base that was established in Liberia.
Charles Taylor got all the necessary resources from some of the radical leaders on
the African Continent and launched a devastating war on the eve of Christmas, 1989. It
is estimated at the end of the war that between 80,000 and 200,000 or nearly 10 percent
of the population were killed (Berkely, 2001). Thousands fled into the neighboring
countries, while more swelled Monrovia‟s population. Some of the participants in this
study are among those who began to flee their homes in the very month during which
Taylor began his revolution. It is within this context of forced migration that this thesis
investigates how gender relations have been affected.
2.4.5. A Geopolitical Perspective on the Liberian Conflict within West Africa
Speaking about the Liberian civil conflict without mentioning geopolitics within
the West African region is always unavoidable. Most of the countries are linked by
ethnicity, intermarriages, and natural resources, as well as economics. Artificial borders
drawn on papers by former colonial masters split ethnic groups between several
countries. Despite the political separation, these people continue to relate to each other
culturally through common languages and intermarriages. For example, the three ethnic
groups which were mainly involved in the Liberian conflict are also present in
neighboring Ivory Coast, Guinea and Sierra Leone. These countries also share common
resources such as diamonds, gold, timber and rubber. While mineral resources may not
ignite war, they can fuel it (Macklin, 2004). In the West African region, the diamonds,
33
gold and timbers fueled instability across the Liberian boarder to Sierra Leone, Guinea
and Ivory Coast.
As the Liberian civil conflict unfolded, it also expanded into neighboring
countries through varying avenues. Civilians who were forced across national borders
were sometimes accompanied by armed men. Also, the thousands of refugees who fled
across the Liberian borders put demographic pressure on the resources of host
communities. Illegal business men who trade arms for the resources of corrupt African
countries quickly moved into the region and took control of the economies, in what the
UN referred to as the blood diamond trade. Consequently, fighting erupted in Sierra
Leone, Guinea and the Ivory Coast in order to make their resources more accessible to
the illegal trade. Despite interventions by the UN and the Economic Community of West
African States, the conflict flourished in displacing millions of people and forcing
thousands into exile. It is this political context that characterizes the migration, which is
central to this thesis.
2.4.6. The Canadian Immigration Context
Canada has a long history of promoting and welcoming immigrants from all over
the world. As a consequence of this practice, diversity in language, race and ethnicity is
always visible in the streets of major Canadian cities. The government has developed
several immigration streams which allow refugees and economic migrants to enter and
settle into the country. Under this section of the thesis, I present a historical analysis of
Canadian immigration policy, and show some links with the forced migration of freed
slaves, which led to the creation of Liberia. I argue that growing global capitalist
34
influences and racial differences are overshadowing the humanitarian elements of
Canadian immigration policy.
Migration into Canada can be traced back to the 1800s when the American
government began to resettle freed slaves in Liberia (Winks, 1971). The author claims
that freed slaves who feared the challenges of reintegration into the Liberian society
found Canada as the most realistic alternative to America‟s discrimination and plantation
system. The Canadian government opened its doors to these people who were seeking
freedom, through the work of freedom fighters such as Harriet Tubman and Sojourner
Truth who facilitated the processes of getting the freed slaves into Canada (Johnson,
2005). Enlightened government policies in Canada largely contributed to the efforts of
these philanthropists.
By the 1800s, Canada had joined other countries in placing severe limitations on
the expansion of slavery (Winks, 1971). The attorney general of Upper Canada issued the
following exhortation and warning in 1819:
Since freedom of the person was the most important civil right protected by the law of England which the province had adopted, the Negroes were entitled to personal freedom through residence in the country, and any attempt to infringe their rights would be resisted by the courts (Franklin & Schweninger, 1999).
The US government warned that attempts by the Canadian government to grant sanctuary
to freed slaves who were referred to as fugitives would damage their relationship, but the
Canadian government refused to yield and to change its policies (Drew, 1969). The freed
slaves described Canada as the “promised Land” (Winks, 1971). Immigrants and refugees
continue to regard Canada as one of the best countries to live in the world due to its high
ranking by the UN index of development (Parkin and Mendelsohn, 2003). The
acceptance of refugees continues to constitute a significant component of Canadian
35
immigration policies. For example, in 2001, 10% of the total population who came to
Canada as immigrants were refugees (see Canada Immigrant Statistics, 2007).
Despite the humanitarian orientation of the historical background of Canadian
immigration policy and the high ranking of Canada based on the UN human development
index, racism, discrimination and gender oppression are also evident in the country.
When the Irish began to pour into Canada, Canadians began to be less receptive to blacks
in the 1840s, and there was nothing that the government could do to stop discrimination
and racism, particularly in Nova Scotia (Winks, 1971). In addition to the challenges of
adapting to the extremely cold weather, the Africans faced unemployment, segregation,
and in 1818, a special school was run for them in Halifax (Bristow, P. et al. 1994).
Racism and other forms of discrimination against immigrants and refugees continue to
exist within Canadian society today.
The incidence of racism and gender oppression against immigrants, particularly
women within Canadian society has been coming to the attention of gender scholars in
recent years. There are multiple subordinations of working class immigrant women who
come to Canada (Man, 2004). Feminist scholars have mounted criticism against Canadian
immigration policies. Hyndman (1995) argues that the domestic caregiver stream, which
brings in lots of females from Asia, allows Canadian women to move into the more
attractive labor markets, while leaving the tedious domestic jobs to immigrant women.
Zlontnik (1995) also argues that these jobs are viewed as female jobs, but many Canadian
women reject them due to their underpayment. Some immigrant men are also involved in
this phenomenon of taking over the domestic work industry from middle class Canadian
women.
36
There are, however, other immigrant women in Halifax and other parts of Canada,
who despite being educated in Canada, are unable to have better jobs equally occupied by
their white Canadian counterparts. The Federal government of Canada and the Provincial
government of Nova Scotia, where Halifax is located, are increasingly promoting the
concept of “visible minority” as a policy matter to the advantage of immigrants.
However, the connection between policy and action is always a complex point of
contention. It is argued that within Canada, there is a gap between the policy of ensuring
that visible minority groups have improved access to government services and the actual
process of integration (Watts, 2005). This is a crucial issue in Halifax, particularly when
it comes to employment.
Capitalist influences and changing demographic structure have also shaped
Canadian immigration policies in ways that are associated with discrimination and gender
oppression. After World War II, Canadian immigration policies were mainly aimed at
economic expansion (Knowles, 1992; Man, 2004). The promotion of capitalist interests
(Li, 2003; p.5) and population growth (Krahn et al, 2003) has increasingly overshadowed
the agenda of immigration policy makers in Canada. The 1998 immigration policy report
captioned “not just numbers” advocated for the recruitment of “modern pioneers” (well-
educated, employable and competent in English and French) who are capable of self-
support (Hyndman, 1999). Hyndman argues that this report suggested that Canada should
change its humanitarian commitment from the resettlement of refugees to helping them
near their countries of origin (1994). Though the government continues to resettle
refugees like the Liberians in this study, the disproportionate arrival of skilled Europeans
and Asians supports Hyndman‟s argument of containing refugees. For example, in 2001,
37
40% and 30% of the immigrant population arriving in Canada were Europeans and
Asians respectively, as opposed to 5% Africans (Canadian Immigrant Statistics, 2007).
The key question in this study is to investigate the relationship between
transnationlism and gender relations within Liberian immigrant couples in Halifax,
Canada. In this chapter, I have introduced and characterized some of the principal
theoretical issues including gender, transnationalism and globalization which contribute
to the understanding of the question. I have also introduced the migration and political
contexts of Liberia and Canada to preset the direction of the analysis of this thesis. A key
issue that surfaced in this chapter is that there is a link between transnationalism and bad
governmental politics, racism and gender oppressions. These issues have historically
overshadowed the lives of Liberians, and have influenced their migration since the 1800s.
38
Chapter Three
Key Concepts and Research Methodology
In their book “Of Marriage and the Market” Young et al (1998) draw on feminist
research perspectives to preset the work of several writers focused on male and female
relationships in the workplace, market, and at home. Their analysis shows that the
subordination of women by men is systemic and requires a constant and meticulous
approach. Some elements of the thorough approach, which the authors refer to, involve a
careful elucidation of concepts such as household, patriarchy, capitalism, masculinities,
power and culture. I have repeatedly used these terms in this thesis. Sociologists and
anthropologists caution against generalizations in the use of such terms. Hence, I devote
this chapter of the thesis to exploring some of these concepts and how they articulate with
approaches to the study of gender relations.
3.1. The Household: a Key Site for Gender Relations
Social scientists are struggling to clearly conceptualize the “household”.
Economists suggest that the household is a production and consumption unit, while
anthropologists argue that social and cultural variations between the characteristics of
households are very critical in comprehending what the household constitutes. A study of
household economy in Britain and Ghana shows that households within the two countries
are dissimilar by differences in their acquisition of consumption goods (Whitehead,
1995). By using access to food, the study identified Ghanaian households with direct
production, as opposed to British households who are identified with the purchasing of
goods from wages. While much of this study focuses on economic determinants such as
39
production and consumption, the difference in access to food must be seen in a broader
social and cultural context in which households are located.
For the purpose of this study, I explore interactions within the household with a
particular emphasis on transnationalism and gender relations. “Gender relations can be
seen as the full ensemble of social relationships” (Kabeer, 1994, p. 55). I look at how the
household and gender relations within it are affected in time and in space. Within the
current context of globalization and the increasing influences of capitalism, the household
and spousal relations within it deserve attention from the insights of feminist scholars. I
examine the interplay of power relations, decision-making processes, and domestic
economics to argue that the household is a political field of shifting power dynamics. I
have interchangeably used household and family, and immigrant and refugee, suggesting
the fluidity associated with conceptualizing these terms.
In their characterization of the household as a living place, with its decorations
and utilities, Stevi and Moores (1995) point out that there is a connection between the
material and symbolic aspects of daily domestic life. Their contention is that gender
relations, such as power, and decision-making processes are manifested in the way
household resources are consumed by members. Contrary to the contemporary views
about household life, in which the household is portrayed as a private place, they argue
that households are fundamentally economic entities underpinned by economic relations
embedded in wider socioeconomic structures.
The control and allocation of resources within the household is a complex process which has to be seen in relation to a web of rights and obligations. The management of labor, income and resources is something which is crucially bound up with household organization and the sexual division of labor. (Moore, 1988, p.56, cited in Kabeer, 1994, p. 95).
40
A key theme coming out of this discussion is that interactions within the household are
complex and political.
Dorothy Hobson (1995) puts the household under spotlights by examining the
relationship between “housewives” and the mass media, particularly radios and
televisions. Her examination is focused on viewing and listening practices between
husbands and wives. She observes that these communication materials are part of the
day-to-day experiences of women. There are, however, some stricken points of gender
interactions, which come out of her study. Unlike men, the most peaceful time that
women can have to watch a television is only when their children are gone to bed, even at
that, they still experience interruptions when their husbands need water or food. This
shows that there is a power imbalance in which women or “housewives” as she puts it are
equated to servants for other household members.
Another materialist feminist, David Morley (1995) examines power relations over
domestic television viewing within some British households. He argues that power
imbalances are manifested in negotiating preference for programs, which are watched.
The study reveals that the home is viewed by society as a site of leisure for men, as
opposed to a site of work for women, whether they also work outside the home or not. An
implication for this phenomenon is that men will be much more relaxed watching
television than their wives who will be preoccupied with domestic work and
overshadowed by the fears of not using their husbands‟ viewing time. This practice
confirms that the household is constructed as a man‟s castle of leisure and a woman‟s
dungeon of drudgery (Miller, 2001). The household then, is also a common site of binary
opposites for women and men both psychologically and physically.
41
Morley‟s (1995) study also uncovers a display of power over the use of
television‟s remote-control device in British households. Men use the device to
manipulate channels without considering the interests of their wives and children:
Woman: I don‘t have the chance to use the automatic control. I leave that down to him. It is aggravating, because I can be watching something and all of a sudden he turns it over to get the football result.
Daughter: the control‘s always next to Dad‘s chair. It doesn‘t come away when Dad‘s here. It stays right there. (Morley, 1995, p. 177).
Here, the household is turned into a field of manipulation by men. What is more glaring
here is the level of powerlessness and powerfulness on the two extremes of the household
continuum. It is politically right to suggest here that women within such households are
on the threshold of becoming slaves to men‟s power. This oppression is not only physical
but immensely psychological.
An intriguing point about Morley‟s (1995) study is an intersection between
women‟s employment and male domination. The study reveals that in families where
husbands were unemployed and the wives were employed, husbands were willing to
compromise their interests by giving other family members an opportunity to watch
whatever they wanted on televisions. In my study, I also discovered that unemployed
Liberian men treated their wives in a similar manner. I have termed this behavior by the
Liberian men as a “false co-operation”, as you will later see in this thesis. A key
argument here is that men present themselves as the bosses of their homes, but in fact,
this position of power is not permanent and can be adjusted by other factors, as
employment has proven in this particular case. Men can consider themselves as bosses of
some domains but women will consider themselves the boss of other domains (like the
42
kitchen). So there are many places where women exert authority or control within the
home.
Assessing the implication of money within households, Westwood (1995) argues
that the household is concerned with the pooling of resources and effort as part of the
general process of reproduction. She focuses on market-based households in England and
claims that there is a dichotomy between the household as a private sphere and macro
economies which are constituted by the public sphere and are generally patriarchal. A
recurrent claim in her study is that while women may control the day-to-day affairs of
domestic budgets, they remain powerless within the household. “Women‟s wages are
lower than men‟s and, more importantly women‟s wages are spent on food and less
valuable items, while men‟s are allocated for mortgages and cars” (Westwood, 1995, p.
85). While this practice is rapidly changing in the developed world, it remains one of the
excruciating ways of subordinating women in many parts of Africa, including the rural
parts of Liberia where my research participants originate from.
Other bodies of literature characterizing the household suggest that mere
differences between men and women in the division of domestic labors reflect
domination and subordination. “Studies of the organization of domestic labor and marital
relationships confirm that cooking continues to be a task done more by women than men;
this is also the case cross-culturally” (Murcott, 1995, p. 89). The argument of the author
is that society often attaches meanings to these tasks in ways that present women as
attachments to men. For example, the “presumption that women are cooks is extended to
show that their responsibility in this sphere [household] is tempered with reference to
their husband‟s, not their own choice” (Murcott, 1995, p. 90). There is no doubt that food
43
is often prepared to please the tastes of consumers. In some cases, consumers dictate or
suggest what is to be cooked. While this is not always done as a demand, it has
implications for power relations.
Analyzing consumption patterns within the household, some feminist writers
(Kabeer, 1994; Sen, 1999; Charles, 1995; Delphy, 1995 and Corrigan, 1995) take a more
direct approach in analyzing interactions within the household and claim that the
household is, in fact, a site of oppression. Kabeer (1994) claims that no one person within
a household can be made better without suppressing other members. Charles (1995)
argues that in order to please the male bread-winner, women tend to give to him a lion‟s
share and the most nutritious part of family‟s food. By doing so, the food needs of other
family members are affected. A similar finding is reported among poor women in India
(Sen, 1999). An indication here is that there is structural inequality within the household.
Still focused on domestic production and consumption, Corrigan (1995) urges us
to avoid viewing the household as a unit through which resources flow easily. The author
argues that we need to look at particular points in the flow and at the social and economic
relationship which structure the control exercised by different members of the household
over the flow at each point. Another feminist, Delphy (1995) provides us an example
which shows an inegalitarian characteristic of the household. She claims that in Tunisian
households, men have two to three meals a day, while women have one or two.
“Women‟s position as servers involves a systematic subordination of their own
preferences to those of their partners” (Charles, 1995, p. 106). Subordination related to
food here, is a complex concept as it involves a form of self denial on the part of women.
44
A key factor over which gender relations are often manifested is domestic
budgeting. In analyzing domestic budgeting, economists have treated the household as
though it were an individual and have assumed that the same economic theories used on
individuals are applicable to the household. This approach has created a “black box”
between earning and spending (Pahl, 1995). The author contends that such an approach
blurs a huge web of mechanisms, which involve controlling, managing, different sorts of
spending, consumption and the sharing of resources within the household. Pahl (1995)
makes an interesting argument, but it is limited by her inability to offer us a clear
approach for understanding household economies. Education, religion and culture might
have varying implications in the operations of household economies.
There is, however, a Marxist‟s version of the household, which suggests that the
household is a democratic institution.
A household manager or decision-maker will internalize the utility functions of family members through a high level of concern or caring for other members and will also be more informed than other (particularly younger) members (Evenson, 1976, p. 89, cited in Kabeer, 1994, p. 95)
A controversial suggestion here is that the household is a site of internal harmony of
interests. Some sociologists waste no time in disputing this claim because it fails to
recognize the subordination of women within the household. They argue that the
household is fundamentally a concealing outfit for the exercise of male authority
(Galbaith, 1974, p. 35, cited in Kabeer 1994, p. 101). The Marxist‟s version of the
household holds a questionable truism.
Another relevant body of literature scrutinizes the household in the context of
migration. It looks at how positions of women relative to men are affected in post-
migration. “When a woman migrates with her husband she does forgo the substantial
45
advantage she could have derived had she moved alone” (Chattopadhyay, 1997, p. 441).
This argument seems generalizing, but as the author points out “there is evidence that
women, particularly single women who had not been employed previously, have
improved their positions after migration” (Lacey, 1986; cited in Chattopadhyay, 1997, p.
139). This might be true in some cases, particularly in the context of migration from poor
to better-off economies. Family migration literature in developed countries often suggests
that a woman‟s migration with the husbands is disruptive of the wives‟ labor market
careers (Lichter, 1983; Maxwell, 1988; cited in Chattopadhyay, 1997, p. 441). Childcare
and women‟s disproportionate share of the domestic labor are often some of the key
elements behind this argument.
Researching the settlement mechanisms of Hong Kong immigrant households in
Toronto, Salaff (1997) focuses on how men and women go about seeking employment in
their new communities. She discovers that husbands are more likely to get employed
through kinship and other networks of friends and colleagues than women are. One
explanation for this difference in accessing the job market can be attributed to the fact
that women might be held back at home managing child care, cooking and doing a host
of other domestic tasks, while their husbands enjoy the pleasure of their family‟s public
relations and have more opportunities to build social connections relevant to
employment. In the migration context of refugee life, women seem to enjoy more
employment opportunities than men (see Alwis, 2004; Westerbeck, 2004; Carving, 2005;
Abdi, 1998). My study also discovered that in refugee camps, none of the men from the
five couples interviewed earned a regular income as opposed to their wives. This income
status in refugee camps for the couples was contrary to what it was previously in Liberia.
46
The manner in which aid agencies regard and interact with households is also an
intriguing dimension to explore, particularly in the context of refugee life. One aspect of
a household which is often of prime concern to aid agencies is whether it is headed by a
male or female. For example, UNHCR assistance policies classify women-headed
households as vulnerable households (UNHCR, 1994a, n.d. cited in Hyndman, 2004).
Hyndman (2004) argues that UNHCR gender policy is inherently flawed with
contradictions: a female-headed household is classified as vulnerable, but if the same
female head is a health professional or a water technician, she will automatically become
a member of the refugee leadership, which is often a decision-making body. The paradox
is that members of the leadership committees are often not considered as vulnerable by
UNHCR in refugee camps because they are influential and control resources. The
question then is what is the status of such women and their households? Why is the head
of the household position so gendered in a controversial way?
In addition to UNHCR, many non governmental organizations (NGOs), as well
as, government agencies also maintain gendered vulnerability policies in classifying
households through the head position. Asking “who is the head of your household” is a
routine question embedded in the dominant culture of many aid agencies. Field staff
would often carry with them information charts in which such questions are part of the
introductory sections of their encounters with refugee households. Hyndman (2004)
argues that this policy of gendering vulnerability victimizes women. She found another
flaw within UNHCR resettlement policies. She discovered that among Somali refugees in
Kenya, where rapes are common, women (some of whom are heading households) who
report rapes to the UNHCR with the hope of being resettled in a developed country are
47
requested to provide an elderly male family member to testify to the truth of their claims.
Another paradox here is that women who by heading their households are already
vulnerable, and who do not have an elderly male household member, might not be
resettled if they are raped.
The household literature, which I have reviewed thus far, suggests three
distinctive themes: the household deserves continuing attention by researchers; it is a
playing field of power struggles, economic politics, oppressions and self-denial; and it is
often gendered by aid agencies. Continuous studies of the household by feminists will
make significant contributions to the understanding of shifts in gender relations within
the domestic domain. As a playing field of various forms of power struggles, the
household is rife with contradictions and manipulations that are complex and political.
The fashion in which aid agencies interact with the household is gendered in ways that
essentialize and contribute to women‟s subordination.
3.2. Patriarchy: Control over Financial Income and Procreation
Patriarchy is “a system of social structures and practices, in which men dominate,
oppress and exploit women” (Walby, 1990, p. 20). My point of departure here is to
continue to explore how men‟s domination of women is displayed within the household
with a particular focus on patriarchal influences. “Households as units where production
and redistribution take place, represent centers of struggle where people with different
activities and interests come into conflict with one another” (Boyd et al, 2003, p. 2).
Decisions within households do not necessarily represent the equal interests of all their
members. In such interplay of interests and power, those who are stronger and more
48
influential will enjoy dominance and subordination over others. How then, are such
struggles manifested over control of financial income?
Maher‟s (1998) examination of patriarchy within Moroccan households reveals
that men do not want women to acquire financial security as they are likely to file for
divorce. Conversely, “women are discontented with their lot but they are trapped in their
subordination to economic dependence on men” (p. 133). Contributing to this argument
of women‟s vulnerability to patriarchy within the household is the contention that
women‟s subordination or domestication is ultimately a result of men‟s control over
women‟s reproductive capacity (Stolcke, 1998). In research on sexuality and control of
procreation, a Yugoslav migrant woman crisply narrates that “my husband says a woman
loses sexual desire, so if I take it [contraceptive] he might even think that I have someone
else; he always wants to be sure that any minute he can impregnate me” (Morokvasic
1998, p. 201). This example reveals a display of power disparity in favor of men.
Literature on domestic budgeting shows that women‟s meager incomes are often
spent on perishable items as opposed to male spending patterns favoring sustainable
property (Bennholdt-Thomsen, 1998). There are also theoretical critiques of the ideology
of viewing households as natural units where divisions of labor and male power are
assumed as normal (if not biologically ordained). Research addressing this critique
reveals that in some British families, men‟s superior incomes relative to women‟s give
them more power in intra-household decision-making, and the distribution and
consumption of resources (Harris, 1998). In Ghanaian Khuasi‟s ethnic context, the
household is conceptualized as an enterprise in which the labor of all members
contributes to the production of subsistence goods (Whitehead, 1998). Whitehead (1998)
49
also refers to marriage as a conjugal contract fraught with material and financial conflicts.
This argument highlights the presence of patriarchy and conflict within the household.
How does patriarchy work within the context of migration? In recent years, feminist
researchers have begun examining patriarchal systems among migrant families as a way
of understanding how migration and settlement rework the terms of patriarchy in migrant
households (Pessar, 1995; Hondagneu-Sotelo, 1994). One contention has been that
“refugee women who flee to the West from third world countries typically come from
traditional, patriarchal, family-centered cultures to technological, democratic, and
individual societies (Israelite et al, 1999). Such studies further assert that the resettlement
of women may change gender roles in both the private sphere of home and family, as
well as the public sphere of education and work. Even though I reject terminologies such
as “third world and traditional” for being overly generalizing, I do find the argument that
migration engenders changes which question patriarchal practices congruent with the
views of Morokvasic (1998) and Matsuoka et al (1999). Migration seems to pose varying
threats to patriarchy.
Migration research among Latin American and South East Asians discovers that
the financial contribution of female migrants to their families is raising their standing
within their families in terms of power relative to decision-making and freedom of choice
(Stivens, 1998). Another study on women‟s agency and choice within the context of
rural-urban migration also shows a relationship between access to income and the
improving status of respect within the family and decision-making freedom for migrant
girls who are working in Dhaka, Bangladesh (Kabeer, 2000). We are reminded here that
50
economic migration to the developed world has implications for gender relations in some
documented cases.
An examination of transnational migration and gender also shows that Mexican
and Dominican women favor staying in the United States, as opposed to men who return
home to enjoy the dividends of patriarchy over women described by Pessar and Mahler
(2003). These authors also propose that Guatamalan refugee camps became strategic sites
for struggles over women‟s and men‟s human rights and citizenship. Refugees were
confident to return home with new ideas on gender parity which challenge patriarchy.
Another study contends that migration may accelerate the process of questioning male
power and consciousness raising for women, not only because it entails economic
independence for women from men but because it frees women from the grip of a
binding and watchful community of origin (Morokvasic, 1998). A connection between
patriarchy and culture is suggested here. There is, also, an indication that refugee camps
offer a unique challenge to patriarchy.
Often, descriptions of refugee camps suggest that they are among some of the
worst places to live. “Life in refugee camps can be squalid, dangerous and stultifying”
(Cockburn, 2004, p. 39). The challenges of living in refugee camps are not limited to
security or environmental issues. Refugee camps are often rife with unprecedented social
and economic changes that have implications for patriarchy. In several cases, women in
refugee camps have confronted radical life transformations by becoming the sole
providers and protectors of their families and households (Korac, 2004). The shifting of
breadwinner‟s role from men to women is often a consequence of a lack of employment
51
opportunities for men. This change is clearly a threat to patriarchal conventions within
households.
Women do better than men in coping with crisis in exile because women in many
societies have been socialized, subordinated and confined to the microsystems of the
family and households (Freire, 1995; cited in Korac, 2004). In patriarchal societies,
women are familiar with having fewer opportunities than men. Hence settling in refugee
camps where there are very few opportunities for survival is simply a continuation of
their subordinated life. Patriarchal cultures expect women to be able to cope with
whatever situation that arises, and accustom them to being thankful for whatever
assistance, if any, they receive from others (Freire, 1995; cited in Korac, 2004, p. 267).
While the adaptability of women‟s survival skills to harsh economic life in refugee camp
can be critical for family survival, patriarchal cultures continue to treat them with disdain.
Linking capitalism, economic globalization and the sexual division of labor,
Mackintosh (1998) clearly points out how capital benefits from using women as a
“reserve army of labor” with less pay as compared to men. From the same vantage point,
Elson and Pearson (1998) show how women are relegated to a secondary position behind
men on the international labor market. This argument is further expanded by Gordon
(1996), who asserts that capitalism intersects with patriarchy in subordinating women.
There is a suggestion here that patriarchy is a systemic phenomenon in almost all of the
relationships that are established between women and men, whether as individuals or in
institutional arrangements.
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3.3. Capitalism and Gender Relations
Capitalism entwined with globalization is influencing a lot of changes in the
world today. The world‟s population has become enslaved by capitalist pressure to earn
more money and to acquire different forms of material wealth. The pressure to buy
unnecessary goods often results in people going without food but with costly televisions,
mobile phones and other popular electronic goods. Such practices seem to give more
wealth to the rich or the owners of capital while pushing the poor deeper into poverty.
This study discovers that attempts by some of the participants to acquire new capitalist
inventions such as mobile phones and Digital Video Disc (DVD) players are resulting in
economic pressures on family incomes, which are also influencing tensions in spousal
relations. Hence, I argue that capitalist influences have implications for gender relations.
Capitalism also induces inequalities between nation-states.
Liberal feminists and some proponents of neo-liberalism argue that capitalism
offers opportunities for women to become autonomous and gain freedom from the
oppression and subordination of men. In his popular book, “Banker to the poor”, which is
widely purported as the best primer for microfinance program management, Dr.
Mohammed Yunus (2003) preaches to the world that if women are granted access to
financial credit, their lives will be improved and oppression from their husbands will be
addressed. While it is true that access to credit and the prevalence of economic growth
can improve women‟s status, they do not provide permanent answers to the questions of
oppression and social injustices against women in employment, domestic relations, or
civic authority.
53
In Bangledesh, before Yunus began his microlending project, there were banks
stocked with money providing credits, but injustices did not allow women to prosper
economically. This is in fact evidenced in one of Yunus‟ arguments that money lending
should not be a business of “bloodthirsty capitalist entrepreneurs”, but of people of social
consciousness-driving minds (Yunus 2003, cited in Nyemah, 2007, p. 3). In recent years,
there have been rising contentions that women who benefit from micro-lending projects
in Southeast Asia are still being oppressed by their husbands who are demanding control
over their money. Certainly the problem here is not access but power imbalance which is
embedded in capitalism although not fully explained by it.
Dependency feminists claim that inequalities between males and females are not
disconnected from polarizing trends within the capitalist mode of production (Kabeer,
1994). Capitalist modes of production place the peripheral countries of the developing
world in a relationship of dependency with the metropolitan centers of the developed
world. Imperialism allowed metropolitan centers to exploit relations with pre-capitalist
areas located on their peripheries (Kabeer, 1994). Imperialist manipulation of poor
countries‟ economies is very characteristic of the history of American-Liberian
interaction. The Liberian economy is based on the production of rubber and mineral
resources, which are exported to the United States in their raw forms. This economic
arrangement exports all of the lucrative jobs, which are associated with the processing of
the resources to the United States.
The implications for exporting raw materials abroad have far reaching corollaries
for Liberia and Liberian women in particular. Some of the consequences for the
economic imperialism within the Liberian-American context include lack of autonomy
54
for the Liberian nation-state to manage its economy, and a high level unemployment
particularly for women, as even the menial jobs are inherently exported with raw
materials. Women are much more affected by unemployment than men because during
the primary production stages of these raw materials, they are excluded by the nature of
the jobs and the gender construction by society. For example, those who work on rubber
plantations wake up as early as 5am, a time of the day which society views to be unsafe
for women. Additionally, women are expected to prepare their children for school.
Diamond production is hazardous and requires spending days and nights in the forests.
Many men would not allow their daughters or wives to do such jobs.
“It is not men who keep women at home though they may appear to be the most
direct oppressors but the structure of the capitalist system” (Nash and Safa, 1980, p. XI,
cited in Kabeer, 1994). This argument is clearly justified in the capitalist mode of
production in Liberia. Also, capitalism within the Latin American context encouraged an
ideology that woman‟s place was in the home and that she must defer to her husband in
all matters relating to the world outside the home (Nash and Safa, 1980, cited in Kabeer,
1994). The household is portrayed as a refuge from the hostile world of capitalism and
women were socialized to believe that they are privileged by their husbands and fathers
to remain sheltered at home (kabeer, 1994). However, the reality is that women in these
situations remain dependent on men, just as their countries are also dependent on
imperialist countries in the global north.
Capitalism has also teamed up with modernization in relegating women to a
second class citizenship behind men. Modernization theory articulates development as an
evolutionary process of change which takes societies from their pre-modern status
55
through a series of stages towards the final destination of modernity (Pieterse, 2006).
Modernization demands a complete transformation of the foundation of pre-modern
societies: their institutions, their cultures and the behaviors they promote. Kabeer (1994)
tell us that in the process of change, men were allowed to be specialized in influential
positions and obtain the characteristics that went with them: rationality, objectivity,
competitiveness and aggressiveness. On the other hand, women were entrusted with the
affective, homemaking role within the private sphere of family life. Many development
thinkers have begun to critique the theory of modernization arguing that women are
denied access to modern productive opportunities; technology has not emancipated them
from domestic hard work, and market forces has not led to gender-neutral outcomes.
Despite the foregoing argument that capitalism has contributed much to the
subordination of women, it is important to mention that culture also contributes to some
of the processes in which capitalism oppresses women. Recall here the example of the
production of diamonds in Liberia. Besides the physical (hard work), and technical
(knowledge) barriers which society uses to exclude women from the production of
mineral resources, it is also culturally believed that women‟s menstruation will provide
bad omens for the industry. In some cases during the production process, animal
sacrifices are organized during which women are not allowed to be present because of an
argument that “they talk too much”. Prejudice and preconceptions about women persist in
this and other societies in spite of the forces of capitalism and modernization (Kabeer,
1994). There are many such practices in Liberia and elsewhere which deny women from
sharing the wealth of the resources and patrimonies of their countries.
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At this juncture, I will detour to the work of some scholars who do strongly argue
that capitalism, in other forms offers a better future for women. Industrialization so the
argument goes, would improve women‟s competence, self-esteem and dignity within
their families. More importantly, the opportunities for employment outside the home
enrich them intellectually as well as financially (Rosen and La Raia, 1972; Jaquette,
1982; cited in Kabeer, 1994). Before looking at any evidence, I argue that while there
may be some truth in this claim, it appears flawed with over-generalization. Women‟s
work outside of the home is often under the threat of men‟s domination and the impact
varies from context to context. The cases which I have proved from the Liberian context
support my criticism of the argument presented by these authors. However, focusing on
some of the successful stories, capitalism as a key factor in transnationalism has caused
some radical changes which have implications for changing gender relations and raising
the standard of life for women. I will now provide some examples.
Many women who migrate to flourishing capitalist countries demand a
renegotiation of gender relations as soon as they are incorporated into the wage economy.
A case study examining Sri Lankan migrant women‟s relations shows that capitalism
entwined with transnationalism is changing gender relations in many ways. “Unmarried
migrants at odds with their parents or not receptive to arranged marriages either eloped
with men of their own choice or renounced matrimony entirely. Financial independence
gave them [these women] more authority in making decisions” (Gamburd, 1995, p. 17). It
might be an overestimation to argue here that these women are being emancipated from
male oppression just by choosing the men they want to marry, as there is no guarantee
that those men of their choice will not oppress them. It might be more cogent to argue
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that these women are beginning to challenge patriarchal cultures as a consequence of
migration and incorporation into wage economies.
Women‟s improved access to wages encourages them to resist gender and
generational subordination within the family or avoid marriage altogether (Harris et al.
1987; cited in Pessar, 1994). A study with Chilean migrant women shows that a woman
chose to break away from her husband after sponsoring him to come to the United States.
They broke up over issues such as household budgeting and socializing:
He wanted me to give him my salary and then he would give me a small household allowance. I knew he would use my hard-earned money for heavy drinking and who knows what else. I insisted that we pool our wages and decide together on all household expenses… He would get furious when I used some of my money to go out with some girl friends to a movie on a weekend afternoon, but he saw nothing wrong with staying out all
night with some of his friends (Pessar, 1994, p. 134).
The dictatorial attitude of the man after joining his wife in the United States was not new,
as evidenced in the wife‟s tone. It was a continuation of the kind of relationship they both
had had back home in Chile. What was new according to Pessar (1994) is that this time
the woman was working and earning more than him. The new economic power over her
husband combined with the American culture of promoting male and female equality
gave the woman more freedom to speak her mind about her rights.
Another woman who was told by her husband to quit working and take care of
children indicated that:
He said that it [quitting of my job] would be good for the children and good for all of us. At first I protested, because I never again wanted to be totally dependent upon a man. I feared that he would start saying the money that entered the house was his alone. I worried that he would start using this money for bad things like alcohol, heavy gambling, and women… At that time we pooled our wages and what was his was mine and vice versa. We had built so much union and I feared it would all disappear. You see when I worked we were partners struggling together for our family‘s advancement ….. than we were both heads of household (Pessar, 1994, p. 135).
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The phrase “I never again wanted to be totally dependent up a man” tells us that the
woman had temporarily gained some degree of freedom from male oppression after
migration and incorporation into the wage market. The intent of the man to get the
women unemployed shows that though he presents family interest as the main reason, he
wants to regain control over her. This is also evidenced by the suspicions of the woman.
I argue that while a woman‟s decision to stay away from her family or remain
unmarried might avoid male oppression, it still doesn‟t address the wider phenomenon of
male dominance that she is likely to encounter outside of the home. Withdrawal is not a
solution because male dominance of women is systemic and requires a direct and holistic
approach. When women realize that their labor has a market value, they begin to
question their relegation to the non-remunerated domestic sphere and challenge the
patriarchal values and privileges that have historically accompanied the notion of the man
supporting a family (Rubin 1976, cited in Pessar, 1994). This is what I referred to as a
direct approach – a form of consciousness-raising, which has a potential to provoke
discussions and challenge dominant beliefs.
In all of the experiences discussed in this section, we see instances in which
capitalism subordinates women and other situations, particularly after migration, in which
it contributes to giving women a sense of autonomy over their own lives. However, it is
important to stress that the capitalist world is constructed by society in a male privileging
manner. Unlike men, women struggle to enjoy some of the freedom which capitalism
offers. For example, some women who show a sense of autonomy after employment
often do so in contexts of post-migration from the patriarchal cultures of developing
countries such as Liberia and Chile. Even in developed countries, women may continue
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to remain on the fringes of bourgeoning capitalist economies as a consequence of men‟s
dominance.
3.4. Masculinities and Culture as Concepts of Gender Relations
Recent research on gender relations tackles the intertwining of masculinities and
culture. In this section, I will briefly explore masculinities as cultural constructs and
argue that they are often constituted by society in ways which create male and female
inequalities. Culture is widely used as a conduit for masculinities and male privileged
power and is often referenced in social discourse as a justification for gender oppression.
In contemporary multicultural societies, it is increasingly becoming difficult to
socially explain what men are. This is a consequence of varied stereotypes about gender
roles that are preferred through different cultural norms and practices. If a particular
society believes that men of a certain age should be married at that age, then that is part
of their gender ideals of what a man is (Clatterbaugh, 1997). In other societies, being
powerful, hardworking and brave are the criteria which define the status of a man. These
gender ideals draw our attention to masculinities as a critical component of gender
relations. Masculinities are “multiple configurations of gender practices, responding to
current crises in power relations with women, work and the economy, and sexuality”
(Messener, 1997, p. 11). Masculinity is typically associated with a mentality of
oppression and superiority over the opposite gender.
Expectations of strength, power and sexual competence in boys form the basis of
male roles in some families in the United Kingdom (Haywood et al., 2003). What is
implied in this claim is that there is a social pressure on young men to behave in a
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particular way to suit the expectations of society. Young men would not want to choose a
career that is stereotyped as women‟s work (Haywood et al., 2003) because they would
not then be living up to the societal expectations of masculinist culture. This form of
masculinity is not unique to the United Kingdom. For example, culinary arts, home
decoration and nursing are considered women‟s professions in many urban contexts in
Liberia and men are seldom found in these occupations.
This feminization of certain professions can often have negative implications for
the wages attached to them in some societies (White, 1997). For example, in Liberia,
secretarial positions are mainly occupied by women. These positions offer very low
salaries. This is also observed in developed countries like France and Canada where the
economies are well developed and gender equity is widely preached among the
populations. Another consequence for the constructed feminization of certain professions
is the tendency to create psychological barriers for young men in harmonizing their
identities and relationships with women (Cornell University, 1998). For example, men in
some cultural settings in Africa, would not want to be seen sweeping in their homes
because they have been socialized as bread-winners, the ones for whom the house is
cleaned and the food is prepared. Oppression enters the scene when the woman is
overburdened with other domestic tasks, the man feels that changing the baby‟s diaper
would portray him as a woman, so he expects (commands) the woman to complete all the
domestic work even as he rests!
Masculinities are constructed by society in many ways that may jeopardize the
safety of women in varying contexts. A lack of working opportunities for Sri Lankan
muslin refugee men led their hosts to construct them as men who have turned into women
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(that is they are feminized and not properly masculine) (Alwis, 2004). Two analytic
points are important to highlight here. Sri Lanka is like many developing countries in
which there are more employment opportunities for men than women, hence any
contextual change in which women are employed and men are unemployed will be
demeaning to men. The second aspect can be related to the questioning of oppressive
male behaviors by women when they begin to observe the fluidity of masculinities
associated with the waxing and waning of the power of their husbands in the absence of
employment (Pessar, 1994). The Sri Lankan men above, became feminized by their host
because they were viewed as incapable of controlling their women in accord with cultural
practices. Some of the men started to get drunk and began to fight with the women
(Alwis, 2004). This case reveals that the pressure of society is a crucial influencing factor
to consider in understanding the workings of masculinities.
The psychological underpinnings of masculinities are important to understand.
Masculinities are reinforced through manifestations of power, control and suppression.
The change in the gender of the bread-winner‟s role often produces a psychological
struggle for men in the context of refugee life (Pessar, 1994; Westerbeck, 2004; Carving,
2005). The situation can be compounded by a loss of property in forced displacement.
This is because property and wealth in any form are symbolic of prestige and power
through which masculinities are readily displayed. Still looking at social and economic
changes among refugee families, Alwis (2004) discovers that refugee men who had much
of their wealth tied up in immovable property feel the despair of displacement the most
keenly, for they have been reduced to paupers overnight. A Sri Lankan refugee man
noted wryly, “the only thing that belongs to me now is my wife” (Alwis, 2004, P. 223).
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One might assume that a man who has the Holy Bible or the Koran in his hands might
embrace this statement as an expression of hope and love for one‟s wife, but from a
feminist perspective, it can be seen as a desperate attempt to reclaim masculinities.
Some chronicles of masculinities from Afghanistan represent some of the worst
violence against women. “An Afghan man without work finds himself helpless and this
powerlessness can generate domestic violence, relating to the frustration of a loss of
masculine roles” (Hans, 2004, p. 242). In September, 2007, the Cable Network News
(CNN) special investigation unit on Afghanistan revealed to the world a shocking
account of masculinities. The investigation reveals that Nadia, a 25 year old Afghan girl
was murdered by her husband only because she was educated, became a poet and
increasingly became popular. Nadia‟s husband is reported to have questioned her
repeatedly in despair and frustration about her success: “why are you so much more
popular than me, when I am the husband? Why people talk about you and not me when I
am the head of the household?” Two things can be said here: at home, and from a cultural
perspective, the man felt overshadowed by the success of his wife; within the community,
he felt that the public regarded him as a “failure” relative to his wife. This was perceived
by him as a major threat to his masculine identity.
The story of Nadia directs attention to the general history of women in
Afghanistan. This in turn raises questions about the relationship between women and the
nation-state, particularly as it relates to masculinities. “Rumor has it that Enoch Powell,
the right-wing maverick British M.P., once defined a nation as two males defending the
women in a specific territory” (Yuval Davis, 2004, p. 170). In Germany, medical officers
were considered to be formally part of the military in 1980, while all the female clerical
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workers servicing the army were considered to be civilians (Chapkis, 1981). Earlier on in
Israel, female nurses servicing the military were not considered as military but civilians
(Yuval-Davis, 2004). Also, although Spanish women fought alongside men using slings
against the Incas, their participation was not regarded as equivalent to warring men
because the Spanish believed that the slings were used by women and men for herding
animals (Yuval Davis, 2004). These accounts are only a small example of how
masculinities are also constructed by nation-state institutions.
Masculinities are not always revealed through males subordinating females as I
have discussed in this section. There are forms of masculinities in which men oppress
men, as well as women also oppressing men and other women. This can also be termed as
class oppression. As Macklin (2004, p. 83) crisply claims, “armies, governments and
industrial areas such as oil rigs are not feminine cultures.” Another author (Cockburn,
1999) also claims that in male defined employment, though the sex distribution is
overwhelmingly male, each social domain reveals a hierarchy among men, producing
different and unequal masculinities. Women are also members of classes and countries
that dominate others and enjoy privileges in terms of access to resources.
Within Liberia, the practice of males subordinating other males (or classism) is
observed in some cultural hierarchies and initiation processes. For example, oral accounts
of practices among men‟s groups in some rural areas hold that men are supposed to be
able to climb palm trees with ropes or swim across rough waters with heavy loads. In
men‟s gatherings, those who fall short of these skills are regarded by the “full grown”
men as “women-men”. If there is food in such cultural gatherings, the women-men will
only eat the left-overs. Some of these cultural groups require brutal initiation processes.
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Initiation rituals are also common among women, thereby suggesting that masculinities
are cultural constructs communicated in gender-specific customary practices.
3.5. Power and Culture as Gender Concepts
Power is “a process whereby individuals or groups gain or maintain the capacity
to impose their will upon others, to have their way recurrently, despite implicit or explicit
opposition, through invoking or threatening punishment, as well as offering or
withholding rewards” (Lipman-Blumen, 1984, p. 6). It is also the “enhancement of the
rights and freedoms of one person over another” (Kuypers, 1999, p. 19). Power can be
developed and enforced through racism as white Americans did through the oppression
and relocation of former slaves to Liberia. Power can also be developed and enforced
through knowledge as the freed slaves did to indigenous Liberians after they were also
repressed and latter resettled in Liberia. It can also be negatively embedded in actions
that are deliberately intended to produce good results. This supports the claims that power
is an abstract concept, the implications from which are sometimes unknown to the one
who has it (Foucault, 1984). It is also from a similar perspective of power that
postmodernists accuse development of constituting a renewed form of colonialism.
Power can also be at the center of spousal relationships. It is manifested in
decision-making processes related to domestic budgeting, family travels and public
relations. Within the past two decades, feminist geographers have begun exploring how
power dynamics within the household are shaped by transnationalism (Kabeer, 2000;
Pressar, 1999; Kabeer, 2000 and Hyndman, 1999). Their works remind us that the
household is a contested field of power relations. One key point, which comes out of this
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literature, is that power has fluid characteristics, which change in time and in space. The
same is applied to culture which is often used to shelter power imbalances.
Power is a socially constructed concept often embedded in cultural structures
(Bannerji, 1999). An important point of departure here is to examine how culture is used
as a conduit of power in oppressing women. “Just as gender is deployed in particular
ways, so too is culture. Culture is not a static set of characteristics with unalterable
ancient origins despite essentialized representations to the contrary. Nor are cultures fixed
entities (Yuval Davis, 1997). Another scholar (Narayan, 1998) similarly claims that
culture is not a static entity; it develops through the specific local, historical, and political
realities of a society or community. Other researchers such as Giles & Hyndman (2004)
also contend that cultures are infinitely malleable maps of meaning within a material
economy of nationality, sexuality, class, caste, religion, and gender. Men‟s attempt to
counter the fluidity of culture has often located women in a disadvantageous position, as I
will explore in the following paragraphs.
Competing discourses and practices of modernity and culture have often used
women as a central site of contention. Women are often used as the symbolic bearers of
modernity and culture. In western countries, the bodies of young girls are used to
advertise the latest fashion designs, while in other countries, particularly developing
countries, women are blamed for not resisting cultural changes. “Unveilling women in
Ata Turk‟s revolution of 1917, which was aimed at constructing Turkey as a modern
nation-state, was as important as veiling them has been to Muslim fundamentalists in the
contemporary Middle East” (Yuval Davis, 2004, p 172). Despite women playing this
symbolic role, they do not equally enjoy the dividends as men do in a country like
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Turkey. Even in cases where women have participated in liberation movements, or were
used as human shields and for political reasons, they were marginalized during the
resource allocation that followed such struggles. “While many women supported
Afghanistan against external occupation, they did not find themselves among the counted
leaders of the nation” (Hans, 2004, p. 246). These are common scenarios experienced in
the Liberian context. The democratic election of a woman in Liberia represents the
potential to include women as role models in the country. However, this example is
anomalous and does not reflect the wider situation for women in the country.
When normative gender practices for a particular culture are not maintained
women are often censured for gross negligence. When Sri Lankan refugee children were
accused by their hosts of using bad languages being dirty and of bad habits, the final
accusations were labeled against their mothers for not adequately supervising and caring
for their children (Alwis, 2004). Why cannot men be held responsible if children within
their homes stray from their cultural norms? It is also common that men in such homes
will compound the pressures on their wives by blaming them for the bad attitudes of their
children. What is more unfair is that men are often credited instead of their wives when
the family, or children in particular, suit the expectations of society. In Afghanistan,
“women were the bearers of the family honor, and a man‟s reputation was measured
through the behavior of the females in his household” (Hans, 2004). This is also similar
to a female suppressive adage in West Africa, which holds that “behind every successful
man, there is a woman”. Though many women seem to appreciate this expression, it can
be regarded as yet another form of oppression for women because women are not
credited directly for the knowledge, skill and perhaps capacity for leadership.
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Cultural traditions do not necessarily represent the interests of all community
members (Lowry, 2001). This argument is supported by the intrinsic links which exist
between culture and power. In the case of gender relations, some cultural constructs often
result in a negative power imbalance for women. Such an imbalance of power is often
questioned in post-migration (Gamburd, 1995; Pessar, 1994 and Morokvasic, 1998). In
post-migration, the orientations and ideologies of some cultural groups about their culture
can often contradict the views of those who remain behind (Winland, 1998, Cited in
Razzaq, 2007). Hondagneu-Sotelo (1994, p. 15) also contends that “immigrants arrive
with cultural and ideological baggage, but in the new society, as they unpack and
rearrange it, they discard elements and adopt new ones.” As we shall see in the next
chapter, cultural changes that threaten masculinities and male power are not simply about
transformations, they often present women with risky and violent situations.
3.6. Methodology
Choosing the appropriate methodology for any particular research is a matter of
contestation because scholars often disagree about the path to truth (Hawkesworth, 2006).
Based on the purpose of this study and my personal experience, I chose to use a
qualitative methodology built into a feminist lens in doing this research. My choice of a
qualitative approach to this study is also partly grounded on the argument of Stevi and
Moores (1995) that the household is best understood as fundamental economic entity
underpinned by economic relations embedded in wider socioeconomic structures. Hence
we need to understand more about the workings of the household as a window into wider
structures. Another related argument comes from Tastsoglou (1998), who asserts that
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migration entails crossing cultural boundaries, experiencing another culture, and making
a new home in a new country, with all the internal transformation of the self. Qualitative
studies are best suited to capture new subjectivities (Barber, 2004). Understanding the
dynamics of households and the processes of migration through a qualitative approach
utilizing a feminist lens was critical to the success of my research.
The selection of a research approach should be partly built on the experience of
the researcher (Creswell, 2002). I was more comfortable with using a qualitative
approach in this study. More importantly, it allowed me to focus on a limited number of
participants and gain a deep understanding of the issues that are central to the research.
“Qualitative research involves active participation by the participants and sensitivity to
the participants in the study” (Creswell, 2002, p. 181). Through the use of semi-
structured interview guide, I allowed interviewees to actively participate by freely
expressing their views without being limited by the formal structure of pre-set questions.
3.7. Semi-Structured Interview Guide
A lengthy semi-structured interview guide was the principal tool which I used for
data collection. The interview guide contains open-ended questions to stimulate open and
free discussions. I developed and tested the interview guide about a month before the
actual data collection process. The use of an interview guide required about two hours
with each participant. It was prepared in four basic parts, which include an introduction,
demographic information, and questions about livelihoods and gender relations, and life
in Canada. The first part, the introduction is focused on obtaining a synoptic description
of the family in terms of migration history and the underpinning circumstances. “A major
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focus of feminist transnational research has been the articulation of gender in relation to
the dominant discourses of globalization, nationalism and the state” (Giles & Hyndman,
2004). Hence, in this introductory part, my questions focused on understanding the
political environment which overshadowed the migration of the participants, and how this
affected the household. I asked questions such as, why did you leave Liberia, why did
you choose Canada, and who is the head of your household?
The second part of the interview guide is concentrated on family structure in
terms of demographic information, which profiles participants‟ lives from Liberia to
Canada. Gender is sometime simultaneously present and absent in popular perceptions.
Often in “informal conversations, in media reporting, and even in academic work about
incidents of violence by an individual, group, or on national scales, the sex of the actors
is mentioned but not analyzed” (Cockburn, 2004, p. 25). I used this part of the interview
guide to explore how sex, gender, and age affected migration and any sojourns the
participants experienced before arriving in Canada.
The third component, livelihoods and gender relations focused on the history and
politics of the economic activities of households. The objective here was to investigate
how gender articulates with household economy and migration. “Feminist analyses of
gender in conflict situations addresses the politics of social and economic disparities and
explores possibilities for changing power imbalances that include gender relations”,
(Giles & Hyndman, 2000, p. 4). Some of the issues explored under this section of the
interview guide include how labor allocations within the household are affected by
migration and how this in turn influences power dynamics. How also does employment
influence control of money, domestic budgeting and labor divisions within the
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household? “Beyond distribution by sex (men do this, women do that), we need to
observe the functioning of gender as a relation, and a relation of power, that compounds
other power dynamics” (Cockburn, 2004, p. 25). In the context of border crossings and
encountering new cultures, domestic economies and labor divisions can be markers of
power dynamics.
The last part of the interview guide is characterized by a thoughtful reflection on
the participants‟ experiences in Canada. “Transnational feminist approaches analyze
location in ways that include both geography and positionality, recognizing the
importance of differences embedded in one‟s identity but connecting across such
differences nonetheless” (Giles & Hyndman, 2004, p. 313). This part of the guide
examines actual changes, challenges and opportunities that households face as a
consequence of migrating to Canada. For example, I asked, how is life in Canada
different from Liberia and refugee camps? What are the challenges and opportunities of
living in Canada? How are Liberian immigrants interacting with their Canadian
counterparts? These issues provided a clear synopsis of the finding of each interview.
3.8. Recruitment Process
The research is based on the migration histories of five Liberian couples (5
women and 5 men) as case studies. I conducted a total of 10 individual interviews with
the five couples interviewing the men and women separately. By focusing on a small
number of people, I had the opportunity to examine more deeply the core issues of the
research. The Liberian population in Halifax is relatively small: less than 75 people, only
approximately a quarter of whom are couples, and comprised mainly of women and
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children. Before contacting any participants, I first obtained the approval of the
leadership committee of the Liberian Association in Nova Scotia (LANS). It is an
organization, which oversees the affairs of Liberians living in the Province of Nova
Scotia. Through the organization, I communicated with the wider community about the
objectives and purpose of the study. The reaction of the community was positive and
welcoming, so I obtained their approval to use their official community listing to recruit
participants for the study.
The list contains telephone numbers and house addresses. It is prepared and
regularly updated for contact purposes. Given the small number of Liberian couples in
Halifax, I did not use any scientific method in recruiting interviewees. I purposefully
approached each couple and sought permission for interviews. Initially, I made phone
calls and requested that I come over to discuss issues related to my research. Upon being
accepted and invited, I went to participants‟ homes to re-explain what they had heard in
their community meting. I clarified here that participation in the study required a husband
and his wife being separately interviewed outside of their home. This was intended to
avoid the creation of spousal rifts as a consequence of the study.
3.9. Data Collection
With the approval of each participant, the office of the African Diaspora
Association of the Maritimes (ADAM) was used as the venue for interviews. Each
interview was conducted after working hours to ensure that only the interviewee and the
researcher were present. “Qualitative research takes place in the natural setting – site
(home and office)” (Creswell, 2002, p. 181). The office proved to be a very good venue
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as it was quiet and relaxing. It allowed us to stay away from distractions and to maintain
privacy between spouses. I provided bus tickets, but none of the participants decided to
take them. The only offer, which they accepted from me was tea and water.
As required by the Ethics board of Dalhousie University, I obtained verbal
consents before I began each of the interviews. This was also important because my
research questions probe into sensitive issues that are central to the daily lives of couples.
I clearly stated that the research was only for academic purposes and that the identity of
each participant would not be released to anyone. Also, speaking with displaced and
refugees is a sensitive issue as it could provoke sad memories. “The displaced live with
the memory of an earlier life lost and in despair of ever recovering it” (Cockburn, 2004,
p. 39). Though I had arranged with a psychologist the possibility of referral in case of any
psychological breakdown, I tried to avoid leading participants into deep reflection upon
the terrible memories of war. All of the participants refused to be audio-taped. Hence, all
the data were recorded in a note book.
“Interrogating accepted beliefs, challenging shared assumptions, and reframing
research questions are characteristics of feminist inquiry” (Hawkesworth, 2006, p. 4). As
the key question of the research asks how gender relations have been affected by
transnationalism, I spent a lot of time trying to understand how spousal relations have
been managed in time and in space, by looking at several intersecting factors such as
decision-making processes, the highest income earner, shifts in employment, control over
procreation, domestic budgeting, the public relations of the household, particularly in
interacting with aid institutions for the processing of travel documents. Each interview
lasted for about two hours.
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Another component of data collection was an extensive review of the relevant
academic and development literatures. I have explored scholarly work which analyzes
trends of changing gender relations and transnationalism. In other to examine gender
relations and transnationalism within the study context, I have also explored a body of
literature, which looks at globalization and the political history of Liberia. Most of the
literature, which I reviewed was written by feminist scholars and this provides me with a
solid theoretical understanding of how gender articulates with transnationalism within
several cultural contexts.
3.10. Data Analysis
Considering the number of interviews – ten in total, and in order to remain
consistent with the purpose of the study, I have used qualitative methods in analyzing the
gathered data. The first step was to properly organize the data from field notes through
transcription into Microsoft word. At this stage, I abandoned some claims that were
absolutely unclear to me. From the transcribed data, I identified major themes and
discourses. I first examined each theme and discourse within the migration context of the
particular interviewee, and later related them to those of other interviewees. By using
discourse analysis, I was able to assign meanings to the expressions of the participants.
The next step of data analysis was to return to the reviewed literature. Here, I
identified what was new and what the existing literature has spoken to. Some themes and
discourses that were completely disconnected from the purpose of the study were also
abandoned at this stage. The analysis process was finalized by a synoptic presentation of
the research findings. The summary of the findings was submitted to my supervisor for
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comments. The comments of my supervisor focused on objectivity, and encouraged me to
focus on the most critical issues of the study. The final version was then incorporated into
the thesis.
3.11. Challenges
Often, the positionality of a researcher can affect the process of data collection
and in particular, the relationship between researcher and participants (Lather, 1991).
This is a genuine concern for postmodernist feminists. In this study, my position as the
researcher was also challenged by my identity as a male Liberian. During interviews, I
sometime observed an attempt by male participants to speak as if I were aware or
convinced by what they indicated to be frustrating or unacceptable behaviors on the part
of their wives. A key reason for this is the fact that we come from a patriarchal culture in
Liberia. I was able to successfully recognize these challenges because I had previously
talked about them with experienced researchers and colleagues. Also, the refusal to be
audio-taped by all the participants had implications for the duration of interviews, as I
tried to meticulously record everything that was said by each interviewee.
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Chapter Four
Migrating From Liberia to Canada: Implications for Gender Relations
Drawing on feminist research guides, this thesis examines whether there is any
relationship between transnational migration and changing gender relations. The research
was conducted in July 2007, among Liberian immigrants in Halifax, Nova Scotia,
Canada. The study seeks to answer the following questions such as; why members of the
Liberian immigrant community in Halifax chose to come to Canada? What are the new
social and economic conditions these immigrant families encountered during migration
from Liberia and post-migration to Canada? Do the new social and economic conditions
in Canada alter gender relations within these Liberian immigrant families? How do the
Liberian immigrant families cope with changes in the new social locations during the
sojourn? In this chapter of the thesis, I present the results of the research. The analysis
shows that after arriving in Canada, as suggested by one body of research on the more
positive aspects of gender and migration (see Mahler and Pessar, 2006), Liberian
immigrant women have begun to demand a renegotiation of gender relations with their
husbands.
4.1. Profiles of the Participants
A total of five couples (five men and five women) participated in the study. The
couples are originally from rural parts of Liberia where access to basic services, such as
electricity and communication infrastructure has never been established, even before the
war. Before coming to Canada, all of them lived as refugees in other countries as a
consequence of the Liberian civil conflict. All of them came to Canada through the
United Nations and Canadian government assisted refugee resettlement program.
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Of the men, the oldest is 51 and the youngest is 35. Among the women, the oldest
is 37 and the youngest is 30. The male and female age ratio within couples is 35:30,
38:33, 35:34, 51:37, and 41:36. In one of the couples, there is a more significant age
difference of 14 years, which demands a high respect from his wife and affords him more
defined powers in intra-household decision-making within the Liberian cultural setting.
In such a situation, the woman would call him by a name synonymous to how a daughter
would call her father, or as one would address an elderly man of respect. The latter is
what I observed in the case of this couple.
One of the couples did not live together in Liberia. The wife stayed with her in-
laws to acquaint herself with the marital values and expectations of her husband‟s family
while the man was studying, before they were forced into exile and began to live
together. During this period of staying with in-laws, which I will term a “marital
internship,” the woman is trained to be a “good” housewife, but also, she is given strict
instructions to obey her husband. Women who go through this marital internship are only
implementers and not decision-makers relative to their husbands. While this is rapidly
becoming an outdated practiced, it is still observed among conservative sectors of the
Liberian population.
Among the couples, the highest family size in Liberia was eight compared to
thirteen in refugee camps and six currently in Canada. The smallest family size was three
in Liberia, three in refugee camps and currently four in Canada. Earlier in this thesis I
mentioned the fluidity of the terms “family, household and culture” in different contexts.
By talking about family size here I am referring to a couple (polygamous or
monogamous) and their dependants including their children and all those who are
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members of their production and consumption unit. This is what the participants in this
study describe as a family. For example, aging parents and younger siblings to the wife or
husband may also fall in this category.
The structure of most of the families changed during their journey from Liberia to
Canada. For example, two families were polygamous in Liberia and refugee camps,
before returning to monogamy en route to Canada. Canadian immigration policy did not
allow them to import their polygamous marriages into Canada. However, despite this
physical separation, the men still consider the women left behind as their wives (see also
Mahler and Pessar, 2006). They regularly remit financial support. The continuous
financial connections with these women back in Liberia have become a contentious factor
for gender relations within their marriages in Canada, particularly if the Canadian based
women‟s incomes are part of such remittance to other women in Liberia.
The five couples left Liberia between 1990 and 2002. They arrived in Canada
between 2003 and 2005. The longest and shortest stays in refugee camps are 14 and 3
years respectively. Three of the men are currently pursuing post-secondary education;
one is a Canadian trained technician, and the fifth is only a high school graduate. Only
one of the women is a high school graduate, the rest have only started to learn the basic
skills of reading and writing in Halifax. I acknowledge that the rural context, particularly
of low literacy, from which these couples originate in Liberia makes them different from
their urban colleagues some of whom are educated and involved in paid employment.
In Liberia, four of the men had salaried jobs while pursuing post-secondary
education. One was in high school and did not have a job. None of the women were
employed so they did not earn a salary. Four of them remained home to look after
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children, while the fifth was pursuing a marital internship. As a consequence of forced
displacement, one of them was separated from her husband and briefly participated in a
“food for work” program with a non-governmental organization to feed her family. Food
for work is a form of volunteering in refugee situations, where volunteers are paid with
food instead of cash. Among the men while in Liberia the highest and lowest salaries
were $400 and $250 USD respectively.
In refugee camps, none of the men were employed for a salary. Two of them
volunteered as teachers in schools and earned about $10 per month. All of the women
were involved in either petty trade or daily hired labor activities and earned more than
their husbands, or were the only breadwinners during most of the time. The highest
income among the women was $40 USD, and the lowest was $10 USD.
Here, in Canada, one of the men is working in a banking institution, one has a
mechanic‟s job, another is a personal care worker, while two are working as cleaners.
Four of the women are cleaners. The fifth does not have a job due to child care, and is
only receiving a monthly child tax benefit from the Canadian Government. The highest
and lowest salaries among the men are $1,500 CAD and $800 CAD per month
respectively. All of the men currently earn higher salaries than their wives except one
who is a full time student. Among the women, the highest and lowest salaries are $1,200
and $800 CAD per month respectively.
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4.2. Migrating to Canada: Why Canada? Decision-Making within the Family, and
the Role of Aid Agencies
In this section, I explore why these couples decided to come to Canada, and how
the processes involved have been managed in terms of gender roles. The dominant
reasons presented by the participants for coming to Canada were to live in a safe country
where they would have access to better education, health services and employment to
improve their lives and the lives of their relations back home. This finding partly
confirms the claim of Krahn et al. (2003) that migrants move to access better education
and employment opportunities. However, the answers are not surprising giving the two
decades of political instability in Liberia and its neighboring countries where they sought
refuge. Because of the historical ties between Liberia and the United States, Liberians
know more about the United States than any other western country. Hence, these refugees
hoped to travel to the United States where they would reunite with friends and relatives.
This answer was common between husbands and wives, but it appeared to me that the
women were explaining what their husbands had thought about traveling. This suggests
that they were not strongly involved in the decision-making process.
Information which they received about Canada indicated that it was bordering the
United States and similarly had good living conditions. Gradually, their knowledge about
Canada increased as some friends were resettled in Canada, Norway, Australia and
Sweden instead of the United States. The flow of information, and remittances extended
their understanding that Canada, Australia and the Scandinavian countries were good
places where they could make a better living just as in the United States. Henceforth, they
left their options open with a willingness to migrate to any of these countries. Through
various institutionally supported refugee programs (for example, government sponsored
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and church sponsored), refugees can apply or receive propositions from sponsors through
the United Nations to be resettled within any western country accepting refugees.
In the case of the couples in this study, four of them applied for sponsorships
through the United Nations to be resettled in any western country, while one received a
proposition from the Canadian government through the United Nations.
Mr. Toe: We did not make a choice. We were given an offer by the Canadian government. The UN gave our names to countries that were accepting refugees. Before, we knew more about the USA than Canada. But we were happy about coming to Canada than Australia, Sweden or Norway because Canada shares its border with the USA. We were sometimes frightened by news of snow and extreme cold.
Even this couple who did not apply had some knowledge about Canada and were willing
to come. They had already thought of some of the advantages and challenges. For
example, they indicated that Canada was a peaceful country of freedom where both men
and women could work. They were also aware that the climate was a real challenge.
There was, however, no mention of anything related to gender equality and sexual
orientations which are often mentioned by people in many African countries and
elsewhere who have studied or visited Canada.
Within families, decisions about migrating to Canada, and the processing of travel
documents were dominated by male influence. The management of the process by aid
agencies was also gendered at all stages. All of the participants confirmed that the
decisions to come to Canada and the processing of their travel documents were
exclusively managed by husbands as is seen in the responses of these two couples when
questioned as to why the women were not involved:
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Ms. Tamba: I only went to sit interviews when my husband told me to go. You know, the whole thing is that, the UN people can first ask for the husband, because he was the head.
Mr. Tamba: I was the family head. I am the husband – the head, you know. The main thing also, I -- my name is the first on the tickets and all of the immigration papers that brought us here, you know.
Ms. Toe: Because he is my husband, so he took all the decisions for our
household. You see, ---- eh –eh- in our culture, the husband is the head of the household, because he is the one to answer all questions about the family. The woman is not concerned. And, the UN was just helping us.
Mr. Toe: I was the first to be interviewed by the UN. I was the first to be
contacted. My wife wasn‘t around; she went to find daily contracts for food. I was working on top of our house, when they came to talk to me. I initially said I was too old to come to Canada. I did not have any ambitions for traveling.
Men‟s domination of the intra-household decision-making process about coming
to Canada is linked to the cultural values attached to certain patriarchal positions or roles
such as the household head and the husband. The constructed values attached to these
roles demand submissiveness from wives to their husbands, though such demands are
sometimes contested and renegotiated by women. There is also the unequal access to
education between women and men, which gives men an uncontested advantage in
conducting the public relations of their families. Most of the women indicated that their
husbands took the decisions and handled the processing of their travel documents because
they are the educated persons in their households.
Patriarchy is also well grounded in the workings of aid institutions. The UN
agencies and NGOs continue to define and approach households from a patriarchal
perspective. Their identification of the husband as the contact person and sole decision-
maker within households coalesced with certain cultural values in subordinating the role
and value of wives relative to their husbands. In all of the scenarios where wives were out
looking for food in refugee camps, or were present preparing food in the kitchen, the
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reference persons who the staff of aid agencies were always looking for was a “household
head” working from the gendered ideology concerning the husband‟s role and the idea of
an educated man who knows much about his family. If we embrace Hobson‟s (1995)
argument that women spend more time at home on family issues than men, then the
behavior of these aid agencies is a complete contradiction to actual gendered practices.
Tastsoglou, (1998) also tells us that if women do go out of their homes, their activities are
still closely related to family affairs such as school and health. This patriarchal behavior
raises serious questions about the gender policies of many of these agencies.
On most of the data collection forms used by these agencies, the identification of
the household head is requested in the first column. In fact, the category “female-headed
households” is a popular criterion for a “vulnerability” classification in refugee camps by
aid agencies. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the
United Nations World Food Program (WFP) are some of the key users of this
vulnerability criterion. In the case of the UNHCR, this criterion is flawed with
contradictions, as a woman who is vulnerable because she heads her household can also
be denied relief services because she is educated and holds a position of power in a
refugee camp (Hyndman, 2004). This paradox is but one example of the lack of clear
policies by aid agencies in dealing with gender during a refugee crisis.
An important point to note in these institutionally directed decision-making
processes and the role of aid agencies therein is that there are also female-headed
households who are assisted under the resettlement program. The number of resettled
female-headed households is far greater than male-headed households within the Liberian
immigrant community in Halifax. The selection of more female-headed households than
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male-headed households is premised on the assumption that female-headed households
are always vulnerable. Within the resettlement process, feminists have also identified an
inherent flaw and contradiction. In Somali refugee camps in Kenya, females who head
their households and report being raped to the UNHCR must provide an elderly male
family member to attest to their claims (Giles & Hyndman, 2004; Mohamed, 1999; Abdi,
1998). Women who fail to provide these witnesses are denied further assistance,
particularly through the resettlement program which remains one of the ways of assisting
women who are raped.
In Liberian immigrant female-headed households, women play exactly the same
roles as men would do as husbands and male heads in other households. For example,
this woman says:
Ms. Tamba: If we were not living with him, of course like some of my friends who are not married, I was also going to take the decision to come. But if they had asked me while living with him, I was going to ask for his permission first.
The issue raised here is that when men and women are associated, women‟s autonomy is
reduced. We also see from this process that the marital household is a site of women‟s
subordination in some cultural contexts.
4.3. Refugee Life and Constructed Male Power
In this study, I discovered that within the Liberian cultural context, male power
within the household is strongly tied to the ability of a man to work and earn regular
income to support his family. A man who is unemployed and unable to meet the financial
needs of his wife and family is often categorized as a big failure, and is likely to lose his
marriage if they live in urban areas where survival is based on cash economies, as
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opposed to food production in rural areas. In this study, the men who lived with their
wives in Liberia were all working and were the only income earners in their households.
This advantage gave them power over their wives in intra-household decision making
processes. Upon arrival in refugee camps, the advantage of men being the only income
earners in their households was lost to women (see also Mahler and Pessar, 2006) in a
complex setting where money was more needed on a daily basis than in Liberia.
When questioned as to why men were not working, the following were the
responses obtained from some of the couples:
Ms. Snow: It was very hard! There were no jobs, even for the hosts you know, so we did lot of things. It was even frustrating for my husband. He got nothing to do.
Mr. Snow: It [refugee life] is a very hard life! You don‘t get jobs. Most of us lived on the skills of our women to do petty trade and round town jobs.
Ms. Ansu: I was doing hair dressing. I have the skills for that kind of j ob, and I was doing it to help my family. Also, my husband was not working in refugee camp, so I was working. I needed to do more.
Mr. Ansu: Men were not allowed to work as refugees. The hosts are very nationalistic in offering jobs. They would first give to citizens before foreigners.
In discussions with each of the participants about employment during their refugee life,
the recurrent theme was that it was generally difficult for refugees to find jobs, but the
situation of unemployment was even more difficult for men than women. Family survival
in the context of refugee life requires specific skills and adaptability, for which women
proved to be more prepared than men, as evidenced in this research. I also discovered in
the literature review that in several cases, women in refugee camps have confronted
radical life transformations by becoming the sole providers and protectors of their
families and households (Korac, 2004). Freire (1995) cited in Korac (2004) holds that
this is because women in many societies have been socialized, subordinated and confined
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to the microsystems of the family and households. Hence, coping with difficulties is
simply a continuation of their hardship. One analytic conclusion which I draw from this
circumstance is that the gendered skills of women are critical for family survival during
displacement, though as a consequence of patriarchy and masculinities, men still regard
them as “basic” coping mechanisms.
As the women in this study became family breadwinners, some of the men were
gradually drawn into domestic work. This is clearly reflected in the statement of Mr.
Brown when he says “mainly, in refugee camp, I took part in doing cleaning, washing
and cooking because – you know -- I was not working [employed] like my wife.” His
tone and body language portrayed a man who was wallowing over the miseries of his past
life. He also indicated that previously in Liberia, he did not get involved in any domestic
work, because he was employed. An implication here is that power is not a fixed entity; it
can be negotiated and reallocated among members of a group or within a couple as
suggested in the works of Morokvasic (1998) and Matsuoka et al (1999).
The transition of the breadwinner‟s role from men to women also had
implications for gender decision-making processes on different issues within households.
Speaking about decision-making about reproduction and family size Mr. Brown also
indicated that “my wife was working so she needed to be involved in that kind of
decision [to have additional children].” There is an increase in the power of women in
this situation hence the men are compelled by the difficult economic situation to listen to
their wives. I shall term such a change in male attitude as a “forced cooperation”, which
entails a male strategy for the desire to maintain power over their wives. It is important to
also see how women viewed this kind of change, since the refugee camps were sub-
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sectors of larger patriarchal communities in which the domestic domain is culturally
allocated to women, while men are viewed as breadwinners.
Talking about the control over income in refugee camps, Ms. Ansu says “I gave
everything I earned to my husband. He was not employed. I wanted to make him happy.
To make him feel like he was the head. You know, if the man is not working he feels like
a woman, it is a shame.” Culture and the influence of society still played a key role in
protecting patriarchal identities and masculinities in these refugee camps. In the reviewed
literature, Alwis (2004) tells us that Sri Lankan muslin refugee men were drinking and
fighting their wives due to the switch in employment from men to women. This
contradiction reminds us about the influence of culture. However, a key finding under
this point of discussion is that economic conditions in refugee camps can induce radical
changes for gender relations. Patriarchy and masculinities are revealed by the participants
in this study to come under serious challenges in the refugee camp phase of their
migration.
4.4. The Family Head: a Contested Position upon Arrival in Canada
The study reveals that in Liberia, husbands are regarded as heads of their
households. This position seemingly affords men unquestioned power over their wives
back in Liberia. All of the couples interviewed claimed that men are the heads of their
households upon marriage. However, the tone of their expressions showed that the head
of household role is being contested by women as a consequence of pressure from outside
influences and daily encounters with dominant Canadian cultural values which promote
equality between men and women. When asked who is the current head of their
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households, women were sarcastic in declaring men as their heads, while men sounded
frustrated in claming the title as reflected in the following conversation:
Question: Who is the current head of your household? Ms. Tamba: Both of us --- hahahaaaaa (open laughter) --- no after him that
me next ---- hahahaaaa. Anyway, you know he brought me here, so he is the head. If I had brought him here, I would have been the head, though it would be hard.
Question: What makes him the head of the household?
Ms. Tamba: He signs all of our documents here. His name is the first on all of our documents here. We live in a government house, he is the contact person. When immigration is calling us, they are trying to call him first. He keeps all of our papers you know. Also, he makes more money, and you know ---- ahuum --- (laugh) all that one, you know.
Ms. Tamba is 14 years younger than her husband and spent several years with her
in-laws before getting married to her husband. The age difference, combined with the
time spent with in-laws which I refer to as a “marital internship” in this thesis - would not
encourage this woman at any time in her relationship with her husband to make a
statement, which challenges his authority. This pattern is the cultural norm in the rural
part of Liberia where they came from. My study reveals that in the rural parts of Liberia
where most of these families previously lived, women who are about 10 years younger
than their husbands would not call them by their first names; they would rather use terms
which depict a high level of respect. The marital internship requires a woman to spend
years with her in-laws during which she is trained to be a good wife. Some of the
behaviors of a good wife are to display total respect for the husband and good manners
towards in-laws. Hence, the sarcasm in the expression of Ms. Tamba about the role of her
husband as household head is a sharp deviation from her cultural training.
According to all of the participants, the factors which define the head of the
household within their families in Canada can be traced to authority associated within the
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person who initiated and worked out the process of their migration to Canada. The head
is perceived as the individual who is the contact person in their families, who signs their
lease agreements, who as husband, is deemed responsible for their security, defined as the
one who earns more money and is the more educated. The women who took part in this
study explained that within female-headed households in this particular Liberian
immigrant community, however, women are equally performing the functions associated
with male household heads. The participants also indicated that they had observed that
within Canadian families, these roles are equally shared between husbands and wives.
These differences within the Liberian community and relative to Canadian comparisons
show that cultural attitudes about the association of a man and a woman in a marital
relationship can facilitate female repression in some cases.
The expressions of men show a deep sense of frustration concerning the definition
of the head of household in Canada. These men explain that:
Mr. Ansu: These people bring democracy into their homes. I mean everyone has a say in every decision. Back home, the man is the head followed by the wife. The men take decisions. You know --- ah-ha—(laugh), sometimes, these people are afraid of their wives because of the freedom here. Even now, we have to be cleaver how to deal with our wives too, because they are seeing all of that stuff.
Mr. Tamba: Here, there is equality within the household between husbands
and wives. I have to plan with my wife, and sometimes, the children. You see, not the way back home! I have to do a meeting before everything so that everyone can agree. We were told all of these during our orientation when we arrived. Decision-making must involve everybody – the wife even the children!! In Liberia and refugee camp, I was the only decider. I took decisions and informed them. Our culture is that way; you know what I am talking about – Uhum (grim face). Here, it is just like that. No control over wives and children.
The key issues coming from the explanations of these men target familial democracy, and
gender equality and freedom within Canadian homes. The study shows that these newly
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present cultural values contrast and conflict in many ways with those in Liberia. For
example, husbands are the only deciders while decision-making processes within
households are understood to happen through consultations for Canadian couples.
4.5. Employment, Control of Income and Gender Relations in Canada
This study reveals that the opportunity for both Liberian immigrant men and
women to work in Canada has introduced a new dynamic in power relations within
households over the control of incomes. Before escaping to refugee camps, the women
who took part in this research were not working for wages in Liberia. In Liberia, they
remained home caring for children and managing all of the domestic work. If they
received any money, it was either from petty trade, backyard gardening or food money
sourced by their husbands. According to the participants, this was the only money which
women kept and controlled. Any family savings were kept and controlled by husbands
who were also the primary earners. This pattern reveals a common (if not global)
devaluing of women‟s work in domestic and informal activities as suggested by
Bennholdt-Thomsen (1998).
The participants disclosed that in refugee camps, where women were the major
income earners, they surrendered their incomes to men indicating that this was in
conformity with their Liberian cultural norms. Here, in Canada, where both men and
women are working, I discovered that four of the five women interviewed have opened
personal bank accounts and are keeping and controlling their incomes separately from
their husbands. In trying to understand why there is this difference, Ms. Brown says “I
think when I am working; I have more control over my income than when I am not
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working. Also, here I am working and my husband is working.” The first argument of
this woman is that because she is employed she has more control over her income, but
this argument is disputed by the fact that she was also working in the refugee camp when
the money was still controlled by her husband. The second argument, which justifies her
savings on the grounds that the both of them are working seems stronger in justifying this
change which indicates a shift in power relations relative to the household economy. It
appears that the opportunity for both of them to work induces some degree of
independence from each other. This is consistent with socialist feminist research cited
earlier in Gamburd (1995) and Chattopadhyay (1997) who argue that employment for
both women men and in post-migration can induce changes in gender relations.
There is also another explanation from one of the women in this study who is
unemployed but receives a government supported child tax benefit:
Ms. Toe: I keep my money at the bank. I have my personal account. I put all of my child benefit there. Not like back home. The banking system is a good system here. You can have access to your money at anytime – you know. Also, woman has the right to control her personal money here. That is the system they told us when we came first. And we see everyone is doing like this
The justification provided by Ms. Toe is focused on the culture of Canada as a new social
location. She acknowledges that the banking system in Canada is actually better than the
ones in Liberia and refugee camps. For example, to open a bank account in Liberia, you
will need to meet several requirements (letters of recommendation from institutions and
individuals and a written application), and the location might not always be accessible.
Hence, female banking is only practiced by the educated and employed. The second
justification is the dominant public discourse in media about male and female equality,
combined with the influence of immigrant settlement agencies which educate women on
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a daily basis about their rights relative to their husbands. For example, Ms. Tamba says,
“When we came, MISA helped me to open a bank account. This is because I am
working.” The key point on this issue is that the rights of living in this location combined
with dominant Canadian practices are creating awareness for women and empowering
them in ways that are changing power dynamics within their spousal relations.
4.6. Domestic Budgeting and Gender Relations
Domestic budgeting is another factor which has implications for power relations.
My research looks at how this factor is affected by migration in the context of Liberian
immigrant families in Halifax. In Liberia, husbands from the couples interviewed were
the ones who took decisions on how incomes were spent. This was partly because all of
the women were not employed. There was also a cultural factor, which is mentioned by
all of the couples. They say that according to their tradition, the spending of the major
portion of the family income is only at the approvals of husbands. This authority is given
to men because they earn the money, and also because they have more formal education
in most cases.
In refugee camps, the situation changed as reflected in this statement by Mr.
Snow, who said “we did everything together. We did not have enough money, so we
needed to work together. Maybe, because I did not have a job there was no money to take
decisions on.” I was reminded here that money is a key indicator for power relations
within couples as articulated by Wilson (1995), Whitehead (1995), Westwood (1995) and
Westwood (1995). But a key point to explore here is that the man needed to work closely
with his wife because he did not have a job and they were in a difficult economic
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situation. As I listened to most of the men and women speaking on this subject, I realized
that men were willing to share their gendered power with their wives when they were not
employed. Women, also, compromised their rights in these circumstances in the name of
cultural preservation.
Mr. Ansu: I took all of our household decisions during our stay in refugee camp. This was because my wife is very good. It was a problem for many men who were not working and living on their wives. You know, there is not like here. Men are the decision makers, but it can be tricky when the men are no more working, you know. It takes away your power and influence in the family.
Ms. Ansu: My husband took all decisions. I was pleasing him, but also, I
was keeping our tradition.
Ms. Brown: I decided by myself on how to manage my income. But, I worked with my husband. I was working for the money. My husband did not have anything, so sometime, I asked him to make him feel comfortable.
Clearly, the men were praising their wives for being good, and the women were
surrendering their power in decision-making to husbands to please them. I also tried to
investigate what changes have occurred on this issue since arriving in Canada:
Question: In Canada, who decides on how your income is spent and why?
Mr. Snow: I decide by myself. Only on some joint issues like child benefits, we can decide together. You know, this can avoid confusion here. People here – women and the men handle their own money.
Ms. Snow: If we pay the bills and food money, I can do what I want with my
money. It is my money. My husband has his own also.
Ms. Ansu: We take joint decisions on how to spend money. Because we are working together. When there is a need to send money back home, we consult each other and decide together.
Ms. Brown: I decide. Because, I am working for the money. That is the way
people live here, you know.
There are two separate reactions here from these participants: one is that each
person decides independently and the second is a tendency for taking joint decisions. The
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tendency for taking separate decisions is strictly influenced by the new culture here in
Canada. Everyone is working so he/ she decides how to spend his/ her income. The men
indicated that this can avoid confusion. During the interviews, I also observed a link
between distant polygamy and more assertiveness in the attitudes of the wives living in
Canada. Knowing that such status is illegal, the concerned men are reserved in talking
about it, and prefer to embrace independence between them and their wives when it
comes to income management. They claim that they want to avoid confusion, but by
doing so they can easily remit part of their incomes back home to their second wives.
One of the men explained that confusion with your wife here is not just the act of
arguing; women can easily call 911, and when that happens, the man is likely to be in
trouble.
There are also some families who choose to work together under the premise of
preserving culture. Several cultural and legal issues are interwoven here and the state‟s
ability to protect all of its citizens is one. A participant said that in Canada, if a woman
calls the police and says my husband is threatening me, the police will quickly come. On
the contrary, in Liberia, the police may say, it seems to be a family matter, maybe your
neighbors or relatives should first intervene. The second factor is the difference in
employment opportunities between Liberia and Canada, where women and men are
working and earning regular incomes.
4.7. Gender Divisions of Labor and Migration
The study reveals that since leaving Liberia, labor divisions within the home have
become an issue of contention within Liberian immigrant couples. In Liberia, four of the
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men in this study were not involved in domestic work leaving it strictly with their wives.
According to the participants, cultural values, differences between men and women in
education, and employment were the main reasons. In their culture, women are supposed
to stay and work at home, while men work outside. Also, because the men were more
educated and were employed, getting involved in domestic work was seen as equivalent
to degrading their status. In refugee camps, the women began to earn regular incomes
while men were completely out of the income economy. Despite this change, culture was
still a strong influence, and being educated was still seen as a factor contributing to ideas
about the superiority of men over women within the home. However, at this point, some
of the men began to gradually do some domestic work such as sweeping, though women
were still taking up the lion‟s share. I attribute the gradual involvement of men in
domestic work at this stage to the loss of power deriving from income. I also attribute the
lack of pressure from women to demand more involvement of men to the need to
preserve culture if not domestic harmony.
I discovered that the sharing of domestic work between men and women became
more contentious after these couples arrived in Canada. Women have begun to demand
the participation of men, and men, while uncomfortable, have started to increase their
participation in domestic work, as indicated in the following varying views:
Ms. Snow: Sometimes the man can help, because I have to go to work too. He needs to help me; else it will be very difficult. You know this is a different place. Men are cooking and washing dishes here.
Mr. Toe: Men are working at home here [in Canada], so our women are
complaining if we do not wash our own clothes. Also, because, men and women are earning money.
Ms. Toe: If I am working, maybe it will change [he will start to do some
domestic work]. But, it will be hard because he is used to coming home to eat, watch TV, play music and sleep.
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Mr. Toe: Money, decisions in the home, control over the child benefit, food money. Sometimes, my wife wants to work so that I can stay home to mind the children, this is not possible with me. It is the woman who should stay home while the man works.
Ms. Tamba: my husband has two jobs. Sometime he can be very tired when
he comes home. I can also be very tired when I come home, but you know – I am the woman, and in our culture, I should do the domestic work. But here [in Canada], the man has to help, so sometimes he helps.
Dominant Canadian culture and the economic context, which in most cases
require husbands and wives to work in order to maintain a good standard of living, are
reflected in the voices of these participants as the key factors shifting gender roles in
domestic work. Men from mainstream Canadian society are involved in domestic work;
hence there is a sort of pressure for Liberian immigrant men to conform to this practice.
The second pressure is the fact that just as men, women are also spending most of their
time working outside of the home. Hence, at the end of the day, there is no explanation
why cleaning the home or cooking cannot be shared between husbands and wives, since
they are both tired. This is rightly put by Mr. Ansu who says “I do not want for my wife
to feel overburdened. I was doing the same in the refugee camp as she was, working, so it
is not new.” Ms. Toe who is not working is doing most of the domestic work, but she
states clearly that when she starts to work there it will be necessary for her husband to
help. Finally, my concluding point on the issue of domestic work is that men are getting
involved since arriving into Canada as a consequence of a new culture and new economic
demands.
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4.8. Domestic Technology, Western Life and Gender Relations
Here, it is important to restate that couples in the study originate from the rural
parts of Liberia, and did not have access to modern domestic technologies such as
televisions and telephones. Life in refugee camps was even more deprived economically.
Here, in Canada, all of the couples have more than one television, landline and mobile
phones, and even internet connections in their homes. This change and media exposure
generate an excitement and the potential for over-use, which creates implications for the
amount of bills to pay. I partly attribute this phenomenon to capitalist influences, as I
mentioned earlier in this thesis. I have observed that you will find more mobile phones in
15 Liberian immigrant families than you will find in the same number of mainstream
Canadian families. This study shows that the way they are used and the payment of the
bills are becoming a problem for most of the couples interviewed. The following are the
views of some participants:
Mr. Tamba: You know there is good life here, like all these facilities --- vehicles, TVs computers, and you name them. They can also be bad. My children and wife are sometimes crazy about the Internet. I do not know what they are doing daily. I have lots of problems about that. My wife is watching lots of channels that are not good, but she would not listen.
Ms. Tamba: My husband can complain too much about the telephone. You see, for me, I have friends but when they call, he is complaining that I am using the phone too much.
Ms. Toe: The other time, he [my husband] said I must wash the clothes
with my hands so that the power bill will not go up. He says all that because he can pay. We made palaver for that one also.
Ms. Brown: Sometime, my husband gets angry because of the freedom me
and the children have here. Sometimes too, we have problems with the things in the house like the TV, music and the chairs. My husband complains if I and the children are watching the shows we want. He says that is why the children are dressing like this like that. He gets angry. I do not agree.
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Besides the concerns for paying high bills, one of the key issues that fuels disagreement
on domestic technology is the way they are used to access information, which influences
perceptions and possibly a shift in gendered power relations between couples. Many of
the men in this study regard technology as one of the key conduits for bringing in
“radical” information, which can provoke changes in gender roles.
4.9. Challenges and Opportunities after Migrating to Canada
I explored the opinions of participants on what they think about life in Canada in
terms of challenges and opportunities after migration. The first thing I discovered is that
all of them are happy to have come here considering the conflict and insecurity back in
Liberia. There are several opportunities but there are also lots of critical challenges as
reflected in their views:
Mr. Tamba: It is very hard to adapt to the system here. It is a new culture.
Very hard to exercise control over our women. Too many outside influences ----- you do not do this, you do not do that,,,, all the time, you do not beat the child, the wife, --- it looks fearful, we really have to be careful! You know, no respect from women and children. Lots of expenses, sending money back home, our children are spoiled! We copy the wrong way --- no respect for parents, unlike home.
Ms. Snow: To raise children here is difficult, it is very cold here. Also, if you
are not careful, you will separate from your husband. But, People are friendly; they are willing to give information. I can go to school here. This was not possible in Liberia. I did not believe before that I would be able to read and write as I do today!!! Now, I can write my name, go to the bank to do business alone.
Mr. Snow: Education, jobs, medical care, lots of good things if we think
good, you know. Some are destructive, like the loans --- you can easily enter into a big debt for life time.
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Concerning opportunities, the key points that were highlighted by participants are
education, health care, employment and the ability to send money back home. The
education and employment were very much emphasized by women, probably because
they did not earn incomes at home. Four of the five women have learned how to read and
write only after arriving here in Canada. They are very much excited about this
experience, which also allows them to navigate through the Canadian system to do
banking and manage other personal affairs without the involvement of their husbands. I
realized that men who spoke about education only pointed to its importance for their
children. There was no mention of the excitement of their wives. I see this to be related to
the shift in familial power relations which education for women contributes to. The
challenges mentioned by men were mainly focused on power relations between husbands
and wives. This was linked to the discourse of male and female equality. Some women
also caution that there is a risk of family splitting as a consequence of the new culture of
male and female equality.
Exploring these issues of opportunities and equality requires a return to the
discussion of why they decided to come to Canada and what were they expecting. With
the exception of one couple, four had gathered some information about Canada seen as a
country of freedom bordering the United States. All Liberians know about the United
States because of existing historical ties between the two countries. However, it appeared
that the freedom mentioned by these participants was mainly about the opportunity to
earn money, remit money to relatives back home and to improve their lives. I did not
discover if there was any detailed contemplation about how these opportunities would
affect relationships between couples.
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4.10. Differences Between Canadian and Liberian Families
I asked the participants their thoughts on how Canadian families were different
from Liberian families. The following are the key responses, which I received:
Ms. Ansu: In Canadian families, women are head of the households, in our Liberian culture, the man is the head.
Ms. Snow: These people know about freedom, so you can see it in their
homes. For Liberian families, the men are still trying to do like in Africa. The men here can even wash the women‘s clothes.‖
Mr. Tamba: With Canadian families, you see and hear about many former
partners. Most of my friends at work are like that. They do not care about marriage, children, some of the men fear their wives. Maybe, they are very careful! In Liberia, we are not afraid, but also we are careful.
Mr. Ansu: We cannot fully be integrated like the way the people are
expecting us. We have to go slowly. We will take some time slowly. The women are controlling the men here, but in our homes, we are still somehow the heads.
Mr. Toe: With Canadian families, men do a lot of domestic work in
addition to external work. In Liberia, men are only engaged in external work.
The participants explained that the key areas of differences between Canadian and
Liberian families are around the position of the head of household, a sense of freedom for
everyone, and the sharing of domestic work between wives and husbands. The overriding
issue I identify in this list is the sense of freedom which is seen to allow every individual
to make the best out of his or her life. Of course, these views need to be appreciated in
the context of social class differences in Canada (see Canada Immigrant Job Issues,
2007). Concerning the head of household in Canada, there is absolutely no benefit that a
man or a woman will reap in trying to control each other. Such behavior also invites the
possibility of a split between them as a consequence of the freedom to choose.
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The freedom mentioned above is also backed by the open market system which
allows men and women to equally participate although women‟s earnings on average still
reflect a gendered wage gap (see Salaff, 2006). For example, the average monthly income
of an immigrant woman was 5% less than an immigrant man and 40% less than a
Canadian born woman in 2000 (Canada Immigrant Job Issues, 2007). This varies by class
and region. In the Liberian and refugee life contexts, there are two key reasons why a
man or woman will compromise his or her rights. These include a lack of economic
autonomy and the preservation of culture. For example, the women in this study
depended on their husbands for meeting their economic needs in Liberia.
The foregoing analysis in this chapter shows that a renegotiation of gender relations is a
product of the migration experience of the Liberian immigrants who were studied in this
research. Some of the issues over which power is contested include decision-making
processes within households, control of personal income and domestic work. The
findings also tell us that gender as a socially constructed concept can be reconfigured and
made flexible as is seen through the migration processes described here. A more detailed
discussion of these issues, particularly gender citizenship is contained in the following
chapter of this thesis.
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Chapter Five
New Citizenship Priorities; New Gender Norms
This chapter of the thesis entertains a discussion between the findings of my
research and some arguments posed in feminist research on the key issues raised by the
questions in this study. I examine the role of the staff of settlement agencies in working
with migrants, particularly on gender issues and explore gender citizenship as a crucial
theoretical concept in analyzing the links between transnationalism and gender relations.
5.1. The Dream of “Living in the Cold”
Some of the Liberian immigrants who were interviewed in this study indicated
that they were primarily intent on going to the United States, but were also given
information by friends that Canada was a good place to live like the United States,
Norway and Australia. According to these participants, friends who settled in Canada told
them that the country was a place of peace and freedom different from their war infested
country, Liberia. The participants‟ knowledge about Canada confirms the claims of
Parkin and Mendelsohn (2003) that immigrants and refugees continue to regard Canada
as one of the best countries to live in the world due to its high ranking by the United
Nations index of development. The flow of information from these “good to live in
countries” to refugee camps is in line with Castells‟ (1980) contention that globalization
has narrowed the world into a small village in which people have become highly
interconnected through new communication mechanisms. It was not a problem for the
participants in this study to know where life was much better than where they lived. The
interviewees declared that the expression “living in the cold” comes from constant
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information exchange between immigrants and refugees in northern countries and the
refugee camps in which they lived. From this flow of information, they became aware of
the freezing climatic conditions in these countries, but for them safety, and social and
economic conditions were more important than weather.
This study reveals that with the influence and endorsement of aid agencies, the
handling of family travel documents and the various processes involved in migrating to
Canada were exclusively managed by men. Explanations from both the women and men
involved in this study hold that men played these dominant roles because they are the
educated ones in their households, and more importantly their cultures require that
husbands are the major decision-makers within households. This is what feminists
(Maher, 1998; Stolcke, 1998; Morokvasic, 1998 and Harris, 1998) refer to as
characteristic of patriarchal cultures. The argument echoed by these scholars is clearly
summarized in Walby‟s (1990, p. 20) description of patriarchy as a “system of social
structures and practices, in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women”. However,
the issue that deserves more attention in this discussion is the role of aid agencies in
enhancing the domination of women by men.
Jennifer Hyndman (2004) has already characterized the gender policies of aid
agencies, particularly the UNHCR as being inherently flawed with contradictions: they
will consider as vulnerable a household that is headed by a female, while the same
household could be denied assistance if the woman is educated and employed. I choose
not to reinvent this argument but before introducing another aspect, I argue here that
Hyndman (2004) has slipped into a familiar trap for academic researchers, the tendency
to find flaws advocated without proposing solutions. Given her previous work for the
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UNCHR, I sought new insights from her. The absence of clearly defined solutions not
only exposes the needs for further research; it tells us how challenging the task of
facilitating women‟s extraction from patriarchal manipulations is. I further ask whether
the staff of these aid agencies might slip into endorsing patriarchy because they are trying
not to offend local cultural prescriptions, or is it simply a lack of clear frameworks.
The key question which the thesis seeks to answer is whether there is a link
between transnationalism and changing gender relations among Liberian immigrants in
Halifax. Earlier in the literature, Vertovec (1999) conceptualized transnationalism as a
social morphology, type of consciousness, mode of cultural reproduction, avenue of
capital, site of political engagement, and (re) construction of “place” or locality.
Rowbotham (1973) has also described gender as a structure of consciousness. How does
the intersection between these concepts affect the consciousness of couples in
maintaining their spousal relationships? This issue can easily be explored through what
many feminist scholars (Tastsoglou, 1998; Haddad et al, 1994; Abdi, 1998; Hyndman,
2000) refer to as gender citizenship.
5.2. Gender Citizenship
Feminist writer Denis (1998) contends that citizenship is civil, political and
social. Tastsoglou (1998) argues that citizenship is a sense of belonging, emotional
attachment and identification in a new location. Brah (1996) also speaks of diaspora as
networks of transnational identities encompassing imagined and encountered
communities (see also Barber, 2004). This study reveals that citizenship in refugee camps
has radical implications for gender relations such as power and decision-making
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processes. In refugee camps, the women in this study coped with economic hardship
which they encountered by seeking and accepting various forms of employment more so
than their husbands. A key consequence was an emergent threat to patriarchy and
culturally constituted masculinities. These changes are also reported by several feminist
writers (Pessar and Mahler, 2003; Cockburn, 2004). A more direct threat to masculinities
is reported by Korac (2004) who claims that women can often serve as protectors of their
families in refugee camps. The reactions of men vary from context to context: in my
study, men chose to listen to their wives – which I termed as “false cooperation”. Korac
(2004) claims that Sri Lankan muslin refugee men reacted with violence. The cultural and
contextual differences shown in this discussion, lead this thesis to suggest that further
research on patriarchy and masculinities in refugee camps is necessary to increase our
theoretical understanding of gender relations and migration.
Focusing on citizenship in post-migration to Canada, my study discovers that
Liberian immigrant women in Halifax are regularly educated by staff of immigrant
settlement agencies on the rights of women in Canada. For example, this woman says
“when we arrived, a staff of MISA told me that I should have my own bank account,
because that is the way people do here”. Another woman says “the people [settlement
staff] told me that the child benefit is to be controlled by the woman not the man”. The
experiences of these women confirm that they are regularly encountering people with
new propositions about citizenship, which are capable of influencing changes in their
culturally constituted gender relations. An important question that comes out of this
discussion on citizenship concerns the consequences for family dynamics resulting from
changes in gender relations which accompany transnationalism. For example, do the staff
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of settlement agencies understand the complexities of the possibility that information
which they provide may trigger significant changes in gender relations? Also unanswered
in this research is the extent to which women use the opportunity of living in Canada to
empower themselves and become the decision-makers in the household. However, the
immigrant service providers‟ programming for refugee women confirms the contention
from Morokvasic (1998) that migration accelerates the process of questioning male
power and consciousness raising for women.
This study also shows that all of the women migrants are involved in low-paying
domestic jobs offered mainly to replace the work of Canadian women. This phenomenon
of underemployment reminds us of Pessar‟s (1995) argument that women who migrate to
developed countries are caught in menial and low paying domestic jobs. The author
accuses governments like Canada‟s of classism and gender oppression by bringing in
women from poor countries to do “female jobs” that are rejected by local women. This
argument combined with the findings of my study raises another question as to whether
governments like the Canadian government are deliberately trying to liberate middle-
class women from menial or oppressive domestic jobs by facilitating the migration of
domestic female workers who are subsequently subordinated by Canadian employers,
typically women. These questions deserve ongoing research attention.
The literature also claims that employment and educational opportunities are
prominent among changes which migrants encounter (krahn et al., 2003). My research
shows that access to education is one of the most important changes in the experiences of
Liberian immigrants in Canada.
Ms. Toe: I can go to school here. This was not possible in Liberia. I did not believe before that I would be able to read and write as I do
106
today. Now, I can write my name, go to the bank to do business
alone.
Most of the women have learned how to read and write after arriving in Canada. This
new opportunity – access to education - is increasing Liberian immigrant women‟s access
to information, and raising their awareness about rights associated with being a Canadian
citizen. Having discovered that Canadian laws do not allow polygamy, these women are
pressuring their husbands to abandon their second wives completely. The analysis shows
that there is a connection between access to education for these women and an increased
assertiveness in demanding control over their incomes and other aspects of their lives.
Citizenship must also be seen from a broader perspective, particularly in relation
to democracy. There is a link between democracy, the rule of law, and gender relations
within households. Many dictatorial countries are governed by violent men, and have no
regards for the rights of women. For example, there are numerous reports of institutional
abuses of women in countries such as the Sudan, Afghanistan, DR Congo, Egypt,
Parkistan and Liberia. Men who are connected with these institutions easily import such
violent behaviors into their homes. Elson (2004) tells us that the ability of a nation to
uphold the rule of law is a critical element for deterring abuses against women and
promoting freedom and equality between men and women. Feminist writer Hans (2004)
squarely censures the succession of dictatorial governments in Afghanistan for the untold
suffering of women in that country. The voices of the participants in my study suggest
that democracy and the rule of law in a country like Canada can encourage equal gender
relations within families. Hence, differences between Liberia and Canada on these issues
engender changes in gender relations for couples who migrate from the former to the
latter.
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The views of some of the participants on the definition of a household in Canada, refugee
camps and Liberia clearly remind us again to pay a particular attention to gendered
citizenship.
Ms. Tamba: In Canada, it is possible to split from your husband without any problem. You are also free to split your bank account from your husband. Also, there is no polygamy here. In Liberia and refugee camp, the man can marry more than one woman, you cannot argue with him, else he will beat you.
The expression of this woman is the voice of a woman who has encountered a
completely new sense of freedom. Even though she speaks in the absence of her husband,
the sense of freedom is clearly identified in her statement. Pessar (1994) argues that in
post-migration, many women try to avoid oppressive family situations. The freedom of a
woman to separate from her husband and the non-acceptance of polygamy are rights that
are accorded anyone who lives within the borders of Canada. This study reveals that in
Liberia, if an uneducated and unemployed woman like the women in this study takes
such decisions, she is likely to meet physical violence from her husband and will need to
overcome the challenges of losing the economic benefits of being obedient to her
husband. Liberal feminist Mohammed Yunus (2004) tells us a similar story in
Bangladesh.
The absence of a state‟s protection and safety nets makes these challenges more
critical. In the case of Canada, established civil structures prevent women from being
violently abused by their partners for any reason. Also, some of the female participants
indicated that in Canada a woman who is unemployed and loses the financial support of
her husband can in the immediate term survive on social assistance, live in a subsidized
house, and receive food from community food banks. The Liberian women who migrated
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here with their spouses have been informed about these aspects of their new citizenship
and have become assertive in exercising their rights in varying ways as reflected in the
following statement:
Ms. Ansu: Here, the woman has more power in the household than the man. Women have control over child benefits, because maybe they suffer for the children. When we arrived here, our sponsor told me to take full control of all of the money. I refused because I did not want to disrespect my husband. He is not forcing me for anything, so why should I do that. It is against our system. Our traditional system does not allow us to control men. In refugee camp we kept the same tradition.
Liberian immigrant women in Halifax are exercising their new citizenship in
varying ways. Some have found a balance between the rights accorded them as Canadian
residents, and some values of their cultures and religions. For example, Ms. Ansu and her
husband have established a level of partnership that embraces a combination of elements
from their culture and the rights of being a Canadian. Her husband points out that he is
happy that his wife is feeling more secure here about the level of stability and her role in
terms of decision-making in their marriage. Haddad et al (1994) found a similar
consensus within Italian couples in Toronto. The new gendered citizenship framework
within the borders of Canada is recognized by both men and women within the Liberian
immigrant community. For example, Mr. Ansu says, “here, people don‟t talk about head.
That kind of language is not important here. You know, people see you individually. But
in our culture we respect that kind of thing.” I discovered here that both men and women
tend to pay very keen attention to dominant language in the streets, shopping centers,
churches and on televisions.
Spender‟s (1998) conceptualization of gender as a consequence of language has
different implications between Liberia and Canada in some ways. In the comments of Mr.
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Ansu, I see that the meaning of language within Canadian life has strong implications for
gender roles in the lives of Liberian immigrant couples in Halifax. Language serves as a
factor, which engenders changing gender practices within couples (Spencer, 1998).
Previously in Liberia and in refugee camps, the term “head of household” was a
commonplace expression in the daily encounters with aid agencies and even local
cultures and government structures. In the Liberian context, the term “head of household”
is associated with patriarchal ideologies. On the contrary, Canadians do not give any
credence to this term in the same way in which it is gendered within the previous
locations of these Liberian immigrants. However, the key conclusion which I draw here
is that the different ways in which the term “head of household” is conceived of between
Canada, refugee camps, and Liberia, combined with the discourse on freedom and
equality for both men and women in Canada, is making women in the Liberian immigrant
community more assertive about their rights within the household. I also noticed a
decrease in the value and prestige of the title as it was known to these couples before
arriving in Canada.
Gender citizenship in this study contributes to theoretical characterization of the
household. Power struggles over domestic budgeting and labor divisions, and decision-
making processes within the households participating in this study confirm a popular
contention from feminists (Hobson, 1995; Morley, 1995; Miller, 2001; Whitehead, 1995)
that the household is a site of struggles and oppression. Most of the disagreements which
surfaced within Liberian couples after arriving in Canada are focused on money, thereby
coalescing with the argument of Stevi and Moores (1995) that households are
fundamentally economic entities underpinned by economic relations embedded in wider
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socioeconomic structures. I realized that the interests of women and women are different
within the household. Specifically, in the context of post-migration, women seek a fair
sharing of power, while men are hesitant to relinquish their culturally prescribed
dominance.
Still focused on how the household is affected by gender citizenship, I saw in this
study that the loss of economic power for men in refugee camps resulted in what I have
termed a “false cooperation” on the part of men to attend to women‟s concerns. These
Liberian men chose to work consultatively with their wives on many decision-making
issues only because they wanted to protect masculinities and patriarchy from a disgrace
stimulated by their unemployment. I also noticed that women‟s cooperation in this
circumstance was influenced by the need to preserve culture. Hence, they behaved in a
way which I term as “sympathetic” to their husbands. However, there is a sharp contrast
after arriving in Canada. Gender citizenship within the Canadian context presents a
situation of equal opportunities – and perhaps competition, partly guided by laws. In the
Canadian context, cooperation is forced on men by law and demanded by women. False
cooperation and sympathy have disappeared. The women are prepared to dial 911 should
the need arise. Conflict in the context of equal opportunity is possible but the new gender
citizenship norms also suggest possibilities for gendered cultural accommodation by
women and men.
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Chapter Six
Conclusion
The analysis in this study reveals that there is a link between transnational
migration and changing gender relations within the context of Liberian immigrant
families in Halifax, Canada. When the couples in this study moved from Liberia to
refugee camps in other West African countries, there was a change in the employment
status of husbands and wives. Unlike in Liberia, women were employed, while men were
unemployed. This change in employment gradually compelled men into doing domestic
work. Men also realized that they needed to work closely with their wives in decision-
making processes in order to cope with the difficult economic situation of being a
refugee. There were also attempts by men and women to protect patriarchy and
masculinities in the name of maintaining their cultural values. Refugee life, in this
context, transformed the household into a site of compromises, where women became the
biggest losers due to pressure from patriarchy and culture. This thesis argues that there is
a lot more to comprehend about masculinities and patriarchy in refugee contexts, hence
further research, which addresses how masculinities and patriarchy are affected by
refugee contexts is recommended.
In Canada, the situation of employment also changed in a way which allows more
equal opportunity for husbands and wives to work and earn income regularly. Daily
encounters with Canadians are sensitizing Liberian immigrants about Canadian
democracy, and how it promotes the rights of individuals to freely express their views
and take control of their lives. Liberian immigrants are also encountering a dominant
discourse and are receiving citizenship training through immigrant settlement agencies
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which promote male and female equality. As residents of Canada, they are accorded and
benefiting from the rights of learning how to read and write. Consequently, women and
men are independently managing their financial incomes. In households of distant
polygamy, men are unable to use the income of one woman to pay funds to another, but
they can freely remit parts of their incomes with minimum protests from their wives in
Canada. Here, transnationalism and a new gender citizenship have restructured power
dynamics within households, particularly with regards to financial management within
polygamous households. Regarding settlement agencies‟ services, this thesis suggests
more research is necessary to investigate whether their staff are aware of how their work
is influencing gender relations within new immigrant households in Canada.
Language within the Canadian context attributes less power and credence to
gender concepts such as the head of household and the husband, as opposed to the
perceptions in refugee camps and in Liberia. In the streets, at work, in churches and
shopping centers, Liberian immigrants in Halifax are encountering new nuances to
meanings of gendered language and behavior which promote equality between husbands
and wives. As a consequence of these influences, women have become aware and
assertive about their rights within the household. Women are negotiating that men get
involved in domestic work. The men are gradually getting involved, though with a sense
of frustration. The Liberian cultural definition of the head of household is being contested
by women; decision-making processes are reflecting intra-household consultation and an
increased influence of women. As a consequence of migration, language signifies gender
change within the household.
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Power struggles, domination and oppression are central themes within this study.
In reflecting on the decision-making processes about coming to Canada, and the role of
aid agencies, I realized that when women and men are associated, women are likely to be
dominated. I also see in this study that the household is a site of constant and complex
power struggles between husbands and wives, particularly in post-migration contexts. In
these struggles, those who have the power of knowledge like education, the power of
public recognition and the power of money are likely to dominate others if the conditions
(social justice and norms of gender equality) for collaborative partnerships are not
created.
The findings of this thesis also have policy implications. The gradual freedom,
which women experience, shows that by granting resettlement opportunities to refugee
couples from some countries like Liberia in the developing world, the Canadian
government is [indirectly] contributing to global efforts aimed at improving gender
equality. The following quotes provide an excellent summary.
Ms. Toe: I can go to school here. This was not possible in Liberia. I did not believe before that I would be able to read and write as I do today. Now, I can write my name, go to the bank to do business
alone.
Ms. Tamba: In Canada, it is possible to split from your husband without any problem. You are also free to split your bank account from your husband. Also, there is no polygamy here. In Liberia and refugee camp, the man can marry more than one woman, you cannot argue with him, else he will beat you.
Mr. Toe: Men are working at home here [in Canada], so our women are
complaining if we do not wash our own clothes. Also, because, men and women are earning money.
These issues became particularly acute in the settlement of new Canadians and have a
bearing on policies concerning the treatment of new immigrants to Canada. My research
has opened up avenues for further research to explore the complexities of how Liberian
114
immigrants are adjusting to life in Canada. They are subjected to and are interpreting
multiple influences including capitalism, immigrant settlement citizenship, language
training sessions, workplace interactions, encounters in community institutions such as
schools, churches and volunteer agencies. Digital media also provide further powerful
new ideas. We need to better grasp these influences in order to respond to and perhaps
mediate gendered tensions. We also need to better grasp the effects of migration on youth
immigrant communities such as the Liberians in this study.
115
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Appendix I: Consent Form
Title: Transnational Migration and Gender Relations: The Case of Liberian
Immigrant Families in Halifax, Nova Scotia
Principal Researcher: Joseph Nyemah Nyemah
MA student, International Development Studies
339 C, Henry Hicks Building, Dalhousie University,
Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 4H6,
Telephone: (902) *** –***
Email: jnyemah@yahoo.com
Researcher Supervisor: Dr. Pauline Gardiner Barber
Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology
Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS. B3H 3P9
Email: Pauline.Gardiner.Barber@dal.ca
Telephone: (902) 494 -***
Contact person: Joseph Nyemah Nyemah*
*If there are any concerns, questions or comments during the course of this research,
please feel free to get in touch with me using the information listed above.
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Title: Transnational Migration and Gender Relations: The Case of Liberian
Immigrant Families in Halifax, Nova Scotia
________________________________________________________________________
Introduction:
This consent form is mainly written in the Local Liberian English. I have
done so to ensure that everything is clearly explained to participants without the
need for translations.
Step 1: making a telephone call to make a reservation for meeting a couple
Hello, I am Joseph Nyemah, I am calling to seek your permission to come to your
house and discuss my research which I spoke about in our community meeting sometime
ago.
Step 2: at the house of potential interviewees and to be repeated right before an
interview
I am Joseph Nyemah, I am going to school at Dalhousie University in Halifax
here. I am doing a study to write my thesis paper so that I can graduate. The study is
about places you and your husband have passed through from Liberia to Canada, and
how you live and work together as a husband and wife. I am inviting you to take part in
this study if you want. You are not forced to do this. You can decide to stop taking part if
you are not happy at anytime during the process. You and your husband must agree to
take part, but I will talk to each of you separately.
Purpose of the study:
This study is about checking if there are connections between your travel history
and the way you and your husband live and work together. It will help me to understand
this kind of talk about travel and the way husbands and wives live and work together.
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Title: Transnational Migration and Gender Relations: The Case of Liberian
Immigrant Families in Halifax, Nova Scotia
________________________________________________________________________
Study Design:
If you agree, you will spend about one and a half hours of your time for a face-to-
face interview. Only you (one person at a time) and me will be present during the
interview. The interview will be recorded on a tape if you agree. At any point during the
interview you can request that the recorder be turned off or a specific thing removed.
Who can participate in the Study?
You are qualified to take part in this study because you live together with your
husband/ wife. You can take part if you are interested in providing information related to
the history of your travel from Liberia to Canada. You will talk about you and your
partner. Your role is to provide information that will allow me to understand the
connections between your travel history and the way you live and work with your
partner.
Who will be Conducting the Research?
I, Joseph Nyemah will do the study. My supervisor is Dr. Pauline Gardiner
Barber, a professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Dalhousie
University.
What you will be asked to do:
The interview is designed to last for about one and a half hours. Several long
questions will be asked which will allow you to freely provide information on the
experiences of you and your marital life concerning travels. I will ask you to talk about
work, salaries, how you take decision about work, money, food, number of children to
born and many issues between you and your husband or wife, and life in Canada.
132
Title: Transnational Migration and Gender Relations: The Case of Liberian
Immigrant Families in Halifax, Nova Scotia
________________________________________________________________________
Possible Risks and Discomforts:
As a Liberian, talking about travel history is likely to remind you of any life–
threatening moments related to the civil war in that country. Talking about you and your
married couple could expose what you consider as secret for you and your relationship.
You and your partner will be interviewed separately. If the information you will disclose
to me is passed on to your partner and he/ she is not happy, your relationship could be in
trouble. Also, spending one and half hours for an interview might not make you happy.
To deal with these likely risks and discomforts, you can choose to not tell me anything
you regard as too risky to reveal. If you choose to tell me, I will protect your privacy. The
information you and your partner will give to me will not be exchanged between you
through me. I will make use of the referral services of the African Diaspora Association
of the Maritimes (ADAM) if you need such support as a result of the information you
will give to me. You can end the interview if you are tired to continue answering
questions or not happy at any time.
Possible Benefits:
There is no direct benefit for you in taking part in this study. However, the
information you give will help people who are working with immigrants to better
understanding their life situations.
Compensation:
You will receive no financial pay for taking part in this study. However, I will
give you two tickets for your transportation to the interview location. I will also buy you
a cup of coffee during the interview. I will also be willing to give you copies of the thesis
if you accept.
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Title: Transnational Migration and Gender Relations: The Case of Liberian
Immigrant Families in Halifax, Nova Scotia
________________________________________________________________________
Anonymity and Confidentiality:
The interview will gather a lot of personal and confidential information about you
and your partner. Because of this risk, I will make efforts to protect your identities. Your
name will never be written at anytime during or after the interview. If any names are used
in the report, they will be false names. The recorded tape will not be given to anyone
except you, me, and unlikely my supervisor. The supervisor will not know your name and
is well trained about protecting the privacy of people. You may ask to get copies of the
recorded tape and notes from the interview. But this might risk your partner seeing it. I
will transfer the recorded information on papers, and delete everything on the tape. I will
also interview your partner. The information each of you will give me will never be
exchanged between you through me. I will give you a card with contact information that
you can use if you have any questions, difficulties with, or wish to voice concern about,
any aspect of your participation in this study.
Oral acceptance:
You agree to allow the interview to be audio-taped: Yes_ No _.
You give permission to use direct quotes: Yes _, No_.
You are aware that your spouse will be interviewed separately, and accept that you will not
know the result of his/ her interview: Yes_ No _
You accept the selected location for the interview Yes ___ No ___
134