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Learning from the
Lived Experiences of
Aging Immigrants:
Narratives of resilience
Sharon Koehn, Shari Brotman & Ilyan Ferrer
28th Annual John K. Friesen Conference,
Vancouver, B.C., June 10, 2019
Resilience
•A positive response to adversity
•Is resilience a better public health tool than healthy aging?
•“… individuals who face adversity or experience
functional declines can still demonstrate resilience,
whereas they would not be classified as healthily
ageing” (Cosco et al. 2017)
•How can we foster resilience across the life course?
•“three areas that work in concert to foster resilience in
the face of adversity: individual, social, and
environmental resources” (Wister et al., 2016 as cited
in Cosco et al., 2017)
Figure 3. Lifecourse Model of Multimorbidity Resilience (Wister et al., 2016, p .300); DOI: 10.1177/0091415016641686.
Resources
Individual Social Environmental
Self-efficacy Positive relationships Person-environment fit
Self-referent beliefs Family or friendship networks Aging in place
Sense of purpose Social engagement Cultural relevance
Optimism Social support Programs and services
Flexibility Social capital Policy
Health behaviours Ethnic culture
Socioeconomic Resources
Cultural-specific coping
Table 1. Individual, Social, and Environmental Resources (Wister et al., 2016, p.301); DOI: (10.1177/0091415016641686)
Resilience
from the
point of view
of older
people
“We argue that resilience should be seen as a
contextualised process which can be both individual and
environmental. Older people's experiences highlight the
need to consider the effectiveness of
environmental community resources and social–political
structures such as state-funded service availability, as well
as the personal characteristics that are usually focused on
when considering resilience in old age.
We also argue that it is important to consider different
aspects of resilience, so that a person or group
might face constraints in one area, such as physical
or economic wellbeing, but be strong in other areas such
as social relationships or mobility. Resilience can mean
acknowledging and incorporating ‘vulnerability’ and
balancing wellbeing across a range of areas” (Wiles et al.
2012, p.416).
Lived Experiences:
Narratives of Resilience
•To share stories of diverse older immigrants’
experiences over the life course, as collected using
life story narrative and photovoice methods, to
illuminate
•In which domains and how they respond to
adversity
•The types of adversity they have faced
•The resources they have drawn on, and
•The environmental and socio-political
contexts that fostered adversity/resilience
This Photo by Unknown A uthor is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC
Participant
origins
Lived Experiences of Aging Immigrants:
Objectives
To explore lived experiences of immigrant older adults.
To study the impact of immigration on aging within the context of their life histories.
To understand the intersections of identity, social location and structural discrimination
across the lifespan.
To explore the ways in which structural discrimination across the lifecourse shapes
interactions with family, community and formal services.
To encourage knowledge exchange with service providers and policymakers.
Methods & Framework
Sequences (and consequences) of meaningful events and how they are organized, connected and
evaluated were explored. Notably we employ a critical approach, drawing attention to structural and
institutional components of the lifecourse.
Critical Lifecourse
Framework
This framework acknowledges the existence of distinct but inseparable categories of oppression which
inform individual identities. The voices of marginalized people are central to the inquiry and individual
experiences of marginalization and resilience are interpreted within the context of structural inequality.
Intersectionality
Framework
Alongside interviews, photographs capture the distinct lived experiences of immigrant older adults in
context, and underpin the recommendations for service providers and policy makers.
Photovoice
Framework
Situating categories of identity on life
trajectories
Birth
Marriage
First job
Family
Retirement
Son/daughter
Categories of identity
Partner/single Parent/childless Employee/er Grand-
parent/not
Care provider/
care receiver
Situating structural forces on life trajectories
Birth
Marriage
First job
Family
Retirement
Racialization of poverty
Primary or secondary labour
markets
Heterosexism Politics of migration
Politics of retirement
Neo-liberal policies of care
Globalization
Intersections
and impacts
on identity
and resilience
Gender
Family cohesion
Socio-economic status
Country of origin
Type of immigration
Period of immigration
Oppression versus agency
•All names have been
changed to protect the
confidentiality of participants.
•All fictitious names were
chosen by the participants
themselves.
•Most photos have no visible
faces to respect the
anonymity of the participants.
•When the face of a person is
visible on the photographs,
written consent has been
obtained.
Photo by Divine, 2016
Donicia: Resilience
and identity
“I thought it was only
men doing [this]
because men usually do
harder stuff. Women
[are] more involved in
sewing, and …the
feminine type of work.
…It makes me feel good
[and] proud to do it.”
Adversity –
pre-migration
Growing up in poor family (13 siblings, “heavy-handed”
discipline)
Racially determined social class system (‘Blacks’ at the
bottom)
Limited career opportunities: teacher or nurse
Training as nurse, but menial jobs and subjected to
sexism until hired as psychiatric nurse (18 years)
Financially supported siblings (3rd oldest)
Marriage at age 33
Adversity –post-migration
(sexism)
•Husband emigrated to Canada (Donicia not consulted,
expected to follow, gave up her nursing job)
•Husband did not find housing for them –she had to as a
new immigrant
•Husband’s annual visits to Trinidad, lack of interest in
budgeting, and failure to consult with Donicia put them in
debt
•She took over paying bills and budgeting, and is still paying
off his debt
•Distant relationship –little in common; considered but
resists divorce, against Catholic faith
Adversity –post-
migration (racism)
•Nursing credentials and even
high school diploma not
recognized in Canada
•Took high school courses then
1 yr nursing asst. course to
work ASAP
•Diploma not granted without
French – took 10 years, 10
attempts!
•Completed BSc in Community
Health
•Worked 13 years as nurse
clinician in Montreal
The ingredients of resilience?
Strong
independent
personality
poverty
racism
sexism
Resources -Donicia
Individual Social Environmental
Self-efficacy Positive relationships Person-environment fit
Self-referent beliefs Family or friendship networks Aging in place
Sense of purpose Social engagement Cultural relevance
Optimism Social support Programs and services
Flexibility Social capital Policy
Health behaviours Ethnic culture
Socioeconomic Resources
Cultural-specific coping
Table 1. Individual, Social, and Environmental Resources (Wister et al., 2016, p.301); DOI: (10.1177/0091415016641686)
Resilient leadership
BUT resistance needed to address
•Sexism, racism, poverty
•Migration, language policies
Resist the
tyranny of
long
presentations
Son Jung Suk: Resilience and social networks
War and interrupted
education
•Born 1938, northern Korea
•Age 11 –war halted school
•Escape to South, extreme hardship
•Age 14 –war, ended, return to school,
but got TB –out of school
•Age 18 –started nursing training but
quit to support family
Migrations
•1964-68: Married and had 2
children, but political insecurity
and economic hardship
•1968: Watchmaker husband
accepted on points system –
emigrate to Eastern Canada
•1969: Have 3rd child –isolated by
motherhood, no English, poor
•1973: Re-located family to
Vancouver for husband’s health
and work
Busy working
Many jobs over the years: key cutting,
hotel chambermaid, fish processing
(seasonal), office cleaning, factory work
Gift shop owner for 13 years (long hours)
Dry cleaning business for 19 years with
son and sister-in-law
Language disconnect
Jung Suk: “I always working, and then those three children talking together, watching together. They
speaking English, they don’t know the Korean language.”
Jung Suk: “I feel sorry about my children because all the time, when they young, I didn’t have any
money. When they grow, I didn’t take care of them because I can’t speak English.”
Interpreter: “One or two words to say that, to come, eat it, and then why don’t you go to bed?
That’s it. Didn’t speak any Korean. She mentioned about there’s no connection with her children.”
Jung Suk : “That’s the… feel sorry about them. I didn’t take care of them. They grow themselves.”
Strength from survival, God
and community
•J.S.: “(Today’s generation)…
they never understand what I
have my life. They couldn’t
understand in the war.”
•Interpreter: “the war made
her … strong. Because the war
changed everything -
nationality and the
personality.”
•Viewed as a respected elder
within her church community
•Maintains connection with
Korean culture and
community
•Now retired and enjoying
computer and English classes,
walking group.
Dimensions
of
resilience:
Jung Suk
Adversity:
•War and related effects
•Interrupted education
•Migration/language
•Low income/busy work
Resources
• Church – culturally relevant
•Social connections
•Husband’s skill
•Programs & services
Areas of potential vulnerability
•Disconnect with children/grandchildren
•Husband has cancer
Cesar: staying the
course for family
•Grew up poor in the
Philippines
•Met his wife in the factory
where they worked
•Married and had a son
•Wife migrated as domestic
worker when son was 2 y.o.
•Cesar primary carer for son
for 6 years
•Cesar and son join wife in
Canada in 1988
This Photo by Unknown A uthor is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
Loyal worker
•Initially hard to find work
•Secured a job in a factory
•Won an award for loyal service (10 yrs) then
fired
•Son and his children moved in with them after
his divorce
•Both he and wife worked always until wife hit
by a snow removal truck (2013)
•She had to stop working; he became her
caregiver
“As long as I can do, I’ll
do it”
Dimensions of resilience: Cesar
Adversity:
•Life of poverty
•Domestic worker policy
•Migration –loss of extended family support
•Low income/busy work
Resources
•Family and Filipino community; other domestic workers
•Sense of purpose and work ethic
•Programs & services (church)
Areas of potential vulnerability
•Economically vulnerable
•Wife’s disability
•His ability to keep up the hard work as he ages
Feedback from the exhibit
I was happy to hear our stories
told. I want our grandchildren to
know that we survived hardships
by loving & helping each other.
Thank you for amplifying our
voices.
See Brotman et al. 2017 (online
exhibit catalogue)
Summing Up
What does resilience look like?
What resources promote resilience?
Where is resistance needed?
What does resilience look like?
Resuming her profession as a nurse; leadership of older black women’s group; resisting gender norms
(woodwork, steel pan); assuming control over family budgeting and bills to avoid financial ruin
Surviving extreme hardship; creating economic stability for her family through hard work; being
physically and socially active; lifelong learning
Loyalty and sacrifice -continuing to work hard to support his family in the face of ongoing financial
hardship; securing the future of his grandchildren
What
resources
promote
resilience?
Religious organizations –
natural social networks
Community-based programs
and services
Where is
resistance
needed?
Language policies (QC)
Deskilling
Gender inequity
Access to language courses
Workplace exploitation
Immigration policies
References provided in notes
Contact: skoehn@sfu.ca
Thank you 고맙습니다 Salamat
