Immigrant Asian women's narration and understanding of their experience and identity while in interracial relationships with Canadian men

This qualitative study used narrative inquiry to learn how 2 immigrant Asian women (Vietnamese and Singaporean), between the ages of 20 to 35, narrate and understand their experience of being in an interracial relationship with Caucasian Canadian men and how this experience has impacted their sense of cultural identity. The guiding research questions were (a) "How do immigrant Asian women narrate and understand their experience of being in an interracial relationship with Canadian men?" and (b) "How does this experience impact their sense of cultural identity?" This study was inspired by the demographic trend that indicates that the number of common-law and marital relationships in Canada involving couples of different ethnic backgrounds is on the rise. This study chose to focus on learning about the experiences of a subset of this population: immigrant East and Southeast Asian women in interracial relationships with Canadian men. The purpose of this study was to explore this demographic trend by investigating how immigrant Asian women experience being in interracial relationships with Canadian men and how these relationships have impacted their sense of cultural identity. Participants were able to read and speak English and perceived themselves as being in an interracial relationship that has had an influence on their sense of cultural identity. Interviews were transcribed verbatim. Holistic-content and categorical-content approaches were used to construct 2 individual narratives and 1 collective or common themes narrative. The individual narratives describe the stories and experiences of each individual participant. The common themes narrative identifies the 9 themes of being in an interracial relationship and their impact on identity that are common across the individual narratives.