Abstract
The concept of family economies and the inclusion of non-measurable emotional and spiritual factors in migration studies permit a more complex approach to the field than does an emphasis on geographic change, assimilation and wage differentials. A comprehensive conceptualization includes human agency—in the frame of human and social capital—and individual interests within family and friendship networks. Men and women make decisions in the context of family economies, which combine the income-generating capacities of all members with the whole of the reproductive needs—for example, care of dependants—and consumption patterns, so as to achieve the best possible results according to “traditional norms” for the family and its standing in the community. The phrase traditional norms is, of course, a catch-all one that includes gender hierarchies and socially-mandated gender roles, with older men holding the power. It also includes generational hierarchies in which parents decide the (limited) schooling, home or wage work, and the partnerships of their children. Allocation of resources depends on the respective stage of the family cycle as well as on the stages in individual life-courses. The allocation of time, labour power and skills of all members must be negotiated in terms of benefits for each: maximization of income or of leisure, child/elderly-care and out-work, education or wage-work for children, traditional networking and individualist separation from the community. Again, “benefits for each” are decided upon in power hierarchies in which fathers’ and husbands’ distinct interests usually take priority.
This paper is based on Hoerder, 1999.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
In Europe skilled Swiss dairymen and dairymaids migrated across the German-speaking countries and received good wages.
References
Barber, M. (1980). The women Ontario welcomed: Immigrant domestics for Ontario Homes, 1870–1930. Ontario History, 72.3, 148–172.
Bhindi, D. (1988). In Milly Charon, Between Two Worlds. The Canadian Immigrant Experience (1st ed., 1983; rev. ed., Montreal) (pp. 303–313).
Chong, D. (1994). The Concubine’s Children. Portrait of a Family Divided. Toronto.
Colantonio, F. (1997). From the Ground Up. An Italian Immigrant’s Story. Toronto.
Faist, T. (2000). The Volume and Dynamics of International Migration and Transnational Social Spaces. Oxford.
Fraser, J. C. (1980). Cry of the Illegal Immigrant. Toronto.
Gabaccia, D. (1994). From the Other Side. Women, Gender and Immigrant Life in the U.S. 1820–1990. (Bloomington).
Glazebrook, G. P. (1968). Life in Ontario. A Social History. Toronto.
Harris, C. (1997). The Resettlement of British Columbia [after the dispossession of Native Peoples]. Essays on Colonialism and Geographical Change. Vancouver.
Harzig, C. (1999). ‘The Movement of 100 Girls.’ 1950’s Canadian Immigration Policy and the Market for Domestic Labour. Zeitschrift für Kanada Studien, 36(2/1999), 131–146.
Harzig, C. (2003). MacNamarra’s DP-Domestics: Immigration policy makers negotiate class, race and gender after world war two. Social Politics, 10.1, 23–48.
Harzig, C. (2006). Domestics of the World (Unite?): Labor migration systems and personal trajectories of household workers in historical and global perspective. Journal of American Ethnic History, 25, 48–73.
Hoerder, D. (1996). Migrants to Ethnics: Acculturation in a Societal Framework. In D. Hoerder & Moch (eds.), European Migrants: Global and Local Perspectives (pp. 211–262). Boston.
Hoerder, D. (1997). Labour Markets—Community—Family: A gendered analysis of the process of insertion and acculturation. In W. Isajiw (ed.), Multiculturalism in North America and Europe: Comparative Perspectives on Interethnic Relations and Social Incorporation (pp. 155–83) Toronto.
Hoerder, D. (1999). Creating Societies . Immigrant Lives in Canada (Montreal).
Hoerder, D. (2004). Transculturalism(s): From Nation-State to human agency in social spaces and cultural regions. Zeitschrift für Kanada-Studien, 24, 7–20.
Jackson, J. H., Jr., &, Leslie Page Moch. (1996). Migration and the Social History of Modern Europe. In D. Hoerder & Moch (eds.), European Migrants: Global and Local Perspectives (pp. 52–69). Boston.
Kivisto, P. (2001). Theorizing transnational immigration: A critical review of current efforts. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 24(4), 549–577.
Leslie, G. (1974). Domestic service in Canada, 1880–1920. In J. Acton et al. (Eds.), Women at Work: Ontario 1850–1930 (pp. 71–125). Toronto.
Leveridge, A. (1972). “Your loving Anna. ” Letters from the Ontario Frontier (1882–1891). In L. Tivy (Ed.). Toronto.
Levitt, P., DeWind J., & Vertovec, S. (Eds.). (2003). Transnational migration: International perspectives. thematic issue of International Migration Review 37(3).
Lindstrom-Best, V. (1985). Tailor-maid: The Finnish immigrant community of Toronto before the first world war. In R. F. Harney (Ed.), Gathering place. Peoples and neighborhoods of Toronto, 1834–1945 (pp. 205–239). Toronto.
Makabe, T. (1983). Picture brides. Japanese women in Canada. transl. by Kathleen C. Merken (Japanese orig., Tokyo, 1983; Toronto, 1995): Maki Fukushima’s story, pp. 37–65.
Melady, T. P., & Melady, M. B. (1976). Uganda: The Asian Exiles. Maryknoll. N.Y.
Nazario, S. (2006). Enrique’s journey. The story of a boy’s dangerous Odyssey to reunite with his mother. New York.
O’Donnell, N. [name changed]. (1992) This is what it was all about. In S. Conway (Ed.), The faraway hills are green. Voices of Irish women in Canada (pp. 133–146). Toronto.
Parr, J. (1987). The skilled immigrant and her kin: Gender, culture, and labour recruitment. Canadian Historical Review, 68, 529–551.
Sykes, E. C. (1912). A home help in Canada. London.
Tilly, L. A., & Scott, J. W. (1978). Women, work & family. New York.
Wong, L. L. (2002). Home away from home?: Transnationalism and the Canadian citizenship regime. In V. Roudometof & P. Kennedy (Eds.), Communities across borders: New immigrants and transnational cultures (pp. 169–181). London.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hoerder, D. (2014). From Anglo Settlers to Caribbean Domestics: The Multiple Routes to Reconstituting Immigrant Families in Canada. In: Geisen, T., Studer, T., Yildiz, E. (eds) Migration, Familie und Gesellschaft. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-94126-4_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-94126-4_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer VS, Wiesbaden
Print ISBN: 978-3-531-18010-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-531-94126-4
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Science (German Language)