Using everyday occupations to bridge the cultural divide: The experiences of immigrant women

Introduction: During the immigration process, individuals are transitioning from a familiar cultural context to the “host” country whose norms and expectations may be unknown and confusing. The orchestration of everyday occupations that contributed to their self efficacy, role fulfillment and identity is disrupted by migration. Immigrants need to adapt to new ways of occupational engagement to find their sense of “being in place” in the new context. This presentation will demonstrate the critical role occupations play in the reconstruction of the lives and identities of immigrants. The environmental enablers and barriers to participation will also be presented. Methods: A series of qualitative studies were conducted with a total of 30 women who came to the U.S. from three continents. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted to elicit stories about their immigration experience. Data was analyzed through a combination of phenomenology, framework analysis and grounded theory. Results: All the women expressed a need to maintain culturally-significant occupations, used occupation as vehicle of acculturation and adaptation, and struggled in balancing personal adaptation with those of their children. The cost of migration included occupational loss, imbalance, deprivation, alienation, and marginalization. Despite barriers to participation, the women used creative adaptive strategies to engage in occupations in meaningful and productive ways. Conclusion: This research confirms and extends previous findings regarding the challenges of occupational adaptation following major life transitions and their impact on health. Immigrant women face a multitude of challenges to occupational engagement in their everyday lives. This study validates occupation as a health determinant.