Disruption, displacement, ambivalence: The making of migrant identities among women in the Keralite diaspora

This dissertation examines the relationship between identity construction and cultural retention, transformation and transmission among women in the South Asian diaspora. It specifically looks at how the migration experience alters South Asian women's identification with their homeland, and how it affects the way they perceive practices such as arranged marriage and dowry. The study is based on 64 face-to-face interviews in the Greater Toronto Area with both the first generation immigrating parents, and their children, the second generation respondents. The narratives presented give voice to women who were active in pursuing professional education and migrated often on their own without husbands, and at times without extended family support. The study is guided by and grounded in a feminist theoretical framework.;Immigrant identity in the post-colonial era emerges not only from the tensions rising between cultures, as traditional migration studies state, but as well from historical and contemporary linkages between nations, and situational forces such as gender ideology which shape the immigrant experience. The making of identity is very much linked to the making of culture. The ways in which diasporic and racialized identities are constructed is dependent upon how "traditional" culture is incorporated and how the groups itself is inserted into the country of settlement. All respondents come from the Syrian Orthodox Christian community and subscribe to Western Christian ideologies. The affiliation with the Orthodox church acts as a form of distinction from other members of the South Asian community, and connects them with the dominant European culture in Canada. The research illustrates that diasporic experiences are gendered and this is evident in the experiences of women who are burdened with upholding family traditions around marriage and mate selection. The structures of male dominance, which are reflected in marriage practices and gender responsibilities, play a central role in how the immigrant experience unfolds and how identities are constructed. The study demonstrates that the family and religious ideology play a central role in determining and defining migrant identification.