Listening to Immigrant Women (Re)Creating Their Own Social Identity

Abstract

As we have seen, government laws and policies assign a social and economic identity to women immigrants. Ethnic immigrant communities also often do something similar when they allocate particular domestic and social roles and responsibilities to them. What role, if any, do immigrant women play in this process? Are they simply objects defined by others? Is a new social identity imposed on them? What say do they have in (re)creating their social identity? If they do have a role, is it tangential or do they possess some real degree of agency?