Multicultural Politics and the Paradox of Being Special: Interrogating Immigrant Women’s Activism and the Voice of Difference

Authors

Jane S. C. Ku, University of WindsorFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2013

Publication Title

Journal of International Women's Studies

Volume

10

Issue

4

First Page

65

Keywords

activism, native informant, immigrant community organizations

Last Page

84

Abstract

Interviews with racialized minority immigrant women activist-managers in immigrant service sector in Toronto, Canada demonstrate how women construct their activist identities. An antiracist postcolonial feminist framework is used to explore their narrative strategies and to show that their activist possibilities are constrained by their identities. Activism is limited to advocating for their ethnic community in multicultural politics that is structured by postcolonial “speaking” configuration that allows “native informants” to represent their communities as culturally alien and to authorize state management of racial and ethnic differences. The interviews also show the complexities of immigrant women’s political agency as they navigate the limiting politics.

Comments

This article was first published in the Journal of International Women's Studies. Please visit the journal online to access addition articles.

Recommended Citation

Ku, Jane S. C.. (2013). Multicultural Politics and the Paradox of Being Special: Interrogating Immigrant Women’s Activism and the Voice of Difference. Journal of International Women's Studies, 10 (4), 65-84.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/socanthpub/1