Being, becoming, learning to be Canadian: Mujeres mexicanas emigradas a Canada

Being, Becoming, Learning to be Canadian: Mujeres Mexicanas Emigradas a Canada is an exploration of the lives of four educated, Mexican women who immigrated to Canadian urban centres between eight and thirty years ago. Through life history methodology, the researcher seeks to understand the intersection between the women's individual lives and the contexts in which they lived in Mexico and in Canada. The understanding of the women's lives in this intersection brings about insight from the perspective of cultural and gender identity, as well as from an educational standpoint. Throughout the thesis, there is a strong emphasis on honouring individual lives by giving voice to immigrant women's challenges and triumphs.;From an educational perspective, the women's lives make clear the increasing value given to educational models inspired in neoliberal principles; where the main goal of the educational experience is to produce workers for the labour force, without regard for the whole person or her understanding of social or political issues. The women's lives offer rich examples of the different outcomes of public and private schooling in Mexico in the participants' sense of identity and their settlement experiences in Canada.;The researcher analyzes the four women's lives in Mexico and Canada from the perspective of immigration as an experience of personal learning and transformation. In this way, the process that becomes apparent is the participants' gradual coming into awareness of a new social system, and later on, the need to locate themselves within the new social grid, with all the changes---and losses---implied in the experience of relocation. This transition naturally evokes a comparison between the two cultural contexts---Mexico and Canada---from a gender perspective. The women's narratives speak about relief from burdening social and cultural pressure in the home society, and eventually, about the embracing of new identities as partners, mothers and professionals within Canadian society. The women's stories clearly illustrate the connection between socio-economic privilege in Mexico and successful integration in Canada. Cultural capital---particularly language skills and educational credentials in specific fields---proved to be the most effective resources for integration into the new society.