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Reclaiming voice: Challenges and opportunities for immigrant women learning English

January 2009

By Kenise Murphy Kilbride, Ryerson University and colleagues with Vappu Tyyska, Rachel Berman, Mehrunnisa Ali, Isaac Woungang, Sepali Guruge, Laurie Clune, Susanna Edwards, Ryerson University and Robert Cazzola, COSTI

Overview

Many immigrants, both men and women, arrive in Canada fluent in English because this is one of the major factors in the point system upon which acceptance to Canada is based. Nevertheless, many adult women who arrive as dependants or as sponsored family members not only do not speak English upon arrival, but also are still unable to speak it during subsequent census enumerations.

In our research, we were interested in finding out:

1. Who are the immigrant women who are not proficient in English, and what are the obstacles or challenges they face in acquiring this proficiency?
2. Is there any program, group, or individual with a successful way to surmount any of these challenges in a reasonable amount of time? If so, how can these methods best be disseminated and replicated?