“We Don’t Integrate; We Adapt:” Latin American Immigrants Interpret Their Canadian Employment Experiences in Southwestern Ontario

Abstract

The present study uses in-depth interviews with Latin American immigrants residing in Southwestern Ontario to explore how the immigrants interpret their experiences with employment and, more specifically, how the employment experiences influence their perceived integration into the receiving communities. My research findings suggest that skilled immigrants (especially those professionals selected through Canada’s point system) arrive in Southwestern Ontario fully intending to integrate, but their inability to find suitable employment hinders close interaction with the receiving communities. Family and humanitarian class immigrants, who tend to be less skilled, give little thought to acculturation prior to migration. Once in Canada, they evaluate the receiving communities as satisfying their basic employment needs, and as a result, they interact slightly more with the receiving communities’ norms, values and people. Differences between the two immigrant groups notwithstanding, my data show little evidence of frequent and intense interactions between the Latin American immigrants and Canadian-born members of the receiving society. The research participants appear to relate to the receiving society on an as-needed basis; none appear to be aggressively searching for and absorbing new things and meeting new people. Interestingly, there is also little evidence of the Latin American immigrants relating to each other.