The experience of immigration : the case of Iranian women

This study investigated the question: What is the experience of immigration for Iranian women? This was accomplished by using an existential-phenomenological approach. The study included four adult single female co-researchers who had migrated to Canada from Iran and, by their own reckoning, were feeling settled in this country. The co-researchers were asked to describe their experience of immigration, from the beginning to the time they felt adjusted. The descriptions were audio-taped and transcribed. The analysis of these descriptions was conducted according to the method described by Colaizzi (1978). From the four descriptions thirty-two themes were derived. These themes were clarified and woven into a narrative description of the experience of immigration. Highlighted in the narrative description were five significant phases involved in the process which depicted an approximate symmetry of experiences. These significant experiences included sense of loss and attachment to the homeland, awareness of differences and conflicts, sense of self-invalidation and disorientation, reviewing oneself and the situation and sense of personal growth, stability and deriving meaning from the experience.Education, Faculty ofEducational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department ofGraduat