Absent husbands, settled wives: a study on the leisure constraints of Chinese immigrant women in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
Subject
Abstract
During recent decades, waves of Chinese immigration to Canada from Hong Kong and Mainland China have been witnessed. For many Chinese immigrant families, the wives have settled in Canada while their spouses have remained in China, mainly for economic reasons. Several studies examine Chinese immigrants’ leisure constraints in Australia, the United States and Canada; however, little attention has been given specifically to the leisure constraints of female Chinese immigrants. The purpose of this study is to explore the leisure constraints of Chinese immigrant women by examining the leisure constraints of a specific population among them: the Chinese immigrant women in Richmond, British Columbia (Canada) whose spouses spend much of their time working in China. This study employed an interpretivist/constructivist paradigm and a qualitative approach. Two methods were used to collect data: document analysis and semi-structured interviews. Interview participants were recruited through snowball and purposive sampling methods. Findings conclude that time, interpersonal and intrapersonal constraints were the most significant leisure constraints for women in relation to maintaining their leisure preferences. Financial and intrapersonal constraints were the most significant constraints to beginning new leisure preferences. In addition, embedded in these constraints, cultural factors, such as the ideology of women affected by Chinese culture and the concept of “mutual-face”, influenced participants’ leisure constraints after immigration.