What Do You Mean by Middle Eastern Community?

Drawing on theories of postmodernist feminism and transnational migration, this book explores the lived experiences and migration narratives of seven Arab immigrant women in Halifax, Nova Scotia. By examining the gendered meanings and interactions which underpin discourses of family, community and citizenship in the womens lives, the author draws a diverse map of personal experiences of home and belonging in the Canadian and Maritime context. As migration shifts the terrain of patriarchy in various and often uneven ways, Abdul-Razzaq discusses how the women encounter new structural, social and gendered barriers and opportunities once in the host country.Simultaneously however, attachments to the sending country continue to contour the research subject's everyday experiences. Adopting an in-depth qualitative investigation of belonging, Abdul-Razzaq's ethnographic accounts effectively demonstrate how the process of migration creates important sites of difference and negotiation through which the women actively navigate their identities as immigrants/newcomers, citizens, workers, daughters, wives, and mothers.