TRANSNATIONAL MIGRATION AND GENDER RELATIONS: THE CASE OF

LIBERIAN IMMIGRANT FAMILIES IN HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA

by

Joseph Nyemah Nyemah

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of Master of Arts

at

Dalhousie University

Halifax, Nova Scotia

December 2007

© Copyright by Joseph Nyemah Nyemah, 2007

ii

DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

The undersigned hereby certify that they have read and recommend to the Faculty

of Graduate Studies for acceptance a thesis entitled

Transnational Migration and Gender Relations: The Case of Liberian Immigrant

Families in Halifax, Nova Scotia

By

Joseph Nyemah Nyemah

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts

Dated: _______________________________________

Supervisor: ________________________________

Dr. Pauline Gardiner Barber

Readers: ________________________________

Dr. Rebecca Tiessen

________________________________

Dr. David Black

iii

DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY

DATE: December 6th, 2007

AUTHOR: Joseph Nyemah Nyemah

TITLE: Transnational Migration and Gender Relations: The Case of Liberian Immigrant Families in Halifax, Nova Scotia

DEPARTMENT OR SCHOOL: Department of International Development Studies

DEGREE: MA CONVOCATION: May YEAR: 2008

Permission is herewith granted to Dalhousie University to circulate and to have copied for non-commercial purposes, at its discretion, the above title upon the request of

individuals or institutions.

______________________________

Signature of Author

The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the thesis nor extensive extracts

from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author‟s written permission.

The author attests that permission has been obtained for the use of any copyright material

appearing in the thesis (other than the brief excerpts requiring only proper

acknowledgement in scholarly writing), and that all such use is clearly acknowledged.

iv

DEDICATION

I will do myself injustice if I do not dedicate this thesis to myself. My story is the

story of the poor African child who grew up in a village where there is no telephone, a

trained physician and electricity even in the year 2007. I cannot remember how many

times I have had malaria. The distance between my dwelling house and schools I

attended was always not less than three kilometers, yet I traveled on foot. I must

appreciate my courage, perseverance and resilience from the poverty of the developing

world – a reason why I have studied development. Coming from a war ravaged country

like Liberia, obtaining a graduate degree from Dalhousie University in Canada is an

illustrious fulfillment of a huge dream.

v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication ………………………………...………………………………………...…....iv

Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………….vii

List of Abbreviations Used……………………………………………………………...viii

Glossary …………………………………………………………….................................ix

Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………….............x

Chapter One: Introduction……………………………………………………………...1

Chapter Two: Theoretical Underpinnings and Regional Profile …………………….4

2.1. Gender ……………………………………………………………………………......5

2.2. Transnationalism ………………………………………....…………………...….....12

2.3. Globalization ………………………………………………………………………..17

2.4. Regional Profiles ……………………………………………………………………25

2.4.1. Racism, Forced Migration and the Creation of Liberia…………………...25

2.4.2. Liberia, a Mockery of Freedom and a Unique Form of Colonialism …….28

2.4.3. Freed Slaves and the Natives: a Cycle of Oppression ……………………29

2.4.4. Civil War, Displacement and Transnationalism ……………………….…31

2.4.5. A Geopolitical Perspective on the Liberian Conflict within West Africa ..32

2.4.6. The Canadian Immigration Context ………………………………………33

Chapter Three: Key Concepts and Research Methodology…………………………38

3.1. The Household: a Key Site for Gender Relations …………………….………...…..38

3.2. Patriarchy: Control over Financial Income and Procreation ……………………..…47

3.3. Capitalism and Gender Relations …………………...………………………………52

3.4. Masculinities and Culture as Concepts of Gender Relations ……………………….59

3.5. Power and Culture as Gender Concepts ………………………………………….....64

3.6. Methodology ………………….…………………………………………………….67

3.7. Semi-Structured Interview Guide ……………………………………………….….68

3.8. Recruitment Process ……………………………………………..………………….70

3.9. Data Collection ……………………………………………………………………..71

vi

3.10. Data Analysis ………………………………………………………………...……73

3.11. Challenges..…………………………………………..…………………………….74

Chapter Four: Migrating From Liberia to Canada: Implications for Gender

Relations…………………………………………………………………………………75

4.1. Profiles of the Participants ………………………………………………………….75

4.2. Migrating to Canada: Why Canada? Decision-Making within the Family, and the Role of Aid Agencies …………………………………………………………….…79

4.3. Refugee Life and Constructed Male Power ………… …………………………..…83

4.4. The Family Head: a Contested Position upon Arrival in Canada………….………..86

4.5. Employment, Control of Income and Gender Relations in Canada ………….……..89

4.6. Domestic Budgeting and Gender Relations ………………………………….……..91

4.7. Gender Divisions of Labor and Migration ………………………………………….93

4.8. Domestic Technology, Western Life and Gender Relations ……………………….96

4.9. Challenges and Opportunities after Migrating to Canada ………………………….97

4.10. Differences Between Canadian and Liberian Families ……………….…………..99

Chapter Five: New Citizenship Priorities; New Gender Norms ….……………….101

5.1. The Dream of “Living in the Cold” ……………………………………………….101

5.2. Gender Citizenship ………………………………………………………………...103

Chapter Six: Conclusion ……………………………………………………………..111

Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………...115

Appendix 1: Consent Form …………………………………………………………….129

vii

ABSTRACT

This thesis investigates whether there is a relationship between transnationalism and changing gender relations within Liberian immigrant couples in Halifax, Nova

Scotia, Canada. Drawing on feminist research, a qualitative approach is used to study the migration histories of five Liberian couples. The thesis argues that migration is accompanied by a renegotiation of gender relations in decision-making processes

concerning domestic budgeting, household labor, and control over personal income. Concepts of gendered citizenship, such as employment, freedom, male and female

equality, and language are identified as critical factors which influence changing gender relations in the context of transnationalism. The thesis posits that by granting resettlement opportunities to couples from some developing countries, Canada is indirectly

contributing to the promotion of gender equality.

viii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED

ACS: American Colonization Society

ADAM: African Diaspora Association of the Maritimes

AWPSG: African Women Peace Support Group

CAD: Canadian Dollar

DR Congo: Democratic Republic of Congo

DVD: Digital Video Disc

ECOWAS: Economic Communities of West African States

GFA: Globalization from Above

GFB: Globalization from Below

IMF: International Monetary Funds

MISA: Metropolitan Immigrant Settlement Association

NGOs: Non Governmental Organizations

SAPs: Structural Adjustment Programs

UN: United Nations

UNHCR: United Nations High Commissions for Refugees

USD: United States Dollar

WB: World Bank

WFP: World Food Program

WTO: World Trade Organization

ix

GLOSSARY

Khran: An ethnic group in Liberia. This was the ethnic group of former President

Samuel Doe.

Women’s palaver not be easy: This is an expression in the local English of Liberia and

Sierra Leone, meaning women are troublesome

Family size: The extended family system in Liberia and the African context in general

makes this term very fluid. It can refer to a couple, their children and ageing parents,

siblings, cousins, and friends; it can also be limited to people contributing to and eating

from the same pot. The latter is what I refer to in this thesis.

x

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Dr. Pauline Gardiner Barber, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology

and Social Anthropology, Dalhousie University is an inspirational person. I took lots of

confidence and courage from the respect she showed for my thoughts. Without her

support as my supervisor, I would not have completed this thesis in 2007. I am also

appreciative of the supervision of Dr. Rebecca Tiessen, former chair of the Department of

International Development Studies, Dalhousie University. Despite being relocated to

Kingston, Ontario, Dr. Tiessen showed great commitment and interest in supervising me.

I will always remember working with her. My third reader, Dr. David Black who is the

current chair of the Department of International Development Studies was also a

contributor to the successful completion of this thesis. A three minute telephone call from

Dr. Barber was enough to convince him to serve as my third reader. I am very

appreciative of the support from all of them.

1

Chapter One

Introduction

This thesis investigates whether there is any relationship between transnational

migration and changing gender relations. Incessant political instabilities, inequitable

sharing of resources and natural disasters in many parts of the world are uprooting

millions of people from their homes. While most of these people are internally displaced

within their home countries, a significant number are forced across national borders.

Some remain in refugee camps indefinitely, while others are resettled in western

countries. Also, on a daily basis, economic globalization influences the movements of

huge numbers of people across national borders. Proprietors of big and small

corporations are looking for cheap labors and high profits, while the poor search for

employment, better incomes and improved living conditions. Often, these movements

involve married couples who have to adapt to a new political, economic, social and

cultural context of life.

My thesis contributes to a new chapter in the history of gender scholarship, by

exploring the links between transnationalism and gender relations among the immigrant

population in Halifax, Canada, from Liberia which is also my home country. Uprooted by

a devastating civil conflict, the Liberian immigrant population transited through refugee

camps in West Africa before settling in Canada. Between 2004 and 2007, the United

Nations assisted 90,000 Liberian refugees who had been repeatedly displaced and

continued to search for permanent settlement around the world (UNCHR, 2007). There is

limited research that comparatively analyses women‟s experiences as they migrate from

place to place as a consequence of conflict (see Preston et al., 2004; Giles and Hyndman,

2

2004). My thesis helps break this silence by looking at the potentially changing and

dynamic gender relations within the context of Liberian immigrants in Halifax, Nova

Scotia.

Drawing upon socialist feminist research as a guide, this thesis asks how gender

relations, including power differences, decision-making processes, household budget

management and divisions of labor have been affected within Liberian couples during

their sojourn in refugee camps, and settlement in Canada. Settling into a new country

involves the ability to integrate and the exercise of a new citizenship. In businesses, on

buses, in churches, and at work, Liberians are regularly encountering Canadian ways of

life. Modern media, including televisions, the internet and mobile phones provide regular

exposure to different aspects of Canadian culture for members of the Liberian immigrant

community. Using qualitative research methodologies I examine how the Liberian

community reacts to these encounters with a focus on gender relations.

Migration entails crossing cultural boundaries, experiencing another culture, and

making a new home in a new country (Tastsoglou, 1998). In the context of refugee life,

dependence on food aid and remittances, and not having the legal status to work do not

exempt people from some of the social and economic transformations faced by immigrant

families. My thesis employs open-ended questions to investigate the implications such

transformations have on gender relations particularly, with regards to power and

decision-making processes and control over personal incomes within Liberian immigrant

families. This thesis argues that migration to Canada is indeed accompanied by a

renegotiation of gender relations in the specified areas thereby contributing new insights

to gender scholarship.

3

I have repeatedly used the words “household, family and couple” interchangeably

in the thesis. I acknowledge the risk of generalizing, and hereby caution that both

households and families can take many different forms in different contexts. Considering

the research question of the thesis, combined with the understanding that gender relations

intersect with several social and economic vectors, the study is focused on five Liberian

couples to ensure a thorough examination of the targeted issues. The first chapter reviews

key theoretical issues such as gender, transnationalism and globalization, which are major

concepts guiding my analysis of underpinning factors for population displacement in

Liberia. The chapter ends with a presentation of the regional profile of Liberia and the

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the citizenship and

immigration context within Canada during the study period.

Chapter two explores feminist scholarship and such relevant gender concepts as

the household, patriarchy, masculinities and power. The chapter examines how capitalism

articulates with gender and migration, and ends with the methodological framework of

the research. The third chapter presents results of the field research. The analysis is a

chronological presentation of gender relations within the participant couples during their

stay in Liberia, the sojourn in refugee camps, and their current circumstances in Canada.

At every stage, I examine concepts such as decision-making processes, employment and

the breadwinners‟ roles, control of income and domestic budgeting, and the position of

head of household. The thesis ends with a fourth, fifth and sixth chapters, reviewing the

relevant academic literature that guides my analysis of the field study data. The final

section contains conclusions of the thesis.

4

Chapter Two

Theoretical Underpinnings and Regional Profile

Feminism embraces a strong sensitivity to issues that affect women. In

governmental politics, local economies and the delivery of social services, socialist

feminist researchers have been very productive in pointing out embedded gender

injustices that are often overlooked by society. Feminist analysis reveals that unequal

access to education between boys and girls in Sub-Saharan Africa is linked to retrograde

policies by national governments, and some cultural practices (Bloch et al., 1998). Using

the same framework, the African Women and Peace Support Group (AWPSG) argues

that in the process of ending forced migration and violence against women through the

restoration of peace in Liberia, women made significant contributions, yet they struggled

for accreditation during peace negotiations (AWPSG, 2004). In these circumstances,

socialist feminists have succeeded in exposing structural injustices which are embedded

in dominant practices. Some of these practices often remain unquestioned by society

arguing that they are cultural.

Drawing upon socialist feminist research perspectives, I present in this chapter,

the key theoretical issues – gender, transnaltionalism and globalization, which propelled

this study. I outline the political history of Liberia within the West African regional

context with a particular focus on gender and migration. I also describe the relevant

immigration context for Canada and the province of Nova Scotia with emphasis on the

city of Halifax, where I conducted this research. I argue that governmental politics and

culture can spur migration and counter or exacerbate oppressive gender practices.

5

2.1. Gender

Gender has been repeatedly conceptualized and employed in varying ways by

different authors. Feminists seemed to have initially conceptualized gender to reject

biological determinism by articulating various differences in the cultural constructs of

femininity and masculinity. As gender unfolds as a popular field of study within the

social sciences, new epistemological issues are also introduced. Some scholars see gender

as relations of power manifested in domination and subordination (Mackinnon, 1987;

Gordon, 1988). Gender has been presented as a consequence of language (Spender 1980),

and as a structural feature of labor and power (Connell, 1987). It has been used to

demonstrate the use of power (de Lauretis, 1987; Bartky, 1988; Sawicki, 1991) and to

characterize the structure of the psyche (Chodorow, 1978). Power is a recurrent concept

within many characterizations of gender.

“Gender is a set of roles which like costumes or masks in the [a] theatre,

communicates to other people that we are feminine or masculine” (Mosse, 1993, p. 2).

Often, society informs us as to whom we are. Gender is perceived in terms of status

(Lopata and Thorne 1978), and articulated as an internalized ideology (Grant, 1993), as

socialization (Gilligan 1982; Ruddick, 1980) and the product of attribution (Kessler and

Mckenna, 1978). Gender is referred to as the basis of social organizations of relationships

between men and women (Mackinnon, 1987; Barret, 1980); and employed to analyze

differences in the distribution of burdens and benefits in society (Walby, 1986; Connell,

1987; Boneparth and Stoper, 1988); also, as a structure of consciousness (Rowbotham,

1973). Often, ideological differences about the status of “head of household” and the

6

unequal sharing of domestic work burdens are among the central issues that dominate

discussions gender theories and practices.

Epistemological contributions on the concept of gender are endless. Hawkesworth

(2006) must be credited for developing an inventory of how gender as a concept has been

used by different authors. She discovered that gender has been presented as individual

identity and aspiration (Butler, 1990; Epperson, 1988); as attributes of individuals (Bem,

1983); as interpersonal relations (Spelman, 1998); as a mode of social organization

(Firestone, 1970; Eisenstein, 1979); as a “prison house” (Cornell and Thurschwell, 1986,

p. 17) for some women whose freedom is often denied or restricted by certain gender

beliefs and practices and as inherently liberating (Irigaray, 1985b; Smith, 1992) for some

men who thrive from women‟s oppression. It is conceptualized as a universal

phenomenon (Lerner, 1986) and as an historically specific consequence of modernity‟s

increasing sexualization of women (Laqueur, 1990; Riley, 1988). Gender has been cast in

terms of binary oppositions, variable and varying continua, and in terms of a layering of

personality, also as a difference (Irigaray, 1985a & 1985b). Hawkesworth (2006) argues

that the different views of different authors suggest that their concerns can be

incorporated into a sophisticated, but holistic conceptualization of gender.

Hawkesworth (2006) clearly points out that cognizant of the contributions of the

argument presented by different feminist scholars; postmodern feminists chose to further

conceptualize gender by attempting to incorporate the views of different scholars and by

attending to the nuances of interpretation and individual subjectivities. Hence, she cites

Joan Scott (1986) who defines gender as a concept involving two interrelated but

analytically distinct parts. Scott (1986) claims that gender is a constitutive element of

7

social relationships based on perceived (or interpreted) differences between the sexes. A

key indication, in all of these contributions, is that gender is a constructed ideology.

I do not intend in this thesis to coin another definition of gender, but rather, to

locate gender in the practical contexts of Liberia and Canada respectively. I pay particular

attention to some concepts such as power, subordination, domestic labor sharing, and

consequence of language deployed to navigate the social, cultural and economic contexts

of Liberia and Canada. Like many African countries, Liberia is a patriarchal society built

around a culture of dominant male influences, which asserts men as superior to women

both in the home and in public domains. In rural areas of Liberia where different African

cultures are predominant, men are socially positioned as leaders and major decision

makers, though there are cases where women are elected or appointed as village chiefs.

Within the leadership ranks of government and churches, men pre-dominantly occupy

senior positions as opposed to women, many of whom work as clerks.

I emphasize here that my assertion that women are less powerful in Liberia must

be interpreted with caution. In the public where women are often taken for granted, and at

home where they often face violence, Liberian women have always negotiated for a share

of power. For example, Massa Washington spoke about women‟s lobbying to enter a

conference sponsored by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

in 2003. She said:

We had written to ECOWAS… that the women of Liberia wanted to be represented at this conference, again they did not take us seriously. They thought we were joking, so we proceeded to invite ourselves. We lobbied for tickets and then at the end of the day, we got tickets for six women. But interestingly, most of our benefactors were men…. In the private sector, men from civil society (Massa Washington cited in AWPSG, 2004).

8

Liberian women were also very influential revealing their power in resolving the Liberian

civil conflict. The head of state who organized the first postwar elections was a woman

(Ruth Sando Perry), and another woman (Ellen Johnson Sirleaf) is currently an elected

president of the country. Also, research shows that market women and farming men in

urban cities and rural towns respectively are viewed by the Liberian public as equals,

because they are equally breadwinners in their respective homes (Moran, 1990). Several

women served as military commanders during the conflict and others are currently

serving as elected village chiefs, police officers and senators in government, though they

continue to constitute a minute proportion of women in relation to men.

To better understand male and female disparity both in public and domestic

domains, several factors such as education, poverty and the political history of Liberia

must be considered. A study done in Liberia in 2006 shows that the net enrollment rate

for boys and girls in primary schools is 61.4% males against 34.12% females (Liberia,

2007). Historically, there have been more men who proceed through the educational

system of the country than women. This explains, partly why there are more men who are

employed for wages than women.

There is, also, a cultural element which must be highlighted. Some families in

rural areas would prefer to socialize girls to remain in the domestic sphere while allowing

boys to pursue formal education. This practice is not disconnected from some capitalist

influences, where most jobs are designed to suit men‟s capacities (gendered skills sets

and interests) while keeping women unemployed. For example, the professional

employment sector in Liberia is dominated by field agricultural positions which are

highly physical and regarded by society as unsafe for women. The lack of employment

9

opportunities for women often leaves them economically powerless and therefore they

are positioned in households to function as unpaid “servants” for their husbands. This

demonstrates how gender can be understood as “a prison house” for women (Cornell and

Thurschwell, 1986). Gender norms imprison women, in a sense, by confining them to

particular spaces, roles, identities and activities. The prison metaphor is important

because it reveals the way in which women lack freedom to make choices or the barriers

that prevent them from empowerment. This “prison house” for women and the gender

norms which maintain it are liberating for men (Irigaray, 1985b; Smith, 1992) because

men are freed from the domestic responsibilities and other work that is deemed women‟s

work. Some women are drawn into marriages constituting polygamous families, which

they cannot easily oppose due to a lack of economic autonomy and because of cultural

pressure to marry. And in some contexts, women are directly or indirectly restricted from

participation in public spaces and confined to their homes.

There is no law which forbids women from owning property in Liberia, but most

economically productive property such as land and houses is owned by men. For

example, in many married homes, property is registered under the names of men only.

The contentious justification used in this case is that men are the ones who earn the

money. Inheritance of property also favors male children, confirming the argument that

gender forms the basis for the distribution of economic benefits in society (Walby, 1986;

Connell, 1987; Boneparth and Stoper, 1988). Sons are often the beneficiaries of their

parents‟ patrimony. The explanation is that girls are strangers, who are destined for other

families through marriage. This is synonymous with the argument that gender is an

internalized ideology (Grant, 1993).

10

Language in Liberia as is common within the West African region generally,

often tends to subordinate women, supporting the theoretical argument that gender is

reflected in, if not a consequence of language (Spender, 1980). Another feminist writer,

Pandey (2004) questions the rationale and functionality of the gendered and sexist

representation of women in the work of West African writers. In their popular songs,

Liberian musicians use phrases such as “woman palaver not be easy” or woman is a big

burden, “when you marry yellow woman you take trouble” and “women are tricky.” This

kind of language projects an inferior picture of women as dependents and as liabilities for

men. The work of these writers and artists are popular within the region and influence

gender relations in a way that presents women as inferior to men.

How is gender constructed in Canada and how are the constructed practices

different from the Liberian context? In Canada, equality is legitimized in the legal system

(social justice), and by social norms, while the economic system is governed by a

combination of legal requirements and economic principles (Denis, 2006). The role of

law and social norms in ensuring some forms of nominal equality and equity in the

distribution of resources is not the same as in Liberia. For example, in providing

education as a benefit to Liberian society, donors and governments are focused on

efficiency in their rationales for programs related to girls, not on the philosophy or value

of equity (Stromquist, 1998). This gender difference between the two countries, also

articulates with the argument that gender is used in the distribution of benefits in society

(Walby, 1986; Connell, 1987; Boneparth and Stoper, 1988). On this particular

comparison regarding education, I acknowledge that there are numerous social and

11

economic factors which must be analyzed in such comparison before arriving at a

comprehensive conclusion.

Some of the reasons associated with the limited access to education for many

females in Liberia are related to parental attitudes, the demand for female labor, and early

pregnancy (Brenner, 1998). In some parts of the country, the majority of elementary

school teachers are males. Sadker and Sadker (1984) claim that male teachers have more

interactions in classes with boys than girls. This is not the case in the Canadian

educational system, where females predominate in elementary school education.

It is, however, an injustice to Canadian post-modern feminists to speak about

gender constructions and practices in Canada without pointing out the incidence of

subordinations and discriminations against immigrant women. It is worth noting that it is

not just immigrant women who face gender inequality in Canada. There are multiple

forms of oppression and gender-based inequalities for women in all socio-economic

groups and ethnic groups. “On the Canadian Labor market, immigrant women of color

are increasingly being used as flexible and disposable labor, suited to the demands of the

globalized economy” (De Wolff, 2003; Vosko, & Cranford, 2003; cited in Man, 2004, p.

137). Many of the dirty domestic jobs in the city of Halifax, and other parts of Canada are

occupied by working class and/ or immigrant women, particularly those of color. The

Liberian immigrant women who participated in this study are overwhelmed with such

jobs, which are labor intensive and pay nothing more than minimum wage ($7.15 per

hour). This phenomenon shows that gender issues are often entwined with other factors

such as race, ethnicity and class.

12

2.2. Transnationalism

Over the past two decades, businesses, the communications industry and human

movements have strongly challenged the limitations on mobility inherent in geography.

This has prompted new terms such as transnational corporations, transnational networks

and transnational migration. Transnationalism must be seen with relationship to static and

declining economies and political instability in the global south, declining demographic

structures in the global north, and a booming universal market of prostitution and human

trafficking. As a "global phenomenon, it [transnationalism] takes into account the context

of globalization and economic uncertainty that facilitates the construction of world wide

networks” (Kastoryano, 2002, p. 1). Socialist feminists often associate transnationalism

with social formations spanning national borders (Vertovec, 1999). In this section, I

investigate whether existing scholarly work has uncovered links between the

deconstruction and reformation of gender identities, and transnationalism.

Transnationalism is a social morphology, type of consciousness, mode of cultural

reproduction, avenue of capital, site of political engagement, and (re) construction of

“place” or locality (Vertovec, 1999). A suggestion here is that transnationalism has the

ability to transform an individual, a couple, a family, a group or a community. In such a

context, gender could also be affected. However, over the past 100 years, scholarly

research has not done much to investigate the links between transnationalism and gender

identities (Pessar, 2003). In recent years, it has been argued that transnational studies

should carefully look at how gender identities in post-migration are established in regards

to integration, adaptation, citizenship and civil engagement through a qualitative

13

approach (Tastsoglou, 2006). Such an approach could make significant contributions as

migration and gender are woven into complex social issues.

After migration, families find themselves in situations where they are emotionally

attached to their current and former locations (Chamberlain & Leyesdoff, 2002). They

grapple with multiple cultural practices. This is the psychological dimension of gendered

citizenship which is often accompanied by migration (Tastsoglou, 1998). The

psychological shocks experienced in post-migration raise several questions about the

process of migration. For example, what information do migrants gather before

migrating, and who in the family is most affected by such cultural shocks? On the latter

question, existing research reveal that after migration, women are more likely to

experience a sense of attachment in a new location because they come in close contact

with school boards, local families, and so forth due to their gender-based roles as care-

givers and mothers (Tastsoglou, 1998). While this contribution is useful in

comprehending integration, it doesn‟t reveal to us the person who struggles within

families to maintain or shed cultural attachments with the place of origin. Research is

needed to investigate the shifting gendered responsibilities and the ways in which new

migrants (often women) take on specific gendered responsibilities as a form of cultural

preservation. These same responsibilities, however, in the Canadian context, may

contribute to changing gender relations within the family and the establishment of new

gender norms.

Transnationalism is a “process by which immigrants forge and sustain multi-

stranded social relations that links together their societies of origins and settlement”

(Basch, Glick Schiller and Szanton Blac, 1994, p. 7). A study in London reveals that

14

some Bangladeshi immigrant women resist factory work arguing that they come from

richer families in Bangladesh, where such jobs are viewed as disgraceful by members of

their social class (Kabeer, 2000). This is referred to as the double consciousness of

gender citizenship engendering the interplay of social and economic citizenships of the

countries of origin and settlement (Tastsoglou, 1998). However, I argue here again that

many migration literatures do not provide us an understanding of how men and women

react differently or similarly to contexts of post-migration.

In a study examining transnational migration and gender, Mexican and

Dominican women were found to favor staying in the United States, as opposed to men

who expressed the desire to return home to enjoy their constructed superiority over

women (Pessar and Mahler, 2003). The authors also argue that Guatamalan refugee

camps became strategic sites for struggles over women‟s and men‟s human rights and

citizenship. Refugee women expressed confidence about returning home with new ideas

on gender parity. Morokvasic‟s (1998) contribution to the discussion indicates that

migration may accelerate the process of questioning male power and consciousness

raising for women, not only because it entails economic independence for women from

men but because it frees women from the grip of a binding and watchful community of

origin. This literature suggests that the outcomes of migration have different cultural and

gender implications for women and men.

The impact of transnationalism on gender relations might not always be uniform.

It could be different from couple to couple, or between different cultural groups. Some

migrants “preserve and reinvent their culture in places separated perhaps by an airline

journey of a day or two” (Almeida, 1995, p. 1). Eritrean women in Canada are pressuring

15

their men to get involved in domestic work since they and the men are equally working

outside of the home (Matsuoka et al., 1999). On the contrary, Somali women do not

pressure their husbands arguing that it is important to preserve their culture (Mohamed,

1999). These experiences show that differences in adapting to the context of post-

migration can influence the shaping of cultural values. However, an interesting theme

articulated in this literature is that some of the changes which accompany migration can

be resisted or accepted.

There are, also, situations in which transnationlism stimulates changes in gender

relations within the country of origin, as opposed to the country of settlement. Research

shows that as a consequence of Sri Lankan women‟s migration to the Middle East to seek

employment, changes in gender hierarchies and spousal conflicts arose locally and

nationally (Gamburd, 1995). The author argues that as most of the women were

returning with some sums of money, they began to assume the roles of wage-earners and

breadwinners in their communities and homes respectively. Gamburd (1995) claims that

these changes threatened the positions of men who did not have equal financial power. It

is essential to point out that these changes threatened masculinities and patriarchy. Also,

it is worth noting that these changes were stimulated by a combination of

transnationalism, globalization and capitalism. However, further research is needed to

investigate the sustainability of gender changes introduced by migrant women who return

home from a different culture.

From another vantage point, transnationalism can be accompanied by various

forms of abuses and gender oppressions. The Canadian government‟s immigration

proposal of 1998, which calls for the reinforcement of the family class as the traditional

16

cornerstone of its immigrant program is challenged by several scholars as facilitating

gender violence and oppression in post-migration (Thobani, 1999; Mcdonald, 1999; and

Macklin, 1999). Thobani (1999) argues that in the case of migrant couples, it makes

women dependents upon husbands, and within the economy, it obscures their economic

work. McDonald (1999) argues that often it is the male who applies and receives a visa,

and permanent resident status, before sponsoring the migration of his wife. When a

woman arrives and wants to adapt to the Canadian ways of life by renegotiating male and

female power relations, she faces threats from the man on grounds that he can cancel the

sponsorship. Men who do so often claim that they were forced into marriages of

convenience, which is used by them as a justification to deport wives in those cases

where men become frustrated or unsupportive of women‟s changing roles and position in

society.

The reviewed literature under transnationalism reveals several issues. The

deconstruction and reformation of cultural and gender identities are a crucial issue in

post-migration. Migrants psychologically struggle to adapt to new cultures while at the

same they have to deal with maintaining or abandoning the cultures of their homeland. A

theoretical point that must be highlighted here is that culture is not fixed and can be

reconfigured gradually or rapidly in post-migration. Changes may refer nostalgically to

an idealized past gender hierarchy or a new more equitable concept of gender norms. We

also see that migration has different implications for men and women. Most of the

differences are influenced by their gender constructed roles in society. For example,

women are more likely to encounter the culture of their new locations because of their

involvement with family affairs which often serves as major conduits for cultural values.

17

We also see that transnationalism can encourage women to engage in a renegotiation of

gender relations, though this new attitude can often meet resistance from men.

2.3. Globalization

“In broad terms it [globalization] reflects the growing links between people,

communities, and economies around the world” (World Bank, 2002, p. 325). The Bank

argues that globalization is not new, and can be traced back to the first wave of global

integration between 1870 and 1914, when transportation was improved and tariff barriers

were reduced. This period is also referred to as the “golden age” of globalization (Santo,

2005). Globalization during this period was driven by forces of trade and finance as well

as migration in the “so-called New World” (Santo, 2005, p. 1). In this section of the

thesis, I focus on the interconnections between globalization, the new global economy,

and their corollaries on transnationalism and gender relations.

Globalization is highly related to neoliberal economic theory. Neoliberalism “is

based on the belief that markets are competitive, or can be made competitive by

deregulation, and that competitive markets, based on private ownership, produce the most

efficient economies and highest levels of welfare” (Bowles, 2005, p. 68). It is within the

framework of this argument that we see the flow of international mobile capitals, which

harness the forces of comparative advantage and place producers where production

conditions are best. Increasingly, there are movements of large multinational

corporations from the north to the south. Accompanied by the relocations of these

multinational corporations are numerous human rights abuses, particularly affecting

18

women and children who migrate to urban centers and neighboring countries to work

tirelessly for low wages.

Globalization then is a process by which countries are incorporated into one

competitive international market driven by rapidly growing technology and economies of

scale, sustained by unimpeded market access, and governed by the international financial

institutions – World Bank (WB), International Monetary Funds (IMF) and the World

Trade Organization (WTO). New communication mechanisms are so powerful such that

a garment design conceived in New York can be transmitted electronically to a factory in

Taiwan, and the first batches of the products received in San Francisco in a week‟s time,

(Castells, 1980; cited in Portes, 1997). The crucial issue here is that this new system was

supposed to result in the competitive integration of the global South into the productive

markets of the Northern developed countries (Guthrie, 2006). Sadly, this has not, and will

not easily work due to an inherent power imbalance between poor and rich countries in

the process of globalization.

“Wherever globalization impinges, inequality deepens. From Mexico to Japan, the

rich are getting richer, while the poor are becoming more desperate and numerous”

(Mandle, 2004). One key consequence of the growing inequalities between rich and poor

countries is the phenomenon of migration as citizens of poor countries strive to find

greener economic conditions. For about two decades now, Sub-Saharan Africa continues

to witness a massive movement of young people who are eager to enter Europe by any

means (BBC, 2007). Some of these migrants from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote

D‟Ivoire are driven by political instabilities which are partly fueled by corrupt

international traders who illegally control the resources of these countries. Others from

19

Ghana and Nigeria are simply driven by economic inequalities and poverty, which are

partly propelled by neoliberal policies of the international financial institutions.

Closely related to the neocolonial aspects of globalization is its undemocratic or

even anti-democratic nature. The application of neoliberal policies in the form of

Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) essentially saw the state as an obstacle that

should be removed from the economic sphere. The economies of poor countries were

opened to foreign companies (Sassen, 2000). Restructuring policies forcibly rolled back

the state apparatus and in so doing brought economic policy to the global system level,

outside the realm of the popular masses, particularly women and children, who bear the

brunt of the policies (Niva, 1999). SAPs threaten women farmers‟ abilities to earn an

income and to ensure household food security (Kabeer, 1994; Giles & Hyndman, 2004).

In his article entitled „who calls the shots” Fraser (2005) argues that SAPs stimulated

unemployment, closure of traditional industries oriented to local contexts and has

promoted wide spread of poverty. Many people in Africa, and even some government

officials who were in some ways involved in planning and implementing the SAP project,

would agree with this claim.

Feminists are concerned about the undermining of the nation-state and the social

consequences – gender, race, class and migrant status. Globalization challenges the

ability of the nation-state to ensure that sufficient resources are provided to their citizens

on an everyday basis, thus creating a crisis of legitimacy within such states (Giles &

Hyndman, 2004). Deleterious upshots of globalization, such as reduced access to health

care, education, child care, and other state-provided benefits and services, have been

experienced disproportionately and painfully by women throughout the world, from war

20

zones to refugee camps, factories offices, and homes. As women need to support their

families, they have been forced to take a central stage in the phenomenon of migration, as

evidenced in Asia and Latin America. This trend has feminized survival processes within

the era of globalization (Sassen, 2000). In these processes of migration, women are often

exploited and abused as they seek to access better resources for family survival.

Effects of globalization are strongly associated with transnationalism.

“Contemporary core-bound immigration is not an optional process, but one driven by the

structural requirements of advanced capitalist accumulation” (Portes, 1997, p. 7). The

author claims that in Germany and France, despite official closure of the foreign guest

worker program in the 1970s, immigrant communities have continued to grow. Germany

currently has a foreign population of about 7 million (Portes, 1997). In ethnically

homogenous Japan, labor scarcity is also stimulating various forms of migration

programs. Portes (1997) contends that people who travel should not be called immigrants

but transnationals because they contribute to the economic conditions of host countries.

The current immigration crisis, which pits ordinary Americans concerned about their job

security and feeling threatened by immigrants against the interests of corporate

Americans selling low waged jobs, is a good example of this controversial phenomenon.

Globalization serves as a conduit for resource exploitation and various forms of

political instability in the global south particularly in Africa. The articulation of global

capital investment from the North with armed conflict in the South is synonymous to

earlier colonial intervention on the continent (Macklin, 2004). The “blood diamond”

trade in Angola, Sierra Leone and Liberia for example, fueled conflicts in those countries

by paying for arms and deepening militarization among ethnic, religious and political

21

groups. Three companies (Rex Diamond, AmCan Minerals, and DiamondWorks) that

were involved in the diamond trade of Sierra Leone were also trading on Canadian stock

exchanges (Smilie, Gaberie, and Hazelton, 2000). Such trade links question the

development agendas of northern countries. But more perturbing is the correlation which

exists between the international trade of these resources and gendered violence against

women.

There are other cases in which the flow of international capitals directly

depopulates entire villages to take full control of their resources. In recent years,

Canadians have been embarrassed by activities of Canadian companies in the oil industry

of Sudan. Talisman, a Canadian company, contributed to the displacement of a

significant population of Sudanese, who ended up as refugees in Canada (Giles &

Hyndman, 2004). Talisman and other companies working in Sudan expect the dictatorial

and brutal Sudanese government to protect oil fields from locals, particularly women who

are seen by their advocates as deserving to live on the land of their ancestors (Amnesty

International 2000; cited in Macklin, 2004). The links between oil related development

and forced displacement of local people is not disconnected from human rights

violations. Women and children are insidiously affected.

Globalization contributes to the continuation of colonial divisions of labor and

undemocratic forms of governance (Guthrie, 2006). Expanding on the division of labor,

Pessar (1995) argues that women who migrate to developed countries are caught in

menial and low paying domestic jobs. Some of the Liberian immigrant women who took

part in this study are good examples of the phenomenon of difficult work (cleaning

homes and hotels) over long hours (8 to 12 hours per day) only for minimum wage ($7.20

22

CAD per hour). Parrenas (2000), and Stasiulis and Bakan (2000) also raise serious

questions about the involvement of immigrant women in dirty domestic work in Western

countries. Others who remain in their countries are drawn into low safety and labor

intensive factory jobs (Kabeer, 2000). There are numerous cases in Southeast Asia today.

Another vulnerable group, particularly young girls, continue to fall prey to

international tycoons who profit from the business of prostitution (Miles, 2003). “The sex

industry, previously considered marginal, has come to occupy a strategic and central

position in the development of international capitalism” (Richard, 2003, p. 2). The

industrialization of sex trade and its legalization in many western countries such as

Holland and Italy provide more incentives for trafficking women, and raise serious

questions about the commitment of these countries in improving the status of women

worldwide.

As I have earlier mentioned, it is evidenced that globalization weakens the state,

but while it has weakened some states, it has deliberately enhanced the power of others.

This perspective holds that the core capitalist states have used globalization to expand

their own power, often at the expense of the developing world (Guthrie, 2006). The

imperialist nature of neoliberal globalization can be illustrated in a number of ways.

First, it draws upon an econocentric theory developed in the North being imposed on the

South as a condition of financial assistance. Second, current practices by the European

Union and the United States regarding domestic agricultural support painfully shadows

the unequal treaties of imperial conquest (Nyemah, 2006). The core capitalist countries

force developing countries to tear down all barriers to trade and open their markets;

23

however, the developed countries keep in place their multi-billion dollar per year subsidy

programs allowing them to dominate international markets.

One consequence of such imperialist policy leaves African countries in particular,

to remain largely driven towards the export of raw materials which leaves them at the

mercy of the North for more profitable manufactured goods (Alemayehu, 2000).

Countries such as Ghana and Cote D‟Ivoire both produce primarily cocoa and compete

against one another for cheap wage bottom lines at the expense of developing productive,

differentiated local and regional trading systems (Guthrie, 2006). This is but one

example. Thus this system pits North against South in the division of labor, and also

South against South in the fight to offer labor at the cheapest prices, regardless of social

consequences (Niva, 1999). Key among the social consequences are political instability,

increased hardships for women and children and out-migration.

Globalization is also rife with contradictions. “Processes of globalization have

also liberated women from economic constraints and marginalization by providing them

with the means to generate solidarity across class and gender lines, thus creating formal

and informal networks in the workplace, community and family” (Zaman, 1999a, p. 159).

“It [globalization] promotes interconnectedness in all aspects of contemporary social life”

(Held et al. 1999, p.2). We have seen how feminist movements from western countries

continue to empathically accept and oppose oppressions of women in southern countries.

Their advocacy has produced enormous results in raising the consciousness of various

stakeholders in fighting for gender equality.

Globalization as a phenomenon is not consistent, unitary or unified in affecting

the lives of people positively or negatively. It breeds mixed patterns of poverty, wealth

24

and marginalization, as well as a binary of freedom and oppression for women. Winkin

(1999) presents an analysis of globalization, which shows it as a danger and a benefit.

The author uses the heuristic distinction of “globalization from above” (GFA) and

“globalization from below” (GFB). Winkin (1999) presents the GFA as the “imposition

and acceptance of the new global liberal economic norms such as liberalization,

privatization and deregulation” (38). He claims that this process is the public form of

decision-making processes, which is “anti-democratic, anti-needs-satisfaction and

reinforcing unequal social power between classes” (39). These public norms are often

opposed by feminists due to the inherent marginalization of women‟s voices, and

sufferings which are forced on them.

Winkin (1999) then presents GFB as “diverse and fragmented forms of resistance

and support for the processes of expanding private social power at the expense of the

common good and the satisfaction of needs in general” (39). This is a clever argument, as

it recognizes the multiplicity of actors and unequal processes of globalization. However,

it fails to highlight classism and unequal power dynamics at different levels of

globalization. For example, within a single group of local people who might be opposed

to globalization, it is highly likely that there are differences in power, social status and

interests, which might marginalize others. Even the term “local people” is flawed with

generalizations within the context of globalization. We have seen protests against SAPs

in many African countries by “local people” being ignited by westerners who choose to

disassociate themselves from the autocratic “philosopher kings” (Guthrie, 2006, p. 4) of

their societies. For example, in 2005 Oxfam‟s expatriate staff led a series of protests

against SAPs in Ghana and Ethiopia (Oxfam, 2005).

25

In the reconstruction process of Kosova, several international organizations

undemocratically ushered in their democratization agendas, governed by global interests,

in ways that excluded women (Klein, 2004). From the United States, religious

conservatists used the reconstruction process of Kosova to impose their ideas on local

women, by campaigning to deny reproductive rights to women, and promoting their anti-

abortion agendas (Concerned Women for America, 1999). Our current generation is

witnessing the experimentation of “regime change” in Iraq. Not now, but years later, we

will realize how women are greatly affected by this new philosophy. Historical accounts

of the two decades beginning in the 1990s will be characterized by how globalization has

greatly shaped the world.

2.4. Regional Profiles

2.4.1. Racism, Forced Migration and the Creation of Liberia

Political and ethnic conflicts, as well as forced migration have always been

associated with Liberians and Liberia as a nation. Liberia was created and conceived by

Americans as a way of ridding black people or freed slaves out of the United States. By

the 1800s, the number of freed slaves in the United States was about a quarter of a

million (Barnes, 2004). Some of these former slaves were gradually being educated and

had begun to voice the need for their rights in the United States. Others began to rebel

against brutal plantation owners whom they worked for (Ellis, 1999). Though a few

whites sympathized with them, the American public began to quickly panic about the

threats that the presence of these freed slaves represented to the sustenance of white

supremacy.

26

Pressured by their constituencies, politicians in Washington began to do exactly

what they were petitioned to do. They began to debate and advocate for the removal of

freed slaves from the United States. House Speaker, Henry Clay said:

can there be a nobler cause than that which, whilst it proposed to rid our country of a useless and pernicious, if not dangerous portion of its population, contemplates the spreading of civilized life, and the possible redemption from ignorance and barbarism of a benighted quarter of the

globe. Rotberg, (1999, p. 210).

President Thomas Jefferson made a much stronger case that appealed to the racist

ideology and xenophobia of Americans:

They secrete less by the kidnies[sic], and more by glands of the skins, which gives them a very strong and disagreeable odor …. They seem to require less sleep…. They are more ardent after their females: but love seems with them to be more of an eager desire than a tender delicate mixture of sentiment and sensation. Their griefs are transient…. I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distant race, or made distant by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in endowment both of body and mind. West, (1970, p. 95)

White Americans were prepared to force the freed slaves out of the country. The idea of

removing blacks from the United States was so popular that it attracted the support of

religious leaders who were also quiet during the active period of the Trans Atlantic slave

trade. Their endorsement of the slave trade and removal discourse prompted Ikeji to ask

“where was the God of heavens” (Ikechi, 1999, p. 34)? Many people in the world today

continue to seek answers to the numerous questions about the moral underpinnings of

slavery.

As a consequence of the political, racial and xenophobic attitudes of the American

public, the American Colonization Society (ACS) was created in 1817 (Fairhead et al,

2003). The objective of the ACS was to “rescue” freed slaves of color and colonize them

outside of the United States where they would live with liberty (Wilson, 1947). Congress

27

quickly passed the Slave Trade Act in 1819, empowering the US president to arrange for

the repatriation of stranded blacks in the US (Ikechi, 1999). Though the words rescue and

liberty are mentioned here, it is hardly conceivable that freedom was the objective of this

venture.

Liberia was a direct creation of the ACS and its supporters, including

industrialists, missionaries and plantation owners who believed that African people did

not deserve the rights of living among them as equals. Between 1821 and 1860, the

society influenced about 13,000 Africans to return home (Johnson, 2005). However, there

were hesitations and debates among freed African slaves about migrating to Africa or

remaining in the US to establish a nation within the nation (Padmore, 1956). Johnson

(2005) provides four reasons behind the hesitance of the freed slaves: First, it was

believed that remaining in America would be cheaper than repatriating to Africa. Second,

they would face the problem of assimilating into a foreign African culture that most in

America had lost contact with. Third, they would not have to struggle with understanding

African languages and dialects. Fourth, there would be no problem of cultural integration

and development. Assimilating and integrating into a new culture, as raised by the freed

slaves are always argued by scholars of gender and migration as critical challenges facing

migrant populations. Understanding these challenges is crucial to the analysis contained

within this thesis.

As this thesis is focused on the migration of Liberian immigrants in Halifax, Nova

Scotia, it is interesting to point out that some of the freed slaves from the United States

opted to come to Halifax, Nova Scotia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and

remain here as African Nova Scotians (Johnson, 2005). However, I do not claim here that

28

the migration of the Liberian immigrants to Halifax is in anyway connected to the

presence of the Black Nova Scotians. Despite the historical connections, there are no

unique links or activities between the Black Nova Scotians and the Liberian immigrant

community in Halifax. My intention here is to highlight this historical connection within

the context of Nova Scotia, where I conducted this study.

2.4.2. Liberia, a Mockery of Freedom and a Unique Form of Colonialism

Liberia is referred to as the oldest independent African nation. Paradoxically, it is

also among the most undeveloped of countries and also one of the most inexperienced in

the management of their resources on the African Continent. After its creation, Liberia

served American governmental and plantation interests. Africans participated only

marginally in the management of the colony. For the most part, Liberian policies

reflected the racism, paternalism, and hypocrisy of its American founders (Johnson,

2005). Returned Africans were still controlled by their former masters who disguised

themselves as missionaries and managed the colony. The missionaries navigated different

parts of the country with the Bible and a high political authority (Moses, 1998). The

“spiritually rescued” people were still controlled, but more importantly, this was the

beginning of the creation of a nation that remained in ongoing conflicts. The church

could not be differentiated from the state: those who headed the church also headed

government; hence discriminations and oppression in government were also in the

church.

In 1824, deep frustration led the repatriates to rebel against agents of the

American Colonization Society (ACS) through an armed insurrection (Moses, 1998).

29

Consequently, the American agents were forced to adopt a liberal land grant policy. In

1839, the colony split into several parts under the “commonwealth of Liberia”. One

colony, Maryland of Africa refused to join until the country became independent in 1847.

There was even segregation among mixed color settlers, dark skinned settlers and the

indigenous residents (Barnes, 2004). Language also caused internal rifts among settlers –

those who came from New Orleans spoke only French and felt oppressed by the

predominant English settlers (Moses, 1998). The French and British who were directly

colonizing Africa, had more peace in their territories and put in place better economic

infrastructure than the American creation of a nation nearby.

2.4.3. Freed Slaves and the Natives: a Cycle of Oppression

In 1847, Liberia became the first independent nation in Africa. The American

agents were gone and the freed slaves were in control of government for the first time in

their lives. The naming of cities and states, for example, West Point and Maryland, and

the form of government which they set up were a distant duplication of America. Their

relationship with the indigenous was a repeat of the brutal treatment they received from

the Americans. Many questions arise as to why the circle of conflicts has continued?

Why did the freed slaves choose to do exactly what their white masters did to them? The

answers might be historical but with a psycho-social connection. The Americans

themselves right after having been freed from British oppression repeated the same

account of brutality over black people (Edward, 1994). If the psycho-social connection

argued by Edward (1994) is correct, then the oppression of indigenous Liberians by the

freed slaves was not a surprise.

30

Another author perfectly describes the behavior of the freed slaves:

As the psychology of many of the settlers closely resembled that of their former Virginia and cotton-belt masters, the Africans wee regarded as a peon class. Such settlers immediately planned to dominate Africans as the white planters in America had dominated them …… Having come to Africa to escape the strictures of slavery, many of the colonists did not want to engage in the manual labor with which they had been so closely associated. Fraenkel (1965, p. 13).

Many of the freed slaves wore American clothing in order to distinguish

themselves from the indigenous Africans, even though the tropical heat made them

extremely uncomfortable. Others built large homes that resembled those owned by

plantation owners who were their masters (Johnson, 2005). Another problem was a total

disconnection between the indigenous and the freed slaves. Having very little knowledge

about the indigenous populations, the freed slaves shared the paternalistic views of their

former masters therefore they failed to establish, through diplomatic channels, a smooth

integration.

Everything that the freed slaves did in Liberia only reflected the ideas and

phenomenon of a marginalized majority (Padmore, 1956). For example, the motto of the

country reads: “the love of liberty brought us here”. As the situation of a marginalized

majority continued, tensions developed and a series of violent incidents occurred between

the natives and the freed slaves. In the interior, indigenous residents were discriminated

against in employment and in churches. The rampant economic injustices prompted the

League of Nations to investigate abuses within the Liberian government (Liebenow,

1969). According to Liebenow (1969), one of the recommendations of the League of

Nations was that “Liberia should abandon the policy of holding a “closed door” on the

natives. However, this intervention did very little to quench the brutal ambitions of the

freed slaves who did everything possible to dominate the natives by far in the majority.

31

The indigenous only occupied junior posts in government while dominating the national

army as ordinary or lowly ranked officers.

2.4.4. Civil War, Displacement and Transnationalism

Throughout the 1960s and 70s, it appeared as though Liberia was immune to the

recurrent coup plots and political assassinations within the West African region. By early

1980, a group of predominately non-commissioned officers realized that the guns, which

they carried to protect their brutal masters, could also be used to drive them away. A little

known Master Sergeant Samuel Doe had succeeded in overthrowing the more than 100

years of the successions of repressive freed slave governments. But the story did not end,

as Doe began to exclusively bring his ethnic group – the Khran into government, while

oppressing the rest of the population. The circle of oppression from white Americans, to

freed slaves was still alive though steered by a new freed group – one sector of the

indigenous people.

In 1985, Doe rigged the Liberian national elections, but the US government under

Ronald Reagan, recognized the results arguing that a fraudulent election was better than

no elections (Ellis, 1999). Different forms of violence began to engulf the country. By the

end of the 1980s, opposition against Doe has grown inside of Liberia and within its

neighboring countries, like the Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. In 1983, a former junior

minister, Charles Taylor fled to the United Sates after being charged for embezzling

government funds (Barnes, 2004). He was arrested and jailed in Massachusetts. While

awaiting extradition, he mysteriously escaped and ended up in military training camps in

Libya. During the 1970s and 1980s, the Libyan leader Colonel Mohammad Khadafi, was

32

a mentor and a strong supporter of anyone who wanted to counter American interests.

Destabilizing Liberia would serve the interest of uprooting the huge American military

base that was established in Liberia.

Charles Taylor got all the necessary resources from some of the radical leaders on

the African Continent and launched a devastating war on the eve of Christmas, 1989. It

is estimated at the end of the war that between 80,000 and 200,000 or nearly 10 percent

of the population were killed (Berkely, 2001). Thousands fled into the neighboring

countries, while more swelled Monrovia‟s population. Some of the participants in this

study are among those who began to flee their homes in the very month during which

Taylor began his revolution. It is within this context of forced migration that this thesis

investigates how gender relations have been affected.

2.4.5. A Geopolitical Perspective on the Liberian Conflict within West Africa

Speaking about the Liberian civil conflict without mentioning geopolitics within

the West African region is always unavoidable. Most of the countries are linked by

ethnicity, intermarriages, and natural resources, as well as economics. Artificial borders

drawn on papers by former colonial masters split ethnic groups between several

countries. Despite the political separation, these people continue to relate to each other

culturally through common languages and intermarriages. For example, the three ethnic

groups which were mainly involved in the Liberian conflict are also present in

neighboring Ivory Coast, Guinea and Sierra Leone. These countries also share common

resources such as diamonds, gold, timber and rubber. While mineral resources may not

ignite war, they can fuel it (Macklin, 2004). In the West African region, the diamonds,

33

gold and timbers fueled instability across the Liberian boarder to Sierra Leone, Guinea

and Ivory Coast.

As the Liberian civil conflict unfolded, it also expanded into neighboring

countries through varying avenues. Civilians who were forced across national borders

were sometimes accompanied by armed men. Also, the thousands of refugees who fled

across the Liberian borders put demographic pressure on the resources of host

communities. Illegal business men who trade arms for the resources of corrupt African

countries quickly moved into the region and took control of the economies, in what the

UN referred to as the blood diamond trade. Consequently, fighting erupted in Sierra

Leone, Guinea and the Ivory Coast in order to make their resources more accessible to

the illegal trade. Despite interventions by the UN and the Economic Community of West

African States, the conflict flourished in displacing millions of people and forcing

thousands into exile. It is this political context that characterizes the migration, which is

central to this thesis.

2.4.6. The Canadian Immigration Context

Canada has a long history of promoting and welcoming immigrants from all over

the world. As a consequence of this practice, diversity in language, race and ethnicity is

always visible in the streets of major Canadian cities. The government has developed

several immigration streams which allow refugees and economic migrants to enter and

settle into the country. Under this section of the thesis, I present a historical analysis of

Canadian immigration policy, and show some links with the forced migration of freed

slaves, which led to the creation of Liberia. I argue that growing global capitalist

34

influences and racial differences are overshadowing the humanitarian elements of

Canadian immigration policy.

Migration into Canada can be traced back to the 1800s when the American

government began to resettle freed slaves in Liberia (Winks, 1971). The author claims

that freed slaves who feared the challenges of reintegration into the Liberian society

found Canada as the most realistic alternative to America‟s discrimination and plantation

system. The Canadian government opened its doors to these people who were seeking

freedom, through the work of freedom fighters such as Harriet Tubman and Sojourner

Truth who facilitated the processes of getting the freed slaves into Canada (Johnson,

2005). Enlightened government policies in Canada largely contributed to the efforts of

these philanthropists.

By the 1800s, Canada had joined other countries in placing severe limitations on

the expansion of slavery (Winks, 1971). The attorney general of Upper Canada issued the

following exhortation and warning in 1819:

Since freedom of the person was the most important civil right protected by the law of England which the province had adopted, the Negroes were entitled to personal freedom through residence in the country, and any attempt to infringe their rights would be resisted by the courts (Franklin & Schweninger, 1999).

The US government warned that attempts by the Canadian government to grant sanctuary

to freed slaves who were referred to as fugitives would damage their relationship, but the

Canadian government refused to yield and to change its policies (Drew, 1969). The freed

slaves described Canada as the “promised Land” (Winks, 1971). Immigrants and refugees

continue to regard Canada as one of the best countries to live in the world due to its high

ranking by the UN index of development (Parkin and Mendelsohn, 2003). The

acceptance of refugees continues to constitute a significant component of Canadian

35

immigration policies. For example, in 2001, 10% of the total population who came to

Canada as immigrants were refugees (see Canada Immigrant Statistics, 2007).

Despite the humanitarian orientation of the historical background of Canadian

immigration policy and the high ranking of Canada based on the UN human development

index, racism, discrimination and gender oppression are also evident in the country.

When the Irish began to pour into Canada, Canadians began to be less receptive to blacks

in the 1840s, and there was nothing that the government could do to stop discrimination

and racism, particularly in Nova Scotia (Winks, 1971). In addition to the challenges of

adapting to the extremely cold weather, the Africans faced unemployment, segregation,

and in 1818, a special school was run for them in Halifax (Bristow, P. et al. 1994).

Racism and other forms of discrimination against immigrants and refugees continue to

exist within Canadian society today.

The incidence of racism and gender oppression against immigrants, particularly

women within Canadian society has been coming to the attention of gender scholars in

recent years. There are multiple subordinations of working class immigrant women who

come to Canada (Man, 2004). Feminist scholars have mounted criticism against Canadian

immigration policies. Hyndman (1995) argues that the domestic caregiver stream, which

brings in lots of females from Asia, allows Canadian women to move into the more

attractive labor markets, while leaving the tedious domestic jobs to immigrant women.

Zlontnik (1995) also argues that these jobs are viewed as female jobs, but many Canadian

women reject them due to their underpayment. Some immigrant men are also involved in

this phenomenon of taking over the domestic work industry from middle class Canadian

women.

36

There are, however, other immigrant women in Halifax and other parts of Canada,

who despite being educated in Canada, are unable to have better jobs equally occupied by

their white Canadian counterparts. The Federal government of Canada and the Provincial

government of Nova Scotia, where Halifax is located, are increasingly promoting the

concept of “visible minority” as a policy matter to the advantage of immigrants.

However, the connection between policy and action is always a complex point of

contention. It is argued that within Canada, there is a gap between the policy of ensuring

that visible minority groups have improved access to government services and the actual

process of integration (Watts, 2005). This is a crucial issue in Halifax, particularly when

it comes to employment.

Capitalist influences and changing demographic structure have also shaped

Canadian immigration policies in ways that are associated with discrimination and gender

oppression. After World War II, Canadian immigration policies were mainly aimed at

economic expansion (Knowles, 1992; Man, 2004). The promotion of capitalist interests

(Li, 2003; p.5) and population growth (Krahn et al, 2003) has increasingly overshadowed

the agenda of immigration policy makers in Canada. The 1998 immigration policy report

captioned “not just numbers” advocated for the recruitment of “modern pioneers” (well-

educated, employable and competent in English and French) who are capable of self-

support (Hyndman, 1999). Hyndman argues that this report suggested that Canada should

change its humanitarian commitment from the resettlement of refugees to helping them

near their countries of origin (1994). Though the government continues to resettle

refugees like the Liberians in this study, the disproportionate arrival of skilled Europeans

and Asians supports Hyndman‟s argument of containing refugees. For example, in 2001,

37

40% and 30% of the immigrant population arriving in Canada were Europeans and

Asians respectively, as opposed to 5% Africans (Canadian Immigrant Statistics, 2007).

The key question in this study is to investigate the relationship between

transnationlism and gender relations within Liberian immigrant couples in Halifax,

Canada. In this chapter, I have introduced and characterized some of the principal

theoretical issues including gender, transnationalism and globalization which contribute

to the understanding of the question. I have also introduced the migration and political

contexts of Liberia and Canada to preset the direction of the analysis of this thesis. A key

issue that surfaced in this chapter is that there is a link between transnationalism and bad

governmental politics, racism and gender oppressions. These issues have historically

overshadowed the lives of Liberians, and have influenced their migration since the 1800s.

38

Chapter Three

Key Concepts and Research Methodology

In their book “Of Marriage and the Market” Young et al (1998) draw on feminist

research perspectives to preset the work of several writers focused on male and female

relationships in the workplace, market, and at home. Their analysis shows that the

subordination of women by men is systemic and requires a constant and meticulous

approach. Some elements of the thorough approach, which the authors refer to, involve a

careful elucidation of concepts such as household, patriarchy, capitalism, masculinities,

power and culture. I have repeatedly used these terms in this thesis. Sociologists and

anthropologists caution against generalizations in the use of such terms. Hence, I devote

this chapter of the thesis to exploring some of these concepts and how they articulate with

approaches to the study of gender relations.

3.1. The Household: a Key Site for Gender Relations

Social scientists are struggling to clearly conceptualize the “household”.

Economists suggest that the household is a production and consumption unit, while

anthropologists argue that social and cultural variations between the characteristics of

households are very critical in comprehending what the household constitutes. A study of

household economy in Britain and Ghana shows that households within the two countries

are dissimilar by differences in their acquisition of consumption goods (Whitehead,

1995). By using access to food, the study identified Ghanaian households with direct

production, as opposed to British households who are identified with the purchasing of

goods from wages. While much of this study focuses on economic determinants such as

39

production and consumption, the difference in access to food must be seen in a broader

social and cultural context in which households are located.

For the purpose of this study, I explore interactions within the household with a

particular emphasis on transnationalism and gender relations. “Gender relations can be

seen as the full ensemble of social relationships” (Kabeer, 1994, p. 55). I look at how the

household and gender relations within it are affected in time and in space. Within the

current context of globalization and the increasing influences of capitalism, the household

and spousal relations within it deserve attention from the insights of feminist scholars. I

examine the interplay of power relations, decision-making processes, and domestic

economics to argue that the household is a political field of shifting power dynamics. I

have interchangeably used household and family, and immigrant and refugee, suggesting

the fluidity associated with conceptualizing these terms.

In their characterization of the household as a living place, with its decorations

and utilities, Stevi and Moores (1995) point out that there is a connection between the

material and symbolic aspects of daily domestic life. Their contention is that gender

relations, such as power, and decision-making processes are manifested in the way

household resources are consumed by members. Contrary to the contemporary views

about household life, in which the household is portrayed as a private place, they argue

that households are fundamentally economic entities underpinned by economic relations

embedded in wider socioeconomic structures.

The control and allocation of resources within the household is a complex process which has to be seen in relation to a web of rights and obligations. The management of labor, income and resources is something which is crucially bound up with household organization and the sexual division of labor. (Moore, 1988, p.56, cited in Kabeer, 1994, p. 95).

40

A key theme coming out of this discussion is that interactions within the household are

complex and political.

Dorothy Hobson (1995) puts the household under spotlights by examining the

relationship between “housewives” and the mass media, particularly radios and

televisions. Her examination is focused on viewing and listening practices between

husbands and wives. She observes that these communication materials are part of the

day-to-day experiences of women. There are, however, some stricken points of gender

interactions, which come out of her study. Unlike men, the most peaceful time that

women can have to watch a television is only when their children are gone to bed, even at

that, they still experience interruptions when their husbands need water or food. This

shows that there is a power imbalance in which women or “housewives” as she puts it are

equated to servants for other household members.

Another materialist feminist, David Morley (1995) examines power relations over

domestic television viewing within some British households. He argues that power

imbalances are manifested in negotiating preference for programs, which are watched.

The study reveals that the home is viewed by society as a site of leisure for men, as

opposed to a site of work for women, whether they also work outside the home or not. An

implication for this phenomenon is that men will be much more relaxed watching

television than their wives who will be preoccupied with domestic work and

overshadowed by the fears of not using their husbands‟ viewing time. This practice

confirms that the household is constructed as a man‟s castle of leisure and a woman‟s

dungeon of drudgery (Miller, 2001). The household then, is also a common site of binary

opposites for women and men both psychologically and physically.

41

Morley‟s (1995) study also uncovers a display of power over the use of

television‟s remote-control device in British households. Men use the device to

manipulate channels without considering the interests of their wives and children:

Woman: I don‘t have the chance to use the automatic control. I leave that down to him. It is aggravating, because I can be watching something and all of a sudden he turns it over to get the football result.

Daughter: the control‘s always next to Dad‘s chair. It doesn‘t come away when Dad‘s here. It stays right there. (Morley, 1995, p. 177).

Here, the household is turned into a field of manipulation by men. What is more glaring

here is the level of powerlessness and powerfulness on the two extremes of the household

continuum. It is politically right to suggest here that women within such households are

on the threshold of becoming slaves to men‟s power. This oppression is not only physical

but immensely psychological.

An intriguing point about Morley‟s (1995) study is an intersection between

women‟s employment and male domination. The study reveals that in families where

husbands were unemployed and the wives were employed, husbands were willing to

compromise their interests by giving other family members an opportunity to watch

whatever they wanted on televisions. In my study, I also discovered that unemployed

Liberian men treated their wives in a similar manner. I have termed this behavior by the

Liberian men as a “false co-operation”, as you will later see in this thesis. A key

argument here is that men present themselves as the bosses of their homes, but in fact,

this position of power is not permanent and can be adjusted by other factors, as

employment has proven in this particular case. Men can consider themselves as bosses of

some domains but women will consider themselves the boss of other domains (like the

42

kitchen). So there are many places where women exert authority or control within the

home.

Assessing the implication of money within households, Westwood (1995) argues

that the household is concerned with the pooling of resources and effort as part of the

general process of reproduction. She focuses on market-based households in England and

claims that there is a dichotomy between the household as a private sphere and macro

economies which are constituted by the public sphere and are generally patriarchal. A

recurrent claim in her study is that while women may control the day-to-day affairs of

domestic budgets, they remain powerless within the household. “Women‟s wages are

lower than men‟s and, more importantly women‟s wages are spent on food and less

valuable items, while men‟s are allocated for mortgages and cars” (Westwood, 1995, p.

85). While this practice is rapidly changing in the developed world, it remains one of the

excruciating ways of subordinating women in many parts of Africa, including the rural

parts of Liberia where my research participants originate from.

Other bodies of literature characterizing the household suggest that mere

differences between men and women in the division of domestic labors reflect

domination and subordination. “Studies of the organization of domestic labor and marital

relationships confirm that cooking continues to be a task done more by women than men;

this is also the case cross-culturally” (Murcott, 1995, p. 89). The argument of the author

is that society often attaches meanings to these tasks in ways that present women as

attachments to men. For example, the “presumption that women are cooks is extended to

show that their responsibility in this sphere [household] is tempered with reference to

their husband‟s, not their own choice” (Murcott, 1995, p. 90). There is no doubt that food

43

is often prepared to please the tastes of consumers. In some cases, consumers dictate or

suggest what is to be cooked. While this is not always done as a demand, it has

implications for power relations.

Analyzing consumption patterns within the household, some feminist writers

(Kabeer, 1994; Sen, 1999; Charles, 1995; Delphy, 1995 and Corrigan, 1995) take a more

direct approach in analyzing interactions within the household and claim that the

household is, in fact, a site of oppression. Kabeer (1994) claims that no one person within

a household can be made better without suppressing other members. Charles (1995)

argues that in order to please the male bread-winner, women tend to give to him a lion‟s

share and the most nutritious part of family‟s food. By doing so, the food needs of other

family members are affected. A similar finding is reported among poor women in India

(Sen, 1999). An indication here is that there is structural inequality within the household.

Still focused on domestic production and consumption, Corrigan (1995) urges us

to avoid viewing the household as a unit through which resources flow easily. The author

argues that we need to look at particular points in the flow and at the social and economic

relationship which structure the control exercised by different members of the household

over the flow at each point. Another feminist, Delphy (1995) provides us an example

which shows an inegalitarian characteristic of the household. She claims that in Tunisian

households, men have two to three meals a day, while women have one or two.

“Women‟s position as servers involves a systematic subordination of their own

preferences to those of their partners” (Charles, 1995, p. 106). Subordination related to

food here, is a complex concept as it involves a form of self denial on the part of women.

44

A key factor over which gender relations are often manifested is domestic

budgeting. In analyzing domestic budgeting, economists have treated the household as

though it were an individual and have assumed that the same economic theories used on

individuals are applicable to the household. This approach has created a “black box”

between earning and spending (Pahl, 1995). The author contends that such an approach

blurs a huge web of mechanisms, which involve controlling, managing, different sorts of

spending, consumption and the sharing of resources within the household. Pahl (1995)

makes an interesting argument, but it is limited by her inability to offer us a clear

approach for understanding household economies. Education, religion and culture might

have varying implications in the operations of household economies.

There is, however, a Marxist‟s version of the household, which suggests that the

household is a democratic institution.

A household manager or decision-maker will internalize the utility functions of family members through a high level of concern or caring for other members and will also be more informed than other (particularly younger) members (Evenson, 1976, p. 89, cited in Kabeer, 1994, p. 95)

A controversial suggestion here is that the household is a site of internal harmony of

interests. Some sociologists waste no time in disputing this claim because it fails to

recognize the subordination of women within the household. They argue that the

household is fundamentally a concealing outfit for the exercise of male authority

(Galbaith, 1974, p. 35, cited in Kabeer 1994, p. 101). The Marxist‟s version of the

household holds a questionable truism.

Another relevant body of literature scrutinizes the household in the context of

migration. It looks at how positions of women relative to men are affected in post-

migration. “When a woman migrates with her husband she does forgo the substantial

45

advantage she could have derived had she moved alone” (Chattopadhyay, 1997, p. 441).

This argument seems generalizing, but as the author points out “there is evidence that

women, particularly single women who had not been employed previously, have

improved their positions after migration” (Lacey, 1986; cited in Chattopadhyay, 1997, p.

139). This might be true in some cases, particularly in the context of migration from poor

to better-off economies. Family migration literature in developed countries often suggests

that a woman‟s migration with the husbands is disruptive of the wives‟ labor market

careers (Lichter, 1983; Maxwell, 1988; cited in Chattopadhyay, 1997, p. 441). Childcare

and women‟s disproportionate share of the domestic labor are often some of the key

elements behind this argument.

Researching the settlement mechanisms of Hong Kong immigrant households in

Toronto, Salaff (1997) focuses on how men and women go about seeking employment in

their new communities. She discovers that husbands are more likely to get employed

through kinship and other networks of friends and colleagues than women are. One

explanation for this difference in accessing the job market can be attributed to the fact

that women might be held back at home managing child care, cooking and doing a host

of other domestic tasks, while their husbands enjoy the pleasure of their family‟s public

relations and have more opportunities to build social connections relevant to

employment. In the migration context of refugee life, women seem to enjoy more

employment opportunities than men (see Alwis, 2004; Westerbeck, 2004; Carving, 2005;

Abdi, 1998). My study also discovered that in refugee camps, none of the men from the

five couples interviewed earned a regular income as opposed to their wives. This income

status in refugee camps for the couples was contrary to what it was previously in Liberia.

46

The manner in which aid agencies regard and interact with households is also an

intriguing dimension to explore, particularly in the context of refugee life. One aspect of

a household which is often of prime concern to aid agencies is whether it is headed by a

male or female. For example, UNHCR assistance policies classify women-headed

households as vulnerable households (UNHCR, 1994a, n.d. cited in Hyndman, 2004).

Hyndman (2004) argues that UNHCR gender policy is inherently flawed with

contradictions: a female-headed household is classified as vulnerable, but if the same

female head is a health professional or a water technician, she will automatically become

a member of the refugee leadership, which is often a decision-making body. The paradox

is that members of the leadership committees are often not considered as vulnerable by

UNHCR in refugee camps because they are influential and control resources. The

question then is what is the status of such women and their households? Why is the head

of the household position so gendered in a controversial way?

In addition to UNHCR, many non governmental organizations (NGOs), as well

as, government agencies also maintain gendered vulnerability policies in classifying

households through the head position. Asking “who is the head of your household” is a

routine question embedded in the dominant culture of many aid agencies. Field staff

would often carry with them information charts in which such questions are part of the

introductory sections of their encounters with refugee households. Hyndman (2004)

argues that this policy of gendering vulnerability victimizes women. She found another

flaw within UNHCR resettlement policies. She discovered that among Somali refugees in

Kenya, where rapes are common, women (some of whom are heading households) who

report rapes to the UNHCR with the hope of being resettled in a developed country are

47

requested to provide an elderly male family member to testify to the truth of their claims.

Another paradox here is that women who by heading their households are already

vulnerable, and who do not have an elderly male household member, might not be

resettled if they are raped.

The household literature, which I have reviewed thus far, suggests three

distinctive themes: the household deserves continuing attention by researchers; it is a

playing field of power struggles, economic politics, oppressions and self-denial; and it is

often gendered by aid agencies. Continuous studies of the household by feminists will

make significant contributions to the understanding of shifts in gender relations within

the domestic domain. As a playing field of various forms of power struggles, the

household is rife with contradictions and manipulations that are complex and political.

The fashion in which aid agencies interact with the household is gendered in ways that

essentialize and contribute to women‟s subordination.

3.2. Patriarchy: Control over Financial Income and Procreation

Patriarchy is “a system of social structures and practices, in which men dominate,

oppress and exploit women” (Walby, 1990, p. 20). My point of departure here is to

continue to explore how men‟s domination of women is displayed within the household

with a particular focus on patriarchal influences. “Households as units where production

and redistribution take place, represent centers of struggle where people with different

activities and interests come into conflict with one another” (Boyd et al, 2003, p. 2).

Decisions within households do not necessarily represent the equal interests of all their

members. In such interplay of interests and power, those who are stronger and more

48

influential will enjoy dominance and subordination over others. How then, are such

struggles manifested over control of financial income?

Maher‟s (1998) examination of patriarchy within Moroccan households reveals

that men do not want women to acquire financial security as they are likely to file for

divorce. Conversely, “women are discontented with their lot but they are trapped in their

subordination to economic dependence on men” (p. 133). Contributing to this argument

of women‟s vulnerability to patriarchy within the household is the contention that

women‟s subordination or domestication is ultimately a result of men‟s control over

women‟s reproductive capacity (Stolcke, 1998). In research on sexuality and control of

procreation, a Yugoslav migrant woman crisply narrates that “my husband says a woman

loses sexual desire, so if I take it [contraceptive] he might even think that I have someone

else; he always wants to be sure that any minute he can impregnate me” (Morokvasic

1998, p. 201). This example reveals a display of power disparity in favor of men.

Literature on domestic budgeting shows that women‟s meager incomes are often

spent on perishable items as opposed to male spending patterns favoring sustainable

property (Bennholdt-Thomsen, 1998). There are also theoretical critiques of the ideology

of viewing households as natural units where divisions of labor and male power are

assumed as normal (if not biologically ordained). Research addressing this critique

reveals that in some British families, men‟s superior incomes relative to women‟s give

them more power in intra-household decision-making, and the distribution and

consumption of resources (Harris, 1998). In Ghanaian Khuasi‟s ethnic context, the

household is conceptualized as an enterprise in which the labor of all members

contributes to the production of subsistence goods (Whitehead, 1998). Whitehead (1998)

49

also refers to marriage as a conjugal contract fraught with material and financial conflicts.

This argument highlights the presence of patriarchy and conflict within the household.

How does patriarchy work within the context of migration? In recent years, feminist

researchers have begun examining patriarchal systems among migrant families as a way

of understanding how migration and settlement rework the terms of patriarchy in migrant

households (Pessar, 1995; Hondagneu-Sotelo, 1994). One contention has been that

“refugee women who flee to the West from third world countries typically come from

traditional, patriarchal, family-centered cultures to technological, democratic, and

individual societies (Israelite et al, 1999). Such studies further assert that the resettlement

of women may change gender roles in both the private sphere of home and family, as

well as the public sphere of education and work. Even though I reject terminologies such

as “third world and traditional” for being overly generalizing, I do find the argument that

migration engenders changes which question patriarchal practices congruent with the

views of Morokvasic (1998) and Matsuoka et al (1999). Migration seems to pose varying

threats to patriarchy.

Migration research among Latin American and South East Asians discovers that

the financial contribution of female migrants to their families is raising their standing

within their families in terms of power relative to decision-making and freedom of choice

(Stivens, 1998). Another study on women‟s agency and choice within the context of

rural-urban migration also shows a relationship between access to income and the

improving status of respect within the family and decision-making freedom for migrant

girls who are working in Dhaka, Bangladesh (Kabeer, 2000). We are reminded here that

50

economic migration to the developed world has implications for gender relations in some

documented cases.

An examination of transnational migration and gender also shows that Mexican

and Dominican women favor staying in the United States, as opposed to men who return

home to enjoy the dividends of patriarchy over women described by Pessar and Mahler

(2003). These authors also propose that Guatamalan refugee camps became strategic sites

for struggles over women‟s and men‟s human rights and citizenship. Refugees were

confident to return home with new ideas on gender parity which challenge patriarchy.

Another study contends that migration may accelerate the process of questioning male

power and consciousness raising for women, not only because it entails economic

independence for women from men but because it frees women from the grip of a

binding and watchful community of origin (Morokvasic, 1998). A connection between

patriarchy and culture is suggested here. There is, also, an indication that refugee camps

offer a unique challenge to patriarchy.

Often, descriptions of refugee camps suggest that they are among some of the

worst places to live. “Life in refugee camps can be squalid, dangerous and stultifying”

(Cockburn, 2004, p. 39). The challenges of living in refugee camps are not limited to

security or environmental issues. Refugee camps are often rife with unprecedented social

and economic changes that have implications for patriarchy. In several cases, women in

refugee camps have confronted radical life transformations by becoming the sole

providers and protectors of their families and households (Korac, 2004). The shifting of

breadwinner‟s role from men to women is often a consequence of a lack of employment

51

opportunities for men. This change is clearly a threat to patriarchal conventions within

households.

Women do better than men in coping with crisis in exile because women in many

societies have been socialized, subordinated and confined to the microsystems of the

family and households (Freire, 1995; cited in Korac, 2004). In patriarchal societies,

women are familiar with having fewer opportunities than men. Hence settling in refugee

camps where there are very few opportunities for survival is simply a continuation of

their subordinated life. Patriarchal cultures expect women to be able to cope with

whatever situation that arises, and accustom them to being thankful for whatever

assistance, if any, they receive from others (Freire, 1995; cited in Korac, 2004, p. 267).

While the adaptability of women‟s survival skills to harsh economic life in refugee camp

can be critical for family survival, patriarchal cultures continue to treat them with disdain.

Linking capitalism, economic globalization and the sexual division of labor,

Mackintosh (1998) clearly points out how capital benefits from using women as a

“reserve army of labor” with less pay as compared to men. From the same vantage point,

Elson and Pearson (1998) show how women are relegated to a secondary position behind

men on the international labor market. This argument is further expanded by Gordon

(1996), who asserts that capitalism intersects with patriarchy in subordinating women.

There is a suggestion here that patriarchy is a systemic phenomenon in almost all of the

relationships that are established between women and men, whether as individuals or in

institutional arrangements.

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3.3. Capitalism and Gender Relations

Capitalism entwined with globalization is influencing a lot of changes in the

world today. The world‟s population has become enslaved by capitalist pressure to earn

more money and to acquire different forms of material wealth. The pressure to buy

unnecessary goods often results in people going without food but with costly televisions,

mobile phones and other popular electronic goods. Such practices seem to give more

wealth to the rich or the owners of capital while pushing the poor deeper into poverty.

This study discovers that attempts by some of the participants to acquire new capitalist

inventions such as mobile phones and Digital Video Disc (DVD) players are resulting in

economic pressures on family incomes, which are also influencing tensions in spousal

relations. Hence, I argue that capitalist influences have implications for gender relations.

Capitalism also induces inequalities between nation-states.

Liberal feminists and some proponents of neo-liberalism argue that capitalism

offers opportunities for women to become autonomous and gain freedom from the

oppression and subordination of men. In his popular book, “Banker to the poor”, which is

widely purported as the best primer for microfinance program management, Dr.

Mohammed Yunus (2003) preaches to the world that if women are granted access to

financial credit, their lives will be improved and oppression from their husbands will be

addressed. While it is true that access to credit and the prevalence of economic growth

can improve women‟s status, they do not provide permanent answers to the questions of

oppression and social injustices against women in employment, domestic relations, or

civic authority.

53

In Bangledesh, before Yunus began his microlending project, there were banks

stocked with money providing credits, but injustices did not allow women to prosper

economically. This is in fact evidenced in one of Yunus‟ arguments that money lending

should not be a business of “bloodthirsty capitalist entrepreneurs”, but of people of social

consciousness-driving minds (Yunus 2003, cited in Nyemah, 2007, p. 3). In recent years,

there have been rising contentions that women who benefit from micro-lending projects

in Southeast Asia are still being oppressed by their husbands who are demanding control

over their money. Certainly the problem here is not access but power imbalance which is

embedded in capitalism although not fully explained by it.

Dependency feminists claim that inequalities between males and females are not

disconnected from polarizing trends within the capitalist mode of production (Kabeer,

1994). Capitalist modes of production place the peripheral countries of the developing

world in a relationship of dependency with the metropolitan centers of the developed

world. Imperialism allowed metropolitan centers to exploit relations with pre-capitalist

areas located on their peripheries (Kabeer, 1994). Imperialist manipulation of poor

countries‟ economies is very characteristic of the history of American-Liberian

interaction. The Liberian economy is based on the production of rubber and mineral

resources, which are exported to the United States in their raw forms. This economic

arrangement exports all of the lucrative jobs, which are associated with the processing of

the resources to the United States.

The implications for exporting raw materials abroad have far reaching corollaries

for Liberia and Liberian women in particular. Some of the consequences for the

economic imperialism within the Liberian-American context include lack of autonomy

54

for the Liberian nation-state to manage its economy, and a high level unemployment

particularly for women, as even the menial jobs are inherently exported with raw

materials. Women are much more affected by unemployment than men because during

the primary production stages of these raw materials, they are excluded by the nature of

the jobs and the gender construction by society. For example, those who work on rubber

plantations wake up as early as 5am, a time of the day which society views to be unsafe

for women. Additionally, women are expected to prepare their children for school.

Diamond production is hazardous and requires spending days and nights in the forests.

Many men would not allow their daughters or wives to do such jobs.

“It is not men who keep women at home though they may appear to be the most

direct oppressors but the structure of the capitalist system” (Nash and Safa, 1980, p. XI,

cited in Kabeer, 1994). This argument is clearly justified in the capitalist mode of

production in Liberia. Also, capitalism within the Latin American context encouraged an

ideology that woman‟s place was in the home and that she must defer to her husband in

all matters relating to the world outside the home (Nash and Safa, 1980, cited in Kabeer,

1994). The household is portrayed as a refuge from the hostile world of capitalism and

women were socialized to believe that they are privileged by their husbands and fathers

to remain sheltered at home (kabeer, 1994). However, the reality is that women in these

situations remain dependent on men, just as their countries are also dependent on

imperialist countries in the global north.

Capitalism has also teamed up with modernization in relegating women to a

second class citizenship behind men. Modernization theory articulates development as an

evolutionary process of change which takes societies from their pre-modern status

55

through a series of stages towards the final destination of modernity (Pieterse, 2006).

Modernization demands a complete transformation of the foundation of pre-modern

societies: their institutions, their cultures and the behaviors they promote. Kabeer (1994)

tell us that in the process of change, men were allowed to be specialized in influential

positions and obtain the characteristics that went with them: rationality, objectivity,

competitiveness and aggressiveness. On the other hand, women were entrusted with the

affective, homemaking role within the private sphere of family life. Many development

thinkers have begun to critique the theory of modernization arguing that women are

denied access to modern productive opportunities; technology has not emancipated them

from domestic hard work, and market forces has not led to gender-neutral outcomes.

Despite the foregoing argument that capitalism has contributed much to the

subordination of women, it is important to mention that culture also contributes to some

of the processes in which capitalism oppresses women. Recall here the example of the

production of diamonds in Liberia. Besides the physical (hard work), and technical

(knowledge) barriers which society uses to exclude women from the production of

mineral resources, it is also culturally believed that women‟s menstruation will provide

bad omens for the industry. In some cases during the production process, animal

sacrifices are organized during which women are not allowed to be present because of an

argument that “they talk too much”. Prejudice and preconceptions about women persist in

this and other societies in spite of the forces of capitalism and modernization (Kabeer,

1994). There are many such practices in Liberia and elsewhere which deny women from

sharing the wealth of the resources and patrimonies of their countries.

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At this juncture, I will detour to the work of some scholars who do strongly argue

that capitalism, in other forms offers a better future for women. Industrialization so the

argument goes, would improve women‟s competence, self-esteem and dignity within

their families. More importantly, the opportunities for employment outside the home

enrich them intellectually as well as financially (Rosen and La Raia, 1972; Jaquette,

1982; cited in Kabeer, 1994). Before looking at any evidence, I argue that while there

may be some truth in this claim, it appears flawed with over-generalization. Women‟s

work outside of the home is often under the threat of men‟s domination and the impact

varies from context to context. The cases which I have proved from the Liberian context

support my criticism of the argument presented by these authors. However, focusing on

some of the successful stories, capitalism as a key factor in transnationalism has caused

some radical changes which have implications for changing gender relations and raising

the standard of life for women. I will now provide some examples.

Many women who migrate to flourishing capitalist countries demand a

renegotiation of gender relations as soon as they are incorporated into the wage economy.

A case study examining Sri Lankan migrant women‟s relations shows that capitalism

entwined with transnationalism is changing gender relations in many ways. “Unmarried

migrants at odds with their parents or not receptive to arranged marriages either eloped

with men of their own choice or renounced matrimony entirely. Financial independence

gave them [these women] more authority in making decisions” (Gamburd, 1995, p. 17). It

might be an overestimation to argue here that these women are being emancipated from

male oppression just by choosing the men they want to marry, as there is no guarantee

that those men of their choice will not oppress them. It might be more cogent to argue

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that these women are beginning to challenge patriarchal cultures as a consequence of

migration and incorporation into wage economies.

Women‟s improved access to wages encourages them to resist gender and

generational subordination within the family or avoid marriage altogether (Harris et al.

1987; cited in Pessar, 1994). A study with Chilean migrant women shows that a woman

chose to break away from her husband after sponsoring him to come to the United States.

They broke up over issues such as household budgeting and socializing:

He wanted me to give him my salary and then he would give me a small household allowance. I knew he would use my hard-earned money for heavy drinking and who knows what else. I insisted that we pool our wages and decide together on all household expenses… He would get furious when I used some of my money to go out with some girl friends to a movie on a weekend afternoon, but he saw nothing wrong with staying out all

night with some of his friends (Pessar, 1994, p. 134).

The dictatorial attitude of the man after joining his wife in the United States was not new,

as evidenced in the wife‟s tone. It was a continuation of the kind of relationship they both

had had back home in Chile. What was new according to Pessar (1994) is that this time

the woman was working and earning more than him. The new economic power over her

husband combined with the American culture of promoting male and female equality

gave the woman more freedom to speak her mind about her rights.

Another woman who was told by her husband to quit working and take care of

children indicated that:

He said that it [quitting of my job] would be good for the children and good for all of us. At first I protested, because I never again wanted to be totally dependent upon a man. I feared that he would start saying the money that entered the house was his alone. I worried that he would start using this money for bad things like alcohol, heavy gambling, and women… At that time we pooled our wages and what was his was mine and vice versa. We had built so much union and I feared it would all disappear. You see when I worked we were partners struggling together for our family‘s advancement ….. than we were both heads of household (Pessar, 1994, p. 135).

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The phrase “I never again wanted to be totally dependent up a man” tells us that the

woman had temporarily gained some degree of freedom from male oppression after

migration and incorporation into the wage market. The intent of the man to get the

women unemployed shows that though he presents family interest as the main reason, he

wants to regain control over her. This is also evidenced by the suspicions of the woman.

I argue that while a woman‟s decision to stay away from her family or remain

unmarried might avoid male oppression, it still doesn‟t address the wider phenomenon of

male dominance that she is likely to encounter outside of the home. Withdrawal is not a

solution because male dominance of women is systemic and requires a direct and holistic

approach. When women realize that their labor has a market value, they begin to

question their relegation to the non-remunerated domestic sphere and challenge the

patriarchal values and privileges that have historically accompanied the notion of the man

supporting a family (Rubin 1976, cited in Pessar, 1994). This is what I referred to as a

direct approach – a form of consciousness-raising, which has a potential to provoke

discussions and challenge dominant beliefs.

In all of the experiences discussed in this section, we see instances in which

capitalism subordinates women and other situations, particularly after migration, in which

it contributes to giving women a sense of autonomy over their own lives. However, it is

important to stress that the capitalist world is constructed by society in a male privileging

manner. Unlike men, women struggle to enjoy some of the freedom which capitalism

offers. For example, some women who show a sense of autonomy after employment

often do so in contexts of post-migration from the patriarchal cultures of developing

countries such as Liberia and Chile. Even in developed countries, women may continue

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to remain on the fringes of bourgeoning capitalist economies as a consequence of men‟s

dominance.

3.4. Masculinities and Culture as Concepts of Gender Relations

Recent research on gender relations tackles the intertwining of masculinities and

culture. In this section, I will briefly explore masculinities as cultural constructs and

argue that they are often constituted by society in ways which create male and female

inequalities. Culture is widely used as a conduit for masculinities and male privileged

power and is often referenced in social discourse as a justification for gender oppression.

In contemporary multicultural societies, it is increasingly becoming difficult to

socially explain what men are. This is a consequence of varied stereotypes about gender

roles that are preferred through different cultural norms and practices. If a particular

society believes that men of a certain age should be married at that age, then that is part

of their gender ideals of what a man is (Clatterbaugh, 1997). In other societies, being

powerful, hardworking and brave are the criteria which define the status of a man. These

gender ideals draw our attention to masculinities as a critical component of gender

relations. Masculinities are “multiple configurations of gender practices, responding to

current crises in power relations with women, work and the economy, and sexuality”

(Messener, 1997, p. 11). Masculinity is typically associated with a mentality of

oppression and superiority over the opposite gender.

Expectations of strength, power and sexual competence in boys form the basis of

male roles in some families in the United Kingdom (Haywood et al., 2003). What is

implied in this claim is that there is a social pressure on young men to behave in a

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particular way to suit the expectations of society. Young men would not want to choose a

career that is stereotyped as women‟s work (Haywood et al., 2003) because they would

not then be living up to the societal expectations of masculinist culture. This form of

masculinity is not unique to the United Kingdom. For example, culinary arts, home

decoration and nursing are considered women‟s professions in many urban contexts in

Liberia and men are seldom found in these occupations.

This feminization of certain professions can often have negative implications for

the wages attached to them in some societies (White, 1997). For example, in Liberia,

secretarial positions are mainly occupied by women. These positions offer very low

salaries. This is also observed in developed countries like France and Canada where the

economies are well developed and gender equity is widely preached among the

populations. Another consequence for the constructed feminization of certain professions

is the tendency to create psychological barriers for young men in harmonizing their

identities and relationships with women (Cornell University, 1998). For example, men in

some cultural settings in Africa, would not want to be seen sweeping in their homes

because they have been socialized as bread-winners, the ones for whom the house is

cleaned and the food is prepared. Oppression enters the scene when the woman is

overburdened with other domestic tasks, the man feels that changing the baby‟s diaper

would portray him as a woman, so he expects (commands) the woman to complete all the

domestic work even as he rests!

Masculinities are constructed by society in many ways that may jeopardize the

safety of women in varying contexts. A lack of working opportunities for Sri Lankan

muslin refugee men led their hosts to construct them as men who have turned into women

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(that is they are feminized and not properly masculine) (Alwis, 2004). Two analytic

points are important to highlight here. Sri Lanka is like many developing countries in

which there are more employment opportunities for men than women, hence any

contextual change in which women are employed and men are unemployed will be

demeaning to men. The second aspect can be related to the questioning of oppressive

male behaviors by women when they begin to observe the fluidity of masculinities

associated with the waxing and waning of the power of their husbands in the absence of

employment (Pessar, 1994). The Sri Lankan men above, became feminized by their host

because they were viewed as incapable of controlling their women in accord with cultural

practices. Some of the men started to get drunk and began to fight with the women

(Alwis, 2004). This case reveals that the pressure of society is a crucial influencing factor

to consider in understanding the workings of masculinities.

The psychological underpinnings of masculinities are important to understand.

Masculinities are reinforced through manifestations of power, control and suppression.

The change in the gender of the bread-winner‟s role often produces a psychological

struggle for men in the context of refugee life (Pessar, 1994; Westerbeck, 2004; Carving,

2005). The situation can be compounded by a loss of property in forced displacement.

This is because property and wealth in any form are symbolic of prestige and power

through which masculinities are readily displayed. Still looking at social and economic

changes among refugee families, Alwis (2004) discovers that refugee men who had much

of their wealth tied up in immovable property feel the despair of displacement the most

keenly, for they have been reduced to paupers overnight. A Sri Lankan refugee man

noted wryly, “the only thing that belongs to me now is my wife” (Alwis, 2004, P. 223).

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One might assume that a man who has the Holy Bible or the Koran in his hands might

embrace this statement as an expression of hope and love for one‟s wife, but from a

feminist perspective, it can be seen as a desperate attempt to reclaim masculinities.

Some chronicles of masculinities from Afghanistan represent some of the worst

violence against women. “An Afghan man without work finds himself helpless and this

powerlessness can generate domestic violence, relating to the frustration of a loss of

masculine roles” (Hans, 2004, p. 242). In September, 2007, the Cable Network News

(CNN) special investigation unit on Afghanistan revealed to the world a shocking

account of masculinities. The investigation reveals that Nadia, a 25 year old Afghan girl

was murdered by her husband only because she was educated, became a poet and

increasingly became popular. Nadia‟s husband is reported to have questioned her

repeatedly in despair and frustration about her success: “why are you so much more

popular than me, when I am the husband? Why people talk about you and not me when I

am the head of the household?” Two things can be said here: at home, and from a cultural

perspective, the man felt overshadowed by the success of his wife; within the community,

he felt that the public regarded him as a “failure” relative to his wife. This was perceived

by him as a major threat to his masculine identity.

The story of Nadia directs attention to the general history of women in

Afghanistan. This in turn raises questions about the relationship between women and the

nation-state, particularly as it relates to masculinities. “Rumor has it that Enoch Powell,

the right-wing maverick British M.P., once defined a nation as two males defending the

women in a specific territory” (Yuval Davis, 2004, p. 170). In Germany, medical officers

were considered to be formally part of the military in 1980, while all the female clerical

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workers servicing the army were considered to be civilians (Chapkis, 1981). Earlier on in

Israel, female nurses servicing the military were not considered as military but civilians

(Yuval-Davis, 2004). Also, although Spanish women fought alongside men using slings

against the Incas, their participation was not regarded as equivalent to warring men

because the Spanish believed that the slings were used by women and men for herding

animals (Yuval Davis, 2004). These accounts are only a small example of how

masculinities are also constructed by nation-state institutions.

Masculinities are not always revealed through males subordinating females as I

have discussed in this section. There are forms of masculinities in which men oppress

men, as well as women also oppressing men and other women. This can also be termed as

class oppression. As Macklin (2004, p. 83) crisply claims, “armies, governments and

industrial areas such as oil rigs are not feminine cultures.” Another author (Cockburn,

1999) also claims that in male defined employment, though the sex distribution is

overwhelmingly male, each social domain reveals a hierarchy among men, producing

different and unequal masculinities. Women are also members of classes and countries

that dominate others and enjoy privileges in terms of access to resources.

Within Liberia, the practice of males subordinating other males (or classism) is

observed in some cultural hierarchies and initiation processes. For example, oral accounts

of practices among men‟s groups in some rural areas hold that men are supposed to be

able to climb palm trees with ropes or swim across rough waters with heavy loads. In

men‟s gatherings, those who fall short of these skills are regarded by the “full grown”

men as “women-men”. If there is food in such cultural gatherings, the women-men will

only eat the left-overs. Some of these cultural groups require brutal initiation processes.

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Initiation rituals are also common among women, thereby suggesting that masculinities

are cultural constructs communicated in gender-specific customary practices.

3.5. Power and Culture as Gender Concepts

Power is “a process whereby individuals or groups gain or maintain the capacity

to impose their will upon others, to have their way recurrently, despite implicit or explicit

opposition, through invoking or threatening punishment, as well as offering or

withholding rewards” (Lipman-Blumen, 1984, p. 6). It is also the “enhancement of the

rights and freedoms of one person over another” (Kuypers, 1999, p. 19). Power can be

developed and enforced through racism as white Americans did through the oppression

and relocation of former slaves to Liberia. Power can also be developed and enforced

through knowledge as the freed slaves did to indigenous Liberians after they were also

repressed and latter resettled in Liberia. It can also be negatively embedded in actions

that are deliberately intended to produce good results. This supports the claims that power

is an abstract concept, the implications from which are sometimes unknown to the one

who has it (Foucault, 1984). It is also from a similar perspective of power that

postmodernists accuse development of constituting a renewed form of colonialism.

Power can also be at the center of spousal relationships. It is manifested in

decision-making processes related to domestic budgeting, family travels and public

relations. Within the past two decades, feminist geographers have begun exploring how

power dynamics within the household are shaped by transnationalism (Kabeer, 2000;

Pressar, 1999; Kabeer, 2000 and Hyndman, 1999). Their works remind us that the

household is a contested field of power relations. One key point, which comes out of this

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literature, is that power has fluid characteristics, which change in time and in space. The

same is applied to culture which is often used to shelter power imbalances.

Power is a socially constructed concept often embedded in cultural structures

(Bannerji, 1999). An important point of departure here is to examine how culture is used

as a conduit of power in oppressing women. “Just as gender is deployed in particular

ways, so too is culture. Culture is not a static set of characteristics with unalterable

ancient origins despite essentialized representations to the contrary. Nor are cultures fixed

entities (Yuval Davis, 1997). Another scholar (Narayan, 1998) similarly claims that

culture is not a static entity; it develops through the specific local, historical, and political

realities of a society or community. Other researchers such as Giles & Hyndman (2004)

also contend that cultures are infinitely malleable maps of meaning within a material

economy of nationality, sexuality, class, caste, religion, and gender. Men‟s attempt to

counter the fluidity of culture has often located women in a disadvantageous position, as I

will explore in the following paragraphs.

Competing discourses and practices of modernity and culture have often used

women as a central site of contention. Women are often used as the symbolic bearers of

modernity and culture. In western countries, the bodies of young girls are used to

advertise the latest fashion designs, while in other countries, particularly developing

countries, women are blamed for not resisting cultural changes. “Unveilling women in

Ata Turk‟s revolution of 1917, which was aimed at constructing Turkey as a modern

nation-state, was as important as veiling them has been to Muslim fundamentalists in the

contemporary Middle East” (Yuval Davis, 2004, p 172). Despite women playing this

symbolic role, they do not equally enjoy the dividends as men do in a country like

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Turkey. Even in cases where women have participated in liberation movements, or were

used as human shields and for political reasons, they were marginalized during the

resource allocation that followed such struggles. “While many women supported

Afghanistan against external occupation, they did not find themselves among the counted

leaders of the nation” (Hans, 2004, p. 246). These are common scenarios experienced in

the Liberian context. The democratic election of a woman in Liberia represents the

potential to include women as role models in the country. However, this example is

anomalous and does not reflect the wider situation for women in the country.

When normative gender practices for a particular culture are not maintained

women are often censured for gross negligence. When Sri Lankan refugee children were

accused by their hosts of using bad languages being dirty and of bad habits, the final

accusations were labeled against their mothers for not adequately supervising and caring

for their children (Alwis, 2004). Why cannot men be held responsible if children within

their homes stray from their cultural norms? It is also common that men in such homes

will compound the pressures on their wives by blaming them for the bad attitudes of their

children. What is more unfair is that men are often credited instead of their wives when

the family, or children in particular, suit the expectations of society. In Afghanistan,

“women were the bearers of the family honor, and a man‟s reputation was measured

through the behavior of the females in his household” (Hans, 2004). This is also similar

to a female suppressive adage in West Africa, which holds that “behind every successful

man, there is a woman”. Though many women seem to appreciate this expression, it can

be regarded as yet another form of oppression for women because women are not

credited directly for the knowledge, skill and perhaps capacity for leadership.

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Cultural traditions do not necessarily represent the interests of all community

members (Lowry, 2001). This argument is supported by the intrinsic links which exist

between culture and power. In the case of gender relations, some cultural constructs often

result in a negative power imbalance for women. Such an imbalance of power is often

questioned in post-migration (Gamburd, 1995; Pessar, 1994 and Morokvasic, 1998). In

post-migration, the orientations and ideologies of some cultural groups about their culture

can often contradict the views of those who remain behind (Winland, 1998, Cited in

Razzaq, 2007). Hondagneu-Sotelo (1994, p. 15) also contends that “immigrants arrive

with cultural and ideological baggage, but in the new society, as they unpack and

rearrange it, they discard elements and adopt new ones.” As we shall see in the next

chapter, cultural changes that threaten masculinities and male power are not simply about

transformations, they often present women with risky and violent situations.

3.6. Methodology

Choosing the appropriate methodology for any particular research is a matter of

contestation because scholars often disagree about the path to truth (Hawkesworth, 2006).

Based on the purpose of this study and my personal experience, I chose to use a

qualitative methodology built into a feminist lens in doing this research. My choice of a

qualitative approach to this study is also partly grounded on the argument of Stevi and

Moores (1995) that the household is best understood as fundamental economic entity

underpinned by economic relations embedded in wider socioeconomic structures. Hence

we need to understand more about the workings of the household as a window into wider

structures. Another related argument comes from Tastsoglou (1998), who asserts that

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migration entails crossing cultural boundaries, experiencing another culture, and making

a new home in a new country, with all the internal transformation of the self. Qualitative

studies are best suited to capture new subjectivities (Barber, 2004). Understanding the

dynamics of households and the processes of migration through a qualitative approach

utilizing a feminist lens was critical to the success of my research.

The selection of a research approach should be partly built on the experience of

the researcher (Creswell, 2002). I was more comfortable with using a qualitative

approach in this study. More importantly, it allowed me to focus on a limited number of

participants and gain a deep understanding of the issues that are central to the research.

“Qualitative research involves active participation by the participants and sensitivity to

the participants in the study” (Creswell, 2002, p. 181). Through the use of semi-

structured interview guide, I allowed interviewees to actively participate by freely

expressing their views without being limited by the formal structure of pre-set questions.

3.7. Semi-Structured Interview Guide

A lengthy semi-structured interview guide was the principal tool which I used for

data collection. The interview guide contains open-ended questions to stimulate open and

free discussions. I developed and tested the interview guide about a month before the

actual data collection process. The use of an interview guide required about two hours

with each participant. It was prepared in four basic parts, which include an introduction,

demographic information, and questions about livelihoods and gender relations, and life

in Canada. The first part, the introduction is focused on obtaining a synoptic description

of the family in terms of migration history and the underpinning circumstances. “A major

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focus of feminist transnational research has been the articulation of gender in relation to

the dominant discourses of globalization, nationalism and the state” (Giles & Hyndman,

2004). Hence, in this introductory part, my questions focused on understanding the

political environment which overshadowed the migration of the participants, and how this

affected the household. I asked questions such as, why did you leave Liberia, why did

you choose Canada, and who is the head of your household?

The second part of the interview guide is concentrated on family structure in

terms of demographic information, which profiles participants‟ lives from Liberia to

Canada. Gender is sometime simultaneously present and absent in popular perceptions.

Often in “informal conversations, in media reporting, and even in academic work about

incidents of violence by an individual, group, or on national scales, the sex of the actors

is mentioned but not analyzed” (Cockburn, 2004, p. 25). I used this part of the interview

guide to explore how sex, gender, and age affected migration and any sojourns the

participants experienced before arriving in Canada.

The third component, livelihoods and gender relations focused on the history and

politics of the economic activities of households. The objective here was to investigate

how gender articulates with household economy and migration. “Feminist analyses of

gender in conflict situations addresses the politics of social and economic disparities and

explores possibilities for changing power imbalances that include gender relations”,

(Giles & Hyndman, 2000, p. 4). Some of the issues explored under this section of the

interview guide include how labor allocations within the household are affected by

migration and how this in turn influences power dynamics. How also does employment

influence control of money, domestic budgeting and labor divisions within the

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household? “Beyond distribution by sex (men do this, women do that), we need to

observe the functioning of gender as a relation, and a relation of power, that compounds

other power dynamics” (Cockburn, 2004, p. 25). In the context of border crossings and

encountering new cultures, domestic economies and labor divisions can be markers of

power dynamics.

The last part of the interview guide is characterized by a thoughtful reflection on

the participants‟ experiences in Canada. “Transnational feminist approaches analyze

location in ways that include both geography and positionality, recognizing the

importance of differences embedded in one‟s identity but connecting across such

differences nonetheless” (Giles & Hyndman, 2004, p. 313). This part of the guide

examines actual changes, challenges and opportunities that households face as a

consequence of migrating to Canada. For example, I asked, how is life in Canada

different from Liberia and refugee camps? What are the challenges and opportunities of

living in Canada? How are Liberian immigrants interacting with their Canadian

counterparts? These issues provided a clear synopsis of the finding of each interview.

3.8. Recruitment Process

The research is based on the migration histories of five Liberian couples (5

women and 5 men) as case studies. I conducted a total of 10 individual interviews with

the five couples interviewing the men and women separately. By focusing on a small

number of people, I had the opportunity to examine more deeply the core issues of the

research. The Liberian population in Halifax is relatively small: less than 75 people, only

approximately a quarter of whom are couples, and comprised mainly of women and

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children. Before contacting any participants, I first obtained the approval of the

leadership committee of the Liberian Association in Nova Scotia (LANS). It is an

organization, which oversees the affairs of Liberians living in the Province of Nova

Scotia. Through the organization, I communicated with the wider community about the

objectives and purpose of the study. The reaction of the community was positive and

welcoming, so I obtained their approval to use their official community listing to recruit

participants for the study.

The list contains telephone numbers and house addresses. It is prepared and

regularly updated for contact purposes. Given the small number of Liberian couples in

Halifax, I did not use any scientific method in recruiting interviewees. I purposefully

approached each couple and sought permission for interviews. Initially, I made phone

calls and requested that I come over to discuss issues related to my research. Upon being

accepted and invited, I went to participants‟ homes to re-explain what they had heard in

their community meting. I clarified here that participation in the study required a husband

and his wife being separately interviewed outside of their home. This was intended to

avoid the creation of spousal rifts as a consequence of the study.

3.9. Data Collection

With the approval of each participant, the office of the African Diaspora

Association of the Maritimes (ADAM) was used as the venue for interviews. Each

interview was conducted after working hours to ensure that only the interviewee and the

researcher were present. “Qualitative research takes place in the natural setting – site

(home and office)” (Creswell, 2002, p. 181). The office proved to be a very good venue

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as it was quiet and relaxing. It allowed us to stay away from distractions and to maintain

privacy between spouses. I provided bus tickets, but none of the participants decided to

take them. The only offer, which they accepted from me was tea and water.

As required by the Ethics board of Dalhousie University, I obtained verbal

consents before I began each of the interviews. This was also important because my

research questions probe into sensitive issues that are central to the daily lives of couples.

I clearly stated that the research was only for academic purposes and that the identity of

each participant would not be released to anyone. Also, speaking with displaced and

refugees is a sensitive issue as it could provoke sad memories. “The displaced live with

the memory of an earlier life lost and in despair of ever recovering it” (Cockburn, 2004,

p. 39). Though I had arranged with a psychologist the possibility of referral in case of any

psychological breakdown, I tried to avoid leading participants into deep reflection upon

the terrible memories of war. All of the participants refused to be audio-taped. Hence, all

the data were recorded in a note book.

“Interrogating accepted beliefs, challenging shared assumptions, and reframing

research questions are characteristics of feminist inquiry” (Hawkesworth, 2006, p. 4). As

the key question of the research asks how gender relations have been affected by

transnationalism, I spent a lot of time trying to understand how spousal relations have

been managed in time and in space, by looking at several intersecting factors such as

decision-making processes, the highest income earner, shifts in employment, control over

procreation, domestic budgeting, the public relations of the household, particularly in

interacting with aid institutions for the processing of travel documents. Each interview

lasted for about two hours.

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Another component of data collection was an extensive review of the relevant

academic and development literatures. I have explored scholarly work which analyzes

trends of changing gender relations and transnationalism. In other to examine gender

relations and transnationalism within the study context, I have also explored a body of

literature, which looks at globalization and the political history of Liberia. Most of the

literature, which I reviewed was written by feminist scholars and this provides me with a

solid theoretical understanding of how gender articulates with transnationalism within

several cultural contexts.

3.10. Data Analysis

Considering the number of interviews – ten in total, and in order to remain

consistent with the purpose of the study, I have used qualitative methods in analyzing the

gathered data. The first step was to properly organize the data from field notes through

transcription into Microsoft word. At this stage, I abandoned some claims that were

absolutely unclear to me. From the transcribed data, I identified major themes and

discourses. I first examined each theme and discourse within the migration context of the

particular interviewee, and later related them to those of other interviewees. By using

discourse analysis, I was able to assign meanings to the expressions of the participants.

The next step of data analysis was to return to the reviewed literature. Here, I

identified what was new and what the existing literature has spoken to. Some themes and

discourses that were completely disconnected from the purpose of the study were also

abandoned at this stage. The analysis process was finalized by a synoptic presentation of

the research findings. The summary of the findings was submitted to my supervisor for

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comments. The comments of my supervisor focused on objectivity, and encouraged me to

focus on the most critical issues of the study. The final version was then incorporated into

the thesis.

3.11. Challenges

Often, the positionality of a researcher can affect the process of data collection

and in particular, the relationship between researcher and participants (Lather, 1991).

This is a genuine concern for postmodernist feminists. In this study, my position as the

researcher was also challenged by my identity as a male Liberian. During interviews, I

sometime observed an attempt by male participants to speak as if I were aware or

convinced by what they indicated to be frustrating or unacceptable behaviors on the part

of their wives. A key reason for this is the fact that we come from a patriarchal culture in

Liberia. I was able to successfully recognize these challenges because I had previously

talked about them with experienced researchers and colleagues. Also, the refusal to be

audio-taped by all the participants had implications for the duration of interviews, as I

tried to meticulously record everything that was said by each interviewee.

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Chapter Four

Migrating From Liberia to Canada: Implications for Gender Relations

Drawing on feminist research guides, this thesis examines whether there is any

relationship between transnational migration and changing gender relations. The research

was conducted in July 2007, among Liberian immigrants in Halifax, Nova Scotia,

Canada. The study seeks to answer the following questions such as; why members of the

Liberian immigrant community in Halifax chose to come to Canada? What are the new

social and economic conditions these immigrant families encountered during migration

from Liberia and post-migration to Canada? Do the new social and economic conditions

in Canada alter gender relations within these Liberian immigrant families? How do the

Liberian immigrant families cope with changes in the new social locations during the

sojourn? In this chapter of the thesis, I present the results of the research. The analysis

shows that after arriving in Canada, as suggested by one body of research on the more

positive aspects of gender and migration (see Mahler and Pessar, 2006), Liberian

immigrant women have begun to demand a renegotiation of gender relations with their

husbands.

4.1. Profiles of the Participants

A total of five couples (five men and five women) participated in the study. The

couples are originally from rural parts of Liberia where access to basic services, such as

electricity and communication infrastructure has never been established, even before the

war. Before coming to Canada, all of them lived as refugees in other countries as a

consequence of the Liberian civil conflict. All of them came to Canada through the

United Nations and Canadian government assisted refugee resettlement program.

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Of the men, the oldest is 51 and the youngest is 35. Among the women, the oldest

is 37 and the youngest is 30. The male and female age ratio within couples is 35:30,

38:33, 35:34, 51:37, and 41:36. In one of the couples, there is a more significant age

difference of 14 years, which demands a high respect from his wife and affords him more

defined powers in intra-household decision-making within the Liberian cultural setting.

In such a situation, the woman would call him by a name synonymous to how a daughter

would call her father, or as one would address an elderly man of respect. The latter is

what I observed in the case of this couple.

One of the couples did not live together in Liberia. The wife stayed with her in-

laws to acquaint herself with the marital values and expectations of her husband‟s family

while the man was studying, before they were forced into exile and began to live

together. During this period of staying with in-laws, which I will term a “marital

internship,” the woman is trained to be a “good” housewife, but also, she is given strict

instructions to obey her husband. Women who go through this marital internship are only

implementers and not decision-makers relative to their husbands. While this is rapidly

becoming an outdated practiced, it is still observed among conservative sectors of the

Liberian population.

Among the couples, the highest family size in Liberia was eight compared to

thirteen in refugee camps and six currently in Canada. The smallest family size was three

in Liberia, three in refugee camps and currently four in Canada. Earlier in this thesis I

mentioned the fluidity of the terms “family, household and culture” in different contexts.

By talking about family size here I am referring to a couple (polygamous or

monogamous) and their dependants including their children and all those who are

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members of their production and consumption unit. This is what the participants in this

study describe as a family. For example, aging parents and younger siblings to the wife or

husband may also fall in this category.

The structure of most of the families changed during their journey from Liberia to

Canada. For example, two families were polygamous in Liberia and refugee camps,

before returning to monogamy en route to Canada. Canadian immigration policy did not

allow them to import their polygamous marriages into Canada. However, despite this

physical separation, the men still consider the women left behind as their wives (see also

Mahler and Pessar, 2006). They regularly remit financial support. The continuous

financial connections with these women back in Liberia have become a contentious factor

for gender relations within their marriages in Canada, particularly if the Canadian based

women‟s incomes are part of such remittance to other women in Liberia.

The five couples left Liberia between 1990 and 2002. They arrived in Canada

between 2003 and 2005. The longest and shortest stays in refugee camps are 14 and 3

years respectively. Three of the men are currently pursuing post-secondary education;

one is a Canadian trained technician, and the fifth is only a high school graduate. Only

one of the women is a high school graduate, the rest have only started to learn the basic

skills of reading and writing in Halifax. I acknowledge that the rural context, particularly

of low literacy, from which these couples originate in Liberia makes them different from

their urban colleagues some of whom are educated and involved in paid employment.

In Liberia, four of the men had salaried jobs while pursuing post-secondary

education. One was in high school and did not have a job. None of the women were

employed so they did not earn a salary. Four of them remained home to look after

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children, while the fifth was pursuing a marital internship. As a consequence of forced

displacement, one of them was separated from her husband and briefly participated in a

“food for work” program with a non-governmental organization to feed her family. Food

for work is a form of volunteering in refugee situations, where volunteers are paid with

food instead of cash. Among the men while in Liberia the highest and lowest salaries

were $400 and $250 USD respectively.

In refugee camps, none of the men were employed for a salary. Two of them

volunteered as teachers in schools and earned about $10 per month. All of the women

were involved in either petty trade or daily hired labor activities and earned more than

their husbands, or were the only breadwinners during most of the time. The highest

income among the women was $40 USD, and the lowest was $10 USD.

Here, in Canada, one of the men is working in a banking institution, one has a

mechanic‟s job, another is a personal care worker, while two are working as cleaners.

Four of the women are cleaners. The fifth does not have a job due to child care, and is

only receiving a monthly child tax benefit from the Canadian Government. The highest

and lowest salaries among the men are $1,500 CAD and $800 CAD per month

respectively. All of the men currently earn higher salaries than their wives except one

who is a full time student. Among the women, the highest and lowest salaries are $1,200

and $800 CAD per month respectively.

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4.2. Migrating to Canada: Why Canada? Decision-Making within the Family, and

the Role of Aid Agencies

In this section, I explore why these couples decided to come to Canada, and how

the processes involved have been managed in terms of gender roles. The dominant

reasons presented by the participants for coming to Canada were to live in a safe country

where they would have access to better education, health services and employment to

improve their lives and the lives of their relations back home. This finding partly

confirms the claim of Krahn et al. (2003) that migrants move to access better education

and employment opportunities. However, the answers are not surprising giving the two

decades of political instability in Liberia and its neighboring countries where they sought

refuge. Because of the historical ties between Liberia and the United States, Liberians

know more about the United States than any other western country. Hence, these refugees

hoped to travel to the United States where they would reunite with friends and relatives.

This answer was common between husbands and wives, but it appeared to me that the

women were explaining what their husbands had thought about traveling. This suggests

that they were not strongly involved in the decision-making process.

Information which they received about Canada indicated that it was bordering the

United States and similarly had good living conditions. Gradually, their knowledge about

Canada increased as some friends were resettled in Canada, Norway, Australia and

Sweden instead of the United States. The flow of information, and remittances extended

their understanding that Canada, Australia and the Scandinavian countries were good

places where they could make a better living just as in the United States. Henceforth, they

left their options open with a willingness to migrate to any of these countries. Through

various institutionally supported refugee programs (for example, government sponsored

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and church sponsored), refugees can apply or receive propositions from sponsors through

the United Nations to be resettled within any western country accepting refugees.

In the case of the couples in this study, four of them applied for sponsorships

through the United Nations to be resettled in any western country, while one received a

proposition from the Canadian government through the United Nations.

Mr. Toe: We did not make a choice. We were given an offer by the Canadian government. The UN gave our names to countries that were accepting refugees. Before, we knew more about the USA than Canada. But we were happy about coming to Canada than Australia, Sweden or Norway because Canada shares its border with the USA. We were sometimes frightened by news of snow and extreme cold.

Even this couple who did not apply had some knowledge about Canada and were willing

to come. They had already thought of some of the advantages and challenges. For

example, they indicated that Canada was a peaceful country of freedom where both men

and women could work. They were also aware that the climate was a real challenge.

There was, however, no mention of anything related to gender equality and sexual

orientations which are often mentioned by people in many African countries and

elsewhere who have studied or visited Canada.

Within families, decisions about migrating to Canada, and the processing of travel

documents were dominated by male influence. The management of the process by aid

agencies was also gendered at all stages. All of the participants confirmed that the

decisions to come to Canada and the processing of their travel documents were

exclusively managed by husbands as is seen in the responses of these two couples when

questioned as to why the women were not involved:

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Ms. Tamba: I only went to sit interviews when my husband told me to go. You know, the whole thing is that, the UN people can first ask for the husband, because he was the head.

Mr. Tamba: I was the family head. I am the husband – the head, you know. The main thing also, I -- my name is the first on the tickets and all of the immigration papers that brought us here, you know.

Ms. Toe: Because he is my husband, so he took all the decisions for our

household. You see, ---- eh –eh- in our culture, the husband is the head of the household, because he is the one to answer all questions about the family. The woman is not concerned. And, the UN was just helping us.

Mr. Toe: I was the first to be interviewed by the UN. I was the first to be

contacted. My wife wasn‘t around; she went to find daily contracts for food. I was working on top of our house, when they came to talk to me. I initially said I was too old to come to Canada. I did not have any ambitions for traveling.

Men‟s domination of the intra-household decision-making process about coming

to Canada is linked to the cultural values attached to certain patriarchal positions or roles

such as the household head and the husband. The constructed values attached to these

roles demand submissiveness from wives to their husbands, though such demands are

sometimes contested and renegotiated by women. There is also the unequal access to

education between women and men, which gives men an uncontested advantage in

conducting the public relations of their families. Most of the women indicated that their

husbands took the decisions and handled the processing of their travel documents because

they are the educated persons in their households.

Patriarchy is also well grounded in the workings of aid institutions. The UN

agencies and NGOs continue to define and approach households from a patriarchal

perspective. Their identification of the husband as the contact person and sole decision-

maker within households coalesced with certain cultural values in subordinating the role

and value of wives relative to their husbands. In all of the scenarios where wives were out

looking for food in refugee camps, or were present preparing food in the kitchen, the

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reference persons who the staff of aid agencies were always looking for was a “household

head” working from the gendered ideology concerning the husband‟s role and the idea of

an educated man who knows much about his family. If we embrace Hobson‟s (1995)

argument that women spend more time at home on family issues than men, then the

behavior of these aid agencies is a complete contradiction to actual gendered practices.

Tastsoglou, (1998) also tells us that if women do go out of their homes, their activities are

still closely related to family affairs such as school and health. This patriarchal behavior

raises serious questions about the gender policies of many of these agencies.

On most of the data collection forms used by these agencies, the identification of

the household head is requested in the first column. In fact, the category “female-headed

households” is a popular criterion for a “vulnerability” classification in refugee camps by

aid agencies. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the

United Nations World Food Program (WFP) are some of the key users of this

vulnerability criterion. In the case of the UNHCR, this criterion is flawed with

contradictions, as a woman who is vulnerable because she heads her household can also

be denied relief services because she is educated and holds a position of power in a

refugee camp (Hyndman, 2004). This paradox is but one example of the lack of clear

policies by aid agencies in dealing with gender during a refugee crisis.

An important point to note in these institutionally directed decision-making

processes and the role of aid agencies therein is that there are also female-headed

households who are assisted under the resettlement program. The number of resettled

female-headed households is far greater than male-headed households within the Liberian

immigrant community in Halifax. The selection of more female-headed households than

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male-headed households is premised on the assumption that female-headed households

are always vulnerable. Within the resettlement process, feminists have also identified an

inherent flaw and contradiction. In Somali refugee camps in Kenya, females who head

their households and report being raped to the UNHCR must provide an elderly male

family member to attest to their claims (Giles & Hyndman, 2004; Mohamed, 1999; Abdi,

1998). Women who fail to provide these witnesses are denied further assistance,

particularly through the resettlement program which remains one of the ways of assisting

women who are raped.

In Liberian immigrant female-headed households, women play exactly the same

roles as men would do as husbands and male heads in other households. For example,

this woman says:

Ms. Tamba: If we were not living with him, of course like some of my friends who are not married, I was also going to take the decision to come. But if they had asked me while living with him, I was going to ask for his permission first.

The issue raised here is that when men and women are associated, women‟s autonomy is

reduced. We also see from this process that the marital household is a site of women‟s

subordination in some cultural contexts.

4.3. Refugee Life and Constructed Male Power

In this study, I discovered that within the Liberian cultural context, male power

within the household is strongly tied to the ability of a man to work and earn regular

income to support his family. A man who is unemployed and unable to meet the financial

needs of his wife and family is often categorized as a big failure, and is likely to lose his

marriage if they live in urban areas where survival is based on cash economies, as

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opposed to food production in rural areas. In this study, the men who lived with their

wives in Liberia were all working and were the only income earners in their households.

This advantage gave them power over their wives in intra-household decision making

processes. Upon arrival in refugee camps, the advantage of men being the only income

earners in their households was lost to women (see also Mahler and Pessar, 2006) in a

complex setting where money was more needed on a daily basis than in Liberia.

When questioned as to why men were not working, the following were the

responses obtained from some of the couples:

Ms. Snow: It was very hard! There were no jobs, even for the hosts you know, so we did lot of things. It was even frustrating for my husband. He got nothing to do.

Mr. Snow: It [refugee life] is a very hard life! You don‘t get jobs. Most of us lived on the skills of our women to do petty trade and round town jobs.

Ms. Ansu: I was doing hair dressing. I have the skills for that kind of j ob, and I was doing it to help my family. Also, my husband was not working in refugee camp, so I was working. I needed to do more.

Mr. Ansu: Men were not allowed to work as refugees. The hosts are very nationalistic in offering jobs. They would first give to citizens before foreigners.

In discussions with each of the participants about employment during their refugee life,

the recurrent theme was that it was generally difficult for refugees to find jobs, but the

situation of unemployment was even more difficult for men than women. Family survival

in the context of refugee life requires specific skills and adaptability, for which women

proved to be more prepared than men, as evidenced in this research. I also discovered in

the literature review that in several cases, women in refugee camps have confronted

radical life transformations by becoming the sole providers and protectors of their

families and households (Korac, 2004). Freire (1995) cited in Korac (2004) holds that

this is because women in many societies have been socialized, subordinated and confined

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to the microsystems of the family and households. Hence, coping with difficulties is

simply a continuation of their hardship. One analytic conclusion which I draw from this

circumstance is that the gendered skills of women are critical for family survival during

displacement, though as a consequence of patriarchy and masculinities, men still regard

them as “basic” coping mechanisms.

As the women in this study became family breadwinners, some of the men were

gradually drawn into domestic work. This is clearly reflected in the statement of Mr.

Brown when he says “mainly, in refugee camp, I took part in doing cleaning, washing

and cooking because – you know -- I was not working [employed] like my wife.” His

tone and body language portrayed a man who was wallowing over the miseries of his past

life. He also indicated that previously in Liberia, he did not get involved in any domestic

work, because he was employed. An implication here is that power is not a fixed entity; it

can be negotiated and reallocated among members of a group or within a couple as

suggested in the works of Morokvasic (1998) and Matsuoka et al (1999).

The transition of the breadwinner‟s role from men to women also had

implications for gender decision-making processes on different issues within households.

Speaking about decision-making about reproduction and family size Mr. Brown also

indicated that “my wife was working so she needed to be involved in that kind of

decision [to have additional children].” There is an increase in the power of women in

this situation hence the men are compelled by the difficult economic situation to listen to

their wives. I shall term such a change in male attitude as a “forced cooperation”, which

entails a male strategy for the desire to maintain power over their wives. It is important to

also see how women viewed this kind of change, since the refugee camps were sub-

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sectors of larger patriarchal communities in which the domestic domain is culturally

allocated to women, while men are viewed as breadwinners.

Talking about the control over income in refugee camps, Ms. Ansu says “I gave

everything I earned to my husband. He was not employed. I wanted to make him happy.

To make him feel like he was the head. You know, if the man is not working he feels like

a woman, it is a shame.” Culture and the influence of society still played a key role in

protecting patriarchal identities and masculinities in these refugee camps. In the reviewed

literature, Alwis (2004) tells us that Sri Lankan muslin refugee men were drinking and

fighting their wives due to the switch in employment from men to women. This

contradiction reminds us about the influence of culture. However, a key finding under

this point of discussion is that economic conditions in refugee camps can induce radical

changes for gender relations. Patriarchy and masculinities are revealed by the participants

in this study to come under serious challenges in the refugee camp phase of their

migration.

4.4. The Family Head: a Contested Position upon Arrival in Canada

The study reveals that in Liberia, husbands are regarded as heads of their

households. This position seemingly affords men unquestioned power over their wives

back in Liberia. All of the couples interviewed claimed that men are the heads of their

households upon marriage. However, the tone of their expressions showed that the head

of household role is being contested by women as a consequence of pressure from outside

influences and daily encounters with dominant Canadian cultural values which promote

equality between men and women. When asked who is the current head of their

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households, women were sarcastic in declaring men as their heads, while men sounded

frustrated in claming the title as reflected in the following conversation:

Question: Who is the current head of your household? Ms. Tamba: Both of us --- hahahaaaaa (open laughter) --- no after him that

me next ---- hahahaaaa. Anyway, you know he brought me here, so he is the head. If I had brought him here, I would have been the head, though it would be hard.

Question: What makes him the head of the household?

Ms. Tamba: He signs all of our documents here. His name is the first on all of our documents here. We live in a government house, he is the contact person. When immigration is calling us, they are trying to call him first. He keeps all of our papers you know. Also, he makes more money, and you know ---- ahuum --- (laugh) all that one, you know.

Ms. Tamba is 14 years younger than her husband and spent several years with her

in-laws before getting married to her husband. The age difference, combined with the

time spent with in-laws which I refer to as a “marital internship” in this thesis - would not

encourage this woman at any time in her relationship with her husband to make a

statement, which challenges his authority. This pattern is the cultural norm in the rural

part of Liberia where they came from. My study reveals that in the rural parts of Liberia

where most of these families previously lived, women who are about 10 years younger

than their husbands would not call them by their first names; they would rather use terms

which depict a high level of respect. The marital internship requires a woman to spend

years with her in-laws during which she is trained to be a good wife. Some of the

behaviors of a good wife are to display total respect for the husband and good manners

towards in-laws. Hence, the sarcasm in the expression of Ms. Tamba about the role of her

husband as household head is a sharp deviation from her cultural training.

According to all of the participants, the factors which define the head of the

household within their families in Canada can be traced to authority associated within the

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person who initiated and worked out the process of their migration to Canada. The head

is perceived as the individual who is the contact person in their families, who signs their

lease agreements, who as husband, is deemed responsible for their security, defined as the

one who earns more money and is the more educated. The women who took part in this

study explained that within female-headed households in this particular Liberian

immigrant community, however, women are equally performing the functions associated

with male household heads. The participants also indicated that they had observed that

within Canadian families, these roles are equally shared between husbands and wives.

These differences within the Liberian community and relative to Canadian comparisons

show that cultural attitudes about the association of a man and a woman in a marital

relationship can facilitate female repression in some cases.

The expressions of men show a deep sense of frustration concerning the definition

of the head of household in Canada. These men explain that:

Mr. Ansu: These people bring democracy into their homes. I mean everyone has a say in every decision. Back home, the man is the head followed by the wife. The men take decisions. You know --- ah-ha—(laugh), sometimes, these people are afraid of their wives because of the freedom here. Even now, we have to be cleaver how to deal with our wives too, because they are seeing all of that stuff.

Mr. Tamba: Here, there is equality within the household between husbands

and wives. I have to plan with my wife, and sometimes, the children. You see, not the way back home! I have to do a meeting before everything so that everyone can agree. We were told all of these during our orientation when we arrived. Decision-making must involve everybody – the wife even the children!! In Liberia and refugee camp, I was the only decider. I took decisions and informed them. Our culture is that way; you know what I am talking about – Uhum (grim face). Here, it is just like that. No control over wives and children.

The key issues coming from the explanations of these men target familial democracy, and

gender equality and freedom within Canadian homes. The study shows that these newly

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present cultural values contrast and conflict in many ways with those in Liberia. For

example, husbands are the only deciders while decision-making processes within

households are understood to happen through consultations for Canadian couples.

4.5. Employment, Control of Income and Gender Relations in Canada

This study reveals that the opportunity for both Liberian immigrant men and

women to work in Canada has introduced a new dynamic in power relations within

households over the control of incomes. Before escaping to refugee camps, the women

who took part in this research were not working for wages in Liberia. In Liberia, they

remained home caring for children and managing all of the domestic work. If they

received any money, it was either from petty trade, backyard gardening or food money

sourced by their husbands. According to the participants, this was the only money which

women kept and controlled. Any family savings were kept and controlled by husbands

who were also the primary earners. This pattern reveals a common (if not global)

devaluing of women‟s work in domestic and informal activities as suggested by

Bennholdt-Thomsen (1998).

The participants disclosed that in refugee camps, where women were the major

income earners, they surrendered their incomes to men indicating that this was in

conformity with their Liberian cultural norms. Here, in Canada, where both men and

women are working, I discovered that four of the five women interviewed have opened

personal bank accounts and are keeping and controlling their incomes separately from

their husbands. In trying to understand why there is this difference, Ms. Brown says “I

think when I am working; I have more control over my income than when I am not

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working. Also, here I am working and my husband is working.” The first argument of

this woman is that because she is employed she has more control over her income, but

this argument is disputed by the fact that she was also working in the refugee camp when

the money was still controlled by her husband. The second argument, which justifies her

savings on the grounds that the both of them are working seems stronger in justifying this

change which indicates a shift in power relations relative to the household economy. It

appears that the opportunity for both of them to work induces some degree of

independence from each other. This is consistent with socialist feminist research cited

earlier in Gamburd (1995) and Chattopadhyay (1997) who argue that employment for

both women men and in post-migration can induce changes in gender relations.

There is also another explanation from one of the women in this study who is

unemployed but receives a government supported child tax benefit:

Ms. Toe: I keep my money at the bank. I have my personal account. I put all of my child benefit there. Not like back home. The banking system is a good system here. You can have access to your money at anytime – you know. Also, woman has the right to control her personal money here. That is the system they told us when we came first. And we see everyone is doing like this

The justification provided by Ms. Toe is focused on the culture of Canada as a new social

location. She acknowledges that the banking system in Canada is actually better than the

ones in Liberia and refugee camps. For example, to open a bank account in Liberia, you

will need to meet several requirements (letters of recommendation from institutions and

individuals and a written application), and the location might not always be accessible.

Hence, female banking is only practiced by the educated and employed. The second

justification is the dominant public discourse in media about male and female equality,

combined with the influence of immigrant settlement agencies which educate women on

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a daily basis about their rights relative to their husbands. For example, Ms. Tamba says,

“When we came, MISA helped me to open a bank account. This is because I am

working.” The key point on this issue is that the rights of living in this location combined

with dominant Canadian practices are creating awareness for women and empowering

them in ways that are changing power dynamics within their spousal relations.

4.6. Domestic Budgeting and Gender Relations

Domestic budgeting is another factor which has implications for power relations.

My research looks at how this factor is affected by migration in the context of Liberian

immigrant families in Halifax. In Liberia, husbands from the couples interviewed were

the ones who took decisions on how incomes were spent. This was partly because all of

the women were not employed. There was also a cultural factor, which is mentioned by

all of the couples. They say that according to their tradition, the spending of the major

portion of the family income is only at the approvals of husbands. This authority is given

to men because they earn the money, and also because they have more formal education

in most cases.

In refugee camps, the situation changed as reflected in this statement by Mr.

Snow, who said “we did everything together. We did not have enough money, so we

needed to work together. Maybe, because I did not have a job there was no money to take

decisions on.” I was reminded here that money is a key indicator for power relations

within couples as articulated by Wilson (1995), Whitehead (1995), Westwood (1995) and

Westwood (1995). But a key point to explore here is that the man needed to work closely

with his wife because he did not have a job and they were in a difficult economic

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situation. As I listened to most of the men and women speaking on this subject, I realized

that men were willing to share their gendered power with their wives when they were not

employed. Women, also, compromised their rights in these circumstances in the name of

cultural preservation.

Mr. Ansu: I took all of our household decisions during our stay in refugee camp. This was because my wife is very good. It was a problem for many men who were not working and living on their wives. You know, there is not like here. Men are the decision makers, but it can be tricky when the men are no more working, you know. It takes away your power and influence in the family.

Ms. Ansu: My husband took all decisions. I was pleasing him, but also, I

was keeping our tradition.

Ms. Brown: I decided by myself on how to manage my income. But, I worked with my husband. I was working for the money. My husband did not have anything, so sometime, I asked him to make him feel comfortable.

Clearly, the men were praising their wives for being good, and the women were

surrendering their power in decision-making to husbands to please them. I also tried to

investigate what changes have occurred on this issue since arriving in Canada:

Question: In Canada, who decides on how your income is spent and why?

Mr. Snow: I decide by myself. Only on some joint issues like child benefits, we can decide together. You know, this can avoid confusion here. People here – women and the men handle their own money.

Ms. Snow: If we pay the bills and food money, I can do what I want with my

money. It is my money. My husband has his own also.

Ms. Ansu: We take joint decisions on how to spend money. Because we are working together. When there is a need to send money back home, we consult each other and decide together.

Ms. Brown: I decide. Because, I am working for the money. That is the way

people live here, you know.

There are two separate reactions here from these participants: one is that each

person decides independently and the second is a tendency for taking joint decisions. The

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tendency for taking separate decisions is strictly influenced by the new culture here in

Canada. Everyone is working so he/ she decides how to spend his/ her income. The men

indicated that this can avoid confusion. During the interviews, I also observed a link

between distant polygamy and more assertiveness in the attitudes of the wives living in

Canada. Knowing that such status is illegal, the concerned men are reserved in talking

about it, and prefer to embrace independence between them and their wives when it

comes to income management. They claim that they want to avoid confusion, but by

doing so they can easily remit part of their incomes back home to their second wives.

One of the men explained that confusion with your wife here is not just the act of

arguing; women can easily call 911, and when that happens, the man is likely to be in

trouble.

There are also some families who choose to work together under the premise of

preserving culture. Several cultural and legal issues are interwoven here and the state‟s

ability to protect all of its citizens is one. A participant said that in Canada, if a woman

calls the police and says my husband is threatening me, the police will quickly come. On

the contrary, in Liberia, the police may say, it seems to be a family matter, maybe your

neighbors or relatives should first intervene. The second factor is the difference in

employment opportunities between Liberia and Canada, where women and men are

working and earning regular incomes.

4.7. Gender Divisions of Labor and Migration

The study reveals that since leaving Liberia, labor divisions within the home have

become an issue of contention within Liberian immigrant couples. In Liberia, four of the

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men in this study were not involved in domestic work leaving it strictly with their wives.

According to the participants, cultural values, differences between men and women in

education, and employment were the main reasons. In their culture, women are supposed

to stay and work at home, while men work outside. Also, because the men were more

educated and were employed, getting involved in domestic work was seen as equivalent

to degrading their status. In refugee camps, the women began to earn regular incomes

while men were completely out of the income economy. Despite this change, culture was

still a strong influence, and being educated was still seen as a factor contributing to ideas

about the superiority of men over women within the home. However, at this point, some

of the men began to gradually do some domestic work such as sweeping, though women

were still taking up the lion‟s share. I attribute the gradual involvement of men in

domestic work at this stage to the loss of power deriving from income. I also attribute the

lack of pressure from women to demand more involvement of men to the need to

preserve culture if not domestic harmony.

I discovered that the sharing of domestic work between men and women became

more contentious after these couples arrived in Canada. Women have begun to demand

the participation of men, and men, while uncomfortable, have started to increase their

participation in domestic work, as indicated in the following varying views:

Ms. Snow: Sometimes the man can help, because I have to go to work too. He needs to help me; else it will be very difficult. You know this is a different place. Men are cooking and washing dishes here.

Mr. Toe: Men are working at home here [in Canada], so our women are

complaining if we do not wash our own clothes. Also, because, men and women are earning money.

Ms. Toe: If I am working, maybe it will change [he will start to do some

domestic work]. But, it will be hard because he is used to coming home to eat, watch TV, play music and sleep.

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Mr. Toe: Money, decisions in the home, control over the child benefit, food money. Sometimes, my wife wants to work so that I can stay home to mind the children, this is not possible with me. It is the woman who should stay home while the man works.

Ms. Tamba: my husband has two jobs. Sometime he can be very tired when

he comes home. I can also be very tired when I come home, but you know – I am the woman, and in our culture, I should do the domestic work. But here [in Canada], the man has to help, so sometimes he helps.

Dominant Canadian culture and the economic context, which in most cases

require husbands and wives to work in order to maintain a good standard of living, are

reflected in the voices of these participants as the key factors shifting gender roles in

domestic work. Men from mainstream Canadian society are involved in domestic work;

hence there is a sort of pressure for Liberian immigrant men to conform to this practice.

The second pressure is the fact that just as men, women are also spending most of their

time working outside of the home. Hence, at the end of the day, there is no explanation

why cleaning the home or cooking cannot be shared between husbands and wives, since

they are both tired. This is rightly put by Mr. Ansu who says “I do not want for my wife

to feel overburdened. I was doing the same in the refugee camp as she was, working, so it

is not new.” Ms. Toe who is not working is doing most of the domestic work, but she

states clearly that when she starts to work there it will be necessary for her husband to

help. Finally, my concluding point on the issue of domestic work is that men are getting

involved since arriving into Canada as a consequence of a new culture and new economic

demands.

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4.8. Domestic Technology, Western Life and Gender Relations

Here, it is important to restate that couples in the study originate from the rural

parts of Liberia, and did not have access to modern domestic technologies such as

televisions and telephones. Life in refugee camps was even more deprived economically.

Here, in Canada, all of the couples have more than one television, landline and mobile

phones, and even internet connections in their homes. This change and media exposure

generate an excitement and the potential for over-use, which creates implications for the

amount of bills to pay. I partly attribute this phenomenon to capitalist influences, as I

mentioned earlier in this thesis. I have observed that you will find more mobile phones in

15 Liberian immigrant families than you will find in the same number of mainstream

Canadian families. This study shows that the way they are used and the payment of the

bills are becoming a problem for most of the couples interviewed. The following are the

views of some participants:

Mr. Tamba: You know there is good life here, like all these facilities --- vehicles, TVs computers, and you name them. They can also be bad. My children and wife are sometimes crazy about the Internet. I do not know what they are doing daily. I have lots of problems about that. My wife is watching lots of channels that are not good, but she would not listen.

Ms. Tamba: My husband can complain too much about the telephone. You see, for me, I have friends but when they call, he is complaining that I am using the phone too much.

Ms. Toe: The other time, he [my husband] said I must wash the clothes

with my hands so that the power bill will not go up. He says all that because he can pay. We made palaver for that one also.

Ms. Brown: Sometime, my husband gets angry because of the freedom me

and the children have here. Sometimes too, we have problems with the things in the house like the TV, music and the chairs. My husband complains if I and the children are watching the shows we want. He says that is why the children are dressing like this like that. He gets angry. I do not agree.

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Besides the concerns for paying high bills, one of the key issues that fuels disagreement

on domestic technology is the way they are used to access information, which influences

perceptions and possibly a shift in gendered power relations between couples. Many of

the men in this study regard technology as one of the key conduits for bringing in

“radical” information, which can provoke changes in gender roles.

4.9. Challenges and Opportunities after Migrating to Canada

I explored the opinions of participants on what they think about life in Canada in

terms of challenges and opportunities after migration. The first thing I discovered is that

all of them are happy to have come here considering the conflict and insecurity back in

Liberia. There are several opportunities but there are also lots of critical challenges as

reflected in their views:

Mr. Tamba: It is very hard to adapt to the system here. It is a new culture.

Very hard to exercise control over our women. Too many outside influences ----- you do not do this, you do not do that,,,, all the time, you do not beat the child, the wife, --- it looks fearful, we really have to be careful! You know, no respect from women and children. Lots of expenses, sending money back home, our children are spoiled! We copy the wrong way --- no respect for parents, unlike home.

Ms. Snow: To raise children here is difficult, it is very cold here. Also, if you

are not careful, you will separate from your husband. But, People are friendly; they are willing to give information. I can go to school here. This was not possible in Liberia. I did not believe before that I would be able to read and write as I do today!!! Now, I can write my name, go to the bank to do business alone.

Mr. Snow: Education, jobs, medical care, lots of good things if we think

good, you know. Some are destructive, like the loans --- you can easily enter into a big debt for life time.

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Concerning opportunities, the key points that were highlighted by participants are

education, health care, employment and the ability to send money back home. The

education and employment were very much emphasized by women, probably because

they did not earn incomes at home. Four of the five women have learned how to read and

write only after arriving here in Canada. They are very much excited about this

experience, which also allows them to navigate through the Canadian system to do

banking and manage other personal affairs without the involvement of their husbands. I

realized that men who spoke about education only pointed to its importance for their

children. There was no mention of the excitement of their wives. I see this to be related to

the shift in familial power relations which education for women contributes to. The

challenges mentioned by men were mainly focused on power relations between husbands

and wives. This was linked to the discourse of male and female equality. Some women

also caution that there is a risk of family splitting as a consequence of the new culture of

male and female equality.

Exploring these issues of opportunities and equality requires a return to the

discussion of why they decided to come to Canada and what were they expecting. With

the exception of one couple, four had gathered some information about Canada seen as a

country of freedom bordering the United States. All Liberians know about the United

States because of existing historical ties between the two countries. However, it appeared

that the freedom mentioned by these participants was mainly about the opportunity to

earn money, remit money to relatives back home and to improve their lives. I did not

discover if there was any detailed contemplation about how these opportunities would

affect relationships between couples.

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4.10. Differences Between Canadian and Liberian Families

I asked the participants their thoughts on how Canadian families were different

from Liberian families. The following are the key responses, which I received:

Ms. Ansu: In Canadian families, women are head of the households, in our Liberian culture, the man is the head.

Ms. Snow: These people know about freedom, so you can see it in their

homes. For Liberian families, the men are still trying to do like in Africa. The men here can even wash the women‘s clothes.‖

Mr. Tamba: With Canadian families, you see and hear about many former

partners. Most of my friends at work are like that. They do not care about marriage, children, some of the men fear their wives. Maybe, they are very careful! In Liberia, we are not afraid, but also we are careful.

Mr. Ansu: We cannot fully be integrated like the way the people are

expecting us. We have to go slowly. We will take some time slowly. The women are controlling the men here, but in our homes, we are still somehow the heads.

Mr. Toe: With Canadian families, men do a lot of domestic work in

addition to external work. In Liberia, men are only engaged in external work.

The participants explained that the key areas of differences between Canadian and

Liberian families are around the position of the head of household, a sense of freedom for

everyone, and the sharing of domestic work between wives and husbands. The overriding

issue I identify in this list is the sense of freedom which is seen to allow every individual

to make the best out of his or her life. Of course, these views need to be appreciated in

the context of social class differences in Canada (see Canada Immigrant Job Issues,

2007). Concerning the head of household in Canada, there is absolutely no benefit that a

man or a woman will reap in trying to control each other. Such behavior also invites the

possibility of a split between them as a consequence of the freedom to choose.

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The freedom mentioned above is also backed by the open market system which

allows men and women to equally participate although women‟s earnings on average still

reflect a gendered wage gap (see Salaff, 2006). For example, the average monthly income

of an immigrant woman was 5% less than an immigrant man and 40% less than a

Canadian born woman in 2000 (Canada Immigrant Job Issues, 2007). This varies by class

and region. In the Liberian and refugee life contexts, there are two key reasons why a

man or woman will compromise his or her rights. These include a lack of economic

autonomy and the preservation of culture. For example, the women in this study

depended on their husbands for meeting their economic needs in Liberia.

The foregoing analysis in this chapter shows that a renegotiation of gender relations is a

product of the migration experience of the Liberian immigrants who were studied in this

research. Some of the issues over which power is contested include decision-making

processes within households, control of personal income and domestic work. The

findings also tell us that gender as a socially constructed concept can be reconfigured and

made flexible as is seen through the migration processes described here. A more detailed

discussion of these issues, particularly gender citizenship is contained in the following

chapter of this thesis.

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Chapter Five

New Citizenship Priorities; New Gender Norms

This chapter of the thesis entertains a discussion between the findings of my

research and some arguments posed in feminist research on the key issues raised by the

questions in this study. I examine the role of the staff of settlement agencies in working

with migrants, particularly on gender issues and explore gender citizenship as a crucial

theoretical concept in analyzing the links between transnationalism and gender relations.

5.1. The Dream of “Living in the Cold”

Some of the Liberian immigrants who were interviewed in this study indicated

that they were primarily intent on going to the United States, but were also given

information by friends that Canada was a good place to live like the United States,

Norway and Australia. According to these participants, friends who settled in Canada told

them that the country was a place of peace and freedom different from their war infested

country, Liberia. The participants‟ knowledge about Canada confirms the claims of

Parkin and Mendelsohn (2003) that immigrants and refugees continue to regard Canada

as one of the best countries to live in the world due to its high ranking by the United

Nations index of development. The flow of information from these “good to live in

countries” to refugee camps is in line with Castells‟ (1980) contention that globalization

has narrowed the world into a small village in which people have become highly

interconnected through new communication mechanisms. It was not a problem for the

participants in this study to know where life was much better than where they lived. The

interviewees declared that the expression “living in the cold” comes from constant

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information exchange between immigrants and refugees in northern countries and the

refugee camps in which they lived. From this flow of information, they became aware of

the freezing climatic conditions in these countries, but for them safety, and social and

economic conditions were more important than weather.

This study reveals that with the influence and endorsement of aid agencies, the

handling of family travel documents and the various processes involved in migrating to

Canada were exclusively managed by men. Explanations from both the women and men

involved in this study hold that men played these dominant roles because they are the

educated ones in their households, and more importantly their cultures require that

husbands are the major decision-makers within households. This is what feminists

(Maher, 1998; Stolcke, 1998; Morokvasic, 1998 and Harris, 1998) refer to as

characteristic of patriarchal cultures. The argument echoed by these scholars is clearly

summarized in Walby‟s (1990, p. 20) description of patriarchy as a “system of social

structures and practices, in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women”. However,

the issue that deserves more attention in this discussion is the role of aid agencies in

enhancing the domination of women by men.

Jennifer Hyndman (2004) has already characterized the gender policies of aid

agencies, particularly the UNHCR as being inherently flawed with contradictions: they

will consider as vulnerable a household that is headed by a female, while the same

household could be denied assistance if the woman is educated and employed. I choose

not to reinvent this argument but before introducing another aspect, I argue here that

Hyndman (2004) has slipped into a familiar trap for academic researchers, the tendency

to find flaws advocated without proposing solutions. Given her previous work for the

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UNCHR, I sought new insights from her. The absence of clearly defined solutions not

only exposes the needs for further research; it tells us how challenging the task of

facilitating women‟s extraction from patriarchal manipulations is. I further ask whether

the staff of these aid agencies might slip into endorsing patriarchy because they are trying

not to offend local cultural prescriptions, or is it simply a lack of clear frameworks.

The key question which the thesis seeks to answer is whether there is a link

between transnationalism and changing gender relations among Liberian immigrants in

Halifax. Earlier in the literature, Vertovec (1999) conceptualized transnationalism as a

social morphology, type of consciousness, mode of cultural reproduction, avenue of

capital, site of political engagement, and (re) construction of “place” or locality.

Rowbotham (1973) has also described gender as a structure of consciousness. How does

the intersection between these concepts affect the consciousness of couples in

maintaining their spousal relationships? This issue can easily be explored through what

many feminist scholars (Tastsoglou, 1998; Haddad et al, 1994; Abdi, 1998; Hyndman,

2000) refer to as gender citizenship.

5.2. Gender Citizenship

Feminist writer Denis (1998) contends that citizenship is civil, political and

social. Tastsoglou (1998) argues that citizenship is a sense of belonging, emotional

attachment and identification in a new location. Brah (1996) also speaks of diaspora as

networks of transnational identities encompassing imagined and encountered

communities (see also Barber, 2004). This study reveals that citizenship in refugee camps

has radical implications for gender relations such as power and decision-making

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processes. In refugee camps, the women in this study coped with economic hardship

which they encountered by seeking and accepting various forms of employment more so

than their husbands. A key consequence was an emergent threat to patriarchy and

culturally constituted masculinities. These changes are also reported by several feminist

writers (Pessar and Mahler, 2003; Cockburn, 2004). A more direct threat to masculinities

is reported by Korac (2004) who claims that women can often serve as protectors of their

families in refugee camps. The reactions of men vary from context to context: in my

study, men chose to listen to their wives – which I termed as “false cooperation”. Korac

(2004) claims that Sri Lankan muslin refugee men reacted with violence. The cultural and

contextual differences shown in this discussion, lead this thesis to suggest that further

research on patriarchy and masculinities in refugee camps is necessary to increase our

theoretical understanding of gender relations and migration.

Focusing on citizenship in post-migration to Canada, my study discovers that

Liberian immigrant women in Halifax are regularly educated by staff of immigrant

settlement agencies on the rights of women in Canada. For example, this woman says

“when we arrived, a staff of MISA told me that I should have my own bank account,

because that is the way people do here”. Another woman says “the people [settlement

staff] told me that the child benefit is to be controlled by the woman not the man”. The

experiences of these women confirm that they are regularly encountering people with

new propositions about citizenship, which are capable of influencing changes in their

culturally constituted gender relations. An important question that comes out of this

discussion on citizenship concerns the consequences for family dynamics resulting from

changes in gender relations which accompany transnationalism. For example, do the staff

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of settlement agencies understand the complexities of the possibility that information

which they provide may trigger significant changes in gender relations? Also unanswered

in this research is the extent to which women use the opportunity of living in Canada to

empower themselves and become the decision-makers in the household. However, the

immigrant service providers‟ programming for refugee women confirms the contention

from Morokvasic (1998) that migration accelerates the process of questioning male

power and consciousness raising for women.

This study also shows that all of the women migrants are involved in low-paying

domestic jobs offered mainly to replace the work of Canadian women. This phenomenon

of underemployment reminds us of Pessar‟s (1995) argument that women who migrate to

developed countries are caught in menial and low paying domestic jobs. The author

accuses governments like Canada‟s of classism and gender oppression by bringing in

women from poor countries to do “female jobs” that are rejected by local women. This

argument combined with the findings of my study raises another question as to whether

governments like the Canadian government are deliberately trying to liberate middle-

class women from menial or oppressive domestic jobs by facilitating the migration of

domestic female workers who are subsequently subordinated by Canadian employers,

typically women. These questions deserve ongoing research attention.

The literature also claims that employment and educational opportunities are

prominent among changes which migrants encounter (krahn et al., 2003). My research

shows that access to education is one of the most important changes in the experiences of

Liberian immigrants in Canada.

Ms. Toe: I can go to school here. This was not possible in Liberia. I did not believe before that I would be able to read and write as I do

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today. Now, I can write my name, go to the bank to do business

alone.

Most of the women have learned how to read and write after arriving in Canada. This

new opportunity – access to education - is increasing Liberian immigrant women‟s access

to information, and raising their awareness about rights associated with being a Canadian

citizen. Having discovered that Canadian laws do not allow polygamy, these women are

pressuring their husbands to abandon their second wives completely. The analysis shows

that there is a connection between access to education for these women and an increased

assertiveness in demanding control over their incomes and other aspects of their lives.

Citizenship must also be seen from a broader perspective, particularly in relation

to democracy. There is a link between democracy, the rule of law, and gender relations

within households. Many dictatorial countries are governed by violent men, and have no

regards for the rights of women. For example, there are numerous reports of institutional

abuses of women in countries such as the Sudan, Afghanistan, DR Congo, Egypt,

Parkistan and Liberia. Men who are connected with these institutions easily import such

violent behaviors into their homes. Elson (2004) tells us that the ability of a nation to

uphold the rule of law is a critical element for deterring abuses against women and

promoting freedom and equality between men and women. Feminist writer Hans (2004)

squarely censures the succession of dictatorial governments in Afghanistan for the untold

suffering of women in that country. The voices of the participants in my study suggest

that democracy and the rule of law in a country like Canada can encourage equal gender

relations within families. Hence, differences between Liberia and Canada on these issues

engender changes in gender relations for couples who migrate from the former to the

latter.

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The views of some of the participants on the definition of a household in Canada, refugee

camps and Liberia clearly remind us again to pay a particular attention to gendered

citizenship.

Ms. Tamba: In Canada, it is possible to split from your husband without any problem. You are also free to split your bank account from your husband. Also, there is no polygamy here. In Liberia and refugee camp, the man can marry more than one woman, you cannot argue with him, else he will beat you.

The expression of this woman is the voice of a woman who has encountered a

completely new sense of freedom. Even though she speaks in the absence of her husband,

the sense of freedom is clearly identified in her statement. Pessar (1994) argues that in

post-migration, many women try to avoid oppressive family situations. The freedom of a

woman to separate from her husband and the non-acceptance of polygamy are rights that

are accorded anyone who lives within the borders of Canada. This study reveals that in

Liberia, if an uneducated and unemployed woman like the women in this study takes

such decisions, she is likely to meet physical violence from her husband and will need to

overcome the challenges of losing the economic benefits of being obedient to her

husband. Liberal feminist Mohammed Yunus (2004) tells us a similar story in

Bangladesh.

The absence of a state‟s protection and safety nets makes these challenges more

critical. In the case of Canada, established civil structures prevent women from being

violently abused by their partners for any reason. Also, some of the female participants

indicated that in Canada a woman who is unemployed and loses the financial support of

her husband can in the immediate term survive on social assistance, live in a subsidized

house, and receive food from community food banks. The Liberian women who migrated

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here with their spouses have been informed about these aspects of their new citizenship

and have become assertive in exercising their rights in varying ways as reflected in the

following statement:

Ms. Ansu: Here, the woman has more power in the household than the man. Women have control over child benefits, because maybe they suffer for the children. When we arrived here, our sponsor told me to take full control of all of the money. I refused because I did not want to disrespect my husband. He is not forcing me for anything, so why should I do that. It is against our system. Our traditional system does not allow us to control men. In refugee camp we kept the same tradition.

Liberian immigrant women in Halifax are exercising their new citizenship in

varying ways. Some have found a balance between the rights accorded them as Canadian

residents, and some values of their cultures and religions. For example, Ms. Ansu and her

husband have established a level of partnership that embraces a combination of elements

from their culture and the rights of being a Canadian. Her husband points out that he is

happy that his wife is feeling more secure here about the level of stability and her role in

terms of decision-making in their marriage. Haddad et al (1994) found a similar

consensus within Italian couples in Toronto. The new gendered citizenship framework

within the borders of Canada is recognized by both men and women within the Liberian

immigrant community. For example, Mr. Ansu says, “here, people don‟t talk about head.

That kind of language is not important here. You know, people see you individually. But

in our culture we respect that kind of thing.” I discovered here that both men and women

tend to pay very keen attention to dominant language in the streets, shopping centers,

churches and on televisions.

Spender‟s (1998) conceptualization of gender as a consequence of language has

different implications between Liberia and Canada in some ways. In the comments of Mr.

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Ansu, I see that the meaning of language within Canadian life has strong implications for

gender roles in the lives of Liberian immigrant couples in Halifax. Language serves as a

factor, which engenders changing gender practices within couples (Spencer, 1998).

Previously in Liberia and in refugee camps, the term “head of household” was a

commonplace expression in the daily encounters with aid agencies and even local

cultures and government structures. In the Liberian context, the term “head of household”

is associated with patriarchal ideologies. On the contrary, Canadians do not give any

credence to this term in the same way in which it is gendered within the previous

locations of these Liberian immigrants. However, the key conclusion which I draw here

is that the different ways in which the term “head of household” is conceived of between

Canada, refugee camps, and Liberia, combined with the discourse on freedom and

equality for both men and women in Canada, is making women in the Liberian immigrant

community more assertive about their rights within the household. I also noticed a

decrease in the value and prestige of the title as it was known to these couples before

arriving in Canada.

Gender citizenship in this study contributes to theoretical characterization of the

household. Power struggles over domestic budgeting and labor divisions, and decision-

making processes within the households participating in this study confirm a popular

contention from feminists (Hobson, 1995; Morley, 1995; Miller, 2001; Whitehead, 1995)

that the household is a site of struggles and oppression. Most of the disagreements which

surfaced within Liberian couples after arriving in Canada are focused on money, thereby

coalescing with the argument of Stevi and Moores (1995) that households are

fundamentally economic entities underpinned by economic relations embedded in wider

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socioeconomic structures. I realized that the interests of women and women are different

within the household. Specifically, in the context of post-migration, women seek a fair

sharing of power, while men are hesitant to relinquish their culturally prescribed

dominance.

Still focused on how the household is affected by gender citizenship, I saw in this

study that the loss of economic power for men in refugee camps resulted in what I have

termed a “false cooperation” on the part of men to attend to women‟s concerns. These

Liberian men chose to work consultatively with their wives on many decision-making

issues only because they wanted to protect masculinities and patriarchy from a disgrace

stimulated by their unemployment. I also noticed that women‟s cooperation in this

circumstance was influenced by the need to preserve culture. Hence, they behaved in a

way which I term as “sympathetic” to their husbands. However, there is a sharp contrast

after arriving in Canada. Gender citizenship within the Canadian context presents a

situation of equal opportunities – and perhaps competition, partly guided by laws. In the

Canadian context, cooperation is forced on men by law and demanded by women. False

cooperation and sympathy have disappeared. The women are prepared to dial 911 should

the need arise. Conflict in the context of equal opportunity is possible but the new gender

citizenship norms also suggest possibilities for gendered cultural accommodation by

women and men.

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Chapter Six

Conclusion

The analysis in this study reveals that there is a link between transnational

migration and changing gender relations within the context of Liberian immigrant

families in Halifax, Canada. When the couples in this study moved from Liberia to

refugee camps in other West African countries, there was a change in the employment

status of husbands and wives. Unlike in Liberia, women were employed, while men were

unemployed. This change in employment gradually compelled men into doing domestic

work. Men also realized that they needed to work closely with their wives in decision-

making processes in order to cope with the difficult economic situation of being a

refugee. There were also attempts by men and women to protect patriarchy and

masculinities in the name of maintaining their cultural values. Refugee life, in this

context, transformed the household into a site of compromises, where women became the

biggest losers due to pressure from patriarchy and culture. This thesis argues that there is

a lot more to comprehend about masculinities and patriarchy in refugee contexts, hence

further research, which addresses how masculinities and patriarchy are affected by

refugee contexts is recommended.

In Canada, the situation of employment also changed in a way which allows more

equal opportunity for husbands and wives to work and earn income regularly. Daily

encounters with Canadians are sensitizing Liberian immigrants about Canadian

democracy, and how it promotes the rights of individuals to freely express their views

and take control of their lives. Liberian immigrants are also encountering a dominant

discourse and are receiving citizenship training through immigrant settlement agencies

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which promote male and female equality. As residents of Canada, they are accorded and

benefiting from the rights of learning how to read and write. Consequently, women and

men are independently managing their financial incomes. In households of distant

polygamy, men are unable to use the income of one woman to pay funds to another, but

they can freely remit parts of their incomes with minimum protests from their wives in

Canada. Here, transnationalism and a new gender citizenship have restructured power

dynamics within households, particularly with regards to financial management within

polygamous households. Regarding settlement agencies‟ services, this thesis suggests

more research is necessary to investigate whether their staff are aware of how their work

is influencing gender relations within new immigrant households in Canada.

Language within the Canadian context attributes less power and credence to

gender concepts such as the head of household and the husband, as opposed to the

perceptions in refugee camps and in Liberia. In the streets, at work, in churches and

shopping centers, Liberian immigrants in Halifax are encountering new nuances to

meanings of gendered language and behavior which promote equality between husbands

and wives. As a consequence of these influences, women have become aware and

assertive about their rights within the household. Women are negotiating that men get

involved in domestic work. The men are gradually getting involved, though with a sense

of frustration. The Liberian cultural definition of the head of household is being contested

by women; decision-making processes are reflecting intra-household consultation and an

increased influence of women. As a consequence of migration, language signifies gender

change within the household.

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Power struggles, domination and oppression are central themes within this study.

In reflecting on the decision-making processes about coming to Canada, and the role of

aid agencies, I realized that when women and men are associated, women are likely to be

dominated. I also see in this study that the household is a site of constant and complex

power struggles between husbands and wives, particularly in post-migration contexts. In

these struggles, those who have the power of knowledge like education, the power of

public recognition and the power of money are likely to dominate others if the conditions

(social justice and norms of gender equality) for collaborative partnerships are not

created.

The findings of this thesis also have policy implications. The gradual freedom,

which women experience, shows that by granting resettlement opportunities to refugee

couples from some countries like Liberia in the developing world, the Canadian

government is [indirectly] contributing to global efforts aimed at improving gender

equality. The following quotes provide an excellent summary.

Ms. Toe: I can go to school here. This was not possible in Liberia. I did not believe before that I would be able to read and write as I do today. Now, I can write my name, go to the bank to do business

alone.

Ms. Tamba: In Canada, it is possible to split from your husband without any problem. You are also free to split your bank account from your husband. Also, there is no polygamy here. In Liberia and refugee camp, the man can marry more than one woman, you cannot argue with him, else he will beat you.

Mr. Toe: Men are working at home here [in Canada], so our women are

complaining if we do not wash our own clothes. Also, because, men and women are earning money.

These issues became particularly acute in the settlement of new Canadians and have a

bearing on policies concerning the treatment of new immigrants to Canada. My research

has opened up avenues for further research to explore the complexities of how Liberian

114

immigrants are adjusting to life in Canada. They are subjected to and are interpreting

multiple influences including capitalism, immigrant settlement citizenship, language

training sessions, workplace interactions, encounters in community institutions such as

schools, churches and volunteer agencies. Digital media also provide further powerful

new ideas. We need to better grasp these influences in order to respond to and perhaps

mediate gendered tensions. We also need to better grasp the effects of migration on youth

immigrant communities such as the Liberians in this study.

115

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Appendix I: Consent Form

Title: Transnational Migration and Gender Relations: The Case of Liberian

Immigrant Families in Halifax, Nova Scotia

Principal Researcher: Joseph Nyemah Nyemah

MA student, International Development Studies

339 C, Henry Hicks Building, Dalhousie University,

Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 4H6,

Telephone: (902) *** –***

Email: jnyemah@yahoo.com

Researcher Supervisor: Dr. Pauline Gardiner Barber

Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology

Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS. B3H 3P9

Email: Pauline.Gardiner.Barber@dal.ca

Telephone: (902) 494 -***

Contact person: Joseph Nyemah Nyemah*

*If there are any concerns, questions or comments during the course of this research,

please feel free to get in touch with me using the information listed above.

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Title: Transnational Migration and Gender Relations: The Case of Liberian

Immigrant Families in Halifax, Nova Scotia

________________________________________________________________________

Introduction:

This consent form is mainly written in the Local Liberian English. I have

done so to ensure that everything is clearly explained to participants without the

need for translations.

Step 1: making a telephone call to make a reservation for meeting a couple

Hello, I am Joseph Nyemah, I am calling to seek your permission to come to your

house and discuss my research which I spoke about in our community meeting sometime

ago.

Step 2: at the house of potential interviewees and to be repeated right before an

interview

I am Joseph Nyemah, I am going to school at Dalhousie University in Halifax

here. I am doing a study to write my thesis paper so that I can graduate. The study is

about places you and your husband have passed through from Liberia to Canada, and

how you live and work together as a husband and wife. I am inviting you to take part in

this study if you want. You are not forced to do this. You can decide to stop taking part if

you are not happy at anytime during the process. You and your husband must agree to

take part, but I will talk to each of you separately.

Purpose of the study:

This study is about checking if there are connections between your travel history

and the way you and your husband live and work together. It will help me to understand

this kind of talk about travel and the way husbands and wives live and work together.

131

Title: Transnational Migration and Gender Relations: The Case of Liberian

Immigrant Families in Halifax, Nova Scotia

________________________________________________________________________

Study Design:

If you agree, you will spend about one and a half hours of your time for a face-to-

face interview. Only you (one person at a time) and me will be present during the

interview. The interview will be recorded on a tape if you agree. At any point during the

interview you can request that the recorder be turned off or a specific thing removed.

Who can participate in the Study?

You are qualified to take part in this study because you live together with your

husband/ wife. You can take part if you are interested in providing information related to

the history of your travel from Liberia to Canada. You will talk about you and your

partner. Your role is to provide information that will allow me to understand the

connections between your travel history and the way you live and work with your

partner.

Who will be Conducting the Research?

I, Joseph Nyemah will do the study. My supervisor is Dr. Pauline Gardiner

Barber, a professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Dalhousie

University.

What you will be asked to do:

The interview is designed to last for about one and a half hours. Several long

questions will be asked which will allow you to freely provide information on the

experiences of you and your marital life concerning travels. I will ask you to talk about

work, salaries, how you take decision about work, money, food, number of children to

born and many issues between you and your husband or wife, and life in Canada.

132

Title: Transnational Migration and Gender Relations: The Case of Liberian

Immigrant Families in Halifax, Nova Scotia

________________________________________________________________________

Possible Risks and Discomforts:

As a Liberian, talking about travel history is likely to remind you of any life–

threatening moments related to the civil war in that country. Talking about you and your

married couple could expose what you consider as secret for you and your relationship.

You and your partner will be interviewed separately. If the information you will disclose

to me is passed on to your partner and he/ she is not happy, your relationship could be in

trouble. Also, spending one and half hours for an interview might not make you happy.

To deal with these likely risks and discomforts, you can choose to not tell me anything

you regard as too risky to reveal. If you choose to tell me, I will protect your privacy. The

information you and your partner will give to me will not be exchanged between you

through me. I will make use of the referral services of the African Diaspora Association

of the Maritimes (ADAM) if you need such support as a result of the information you

will give to me. You can end the interview if you are tired to continue answering

questions or not happy at any time.

Possible Benefits:

There is no direct benefit for you in taking part in this study. However, the

information you give will help people who are working with immigrants to better

understanding their life situations.

Compensation:

You will receive no financial pay for taking part in this study. However, I will

give you two tickets for your transportation to the interview location. I will also buy you

a cup of coffee during the interview. I will also be willing to give you copies of the thesis

if you accept.

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Title: Transnational Migration and Gender Relations: The Case of Liberian

Immigrant Families in Halifax, Nova Scotia

________________________________________________________________________

Anonymity and Confidentiality:

The interview will gather a lot of personal and confidential information about you

and your partner. Because of this risk, I will make efforts to protect your identities. Your

name will never be written at anytime during or after the interview. If any names are used

in the report, they will be false names. The recorded tape will not be given to anyone

except you, me, and unlikely my supervisor. The supervisor will not know your name and

is well trained about protecting the privacy of people. You may ask to get copies of the

recorded tape and notes from the interview. But this might risk your partner seeing it. I

will transfer the recorded information on papers, and delete everything on the tape. I will

also interview your partner. The information each of you will give me will never be

exchanged between you through me. I will give you a card with contact information that

you can use if you have any questions, difficulties with, or wish to voice concern about,

any aspect of your participation in this study.

Oral acceptance:

You agree to allow the interview to be audio-taped: Yes_ No _.

You give permission to use direct quotes: Yes _, No_.

You are aware that your spouse will be interviewed separately, and accept that you will not

know the result of his/ her interview: Yes_ No _

You accept the selected location for the interview Yes ___ No ___

134