“Narrative Beginnings and Lived Experiences in (Re) Shaping Stories to Live by: Embracing Multicultural Worlds through Narrative Inquiry.”

This thesis explores, through narrative inquiry methodology, the understanding about identity making when entering and living in a new world. More specifically, this thesis focuses on understanding, through narrative inquiry, how immigrants that chose Canada as a place to live and compose a new storied life, (re)shape their lives, their stories to live by, across multicultural landscapes. Initially driven by a narrative beginnings context, I engage in an autobiographical narrative, inquiring into my own stories as an immigrant from Brazil, embedded on understanding who we are and who we are becoming, when (re)shaping lives in motion; lives in the context of the multiplicity of worlds and identities. In addition, through the voices of David and Sam (participants of this research), and more specifically, through excerpts (transcripts) from the interviews with David and Sam, this thesis connects the sense of being an immigrant, embedded in a multicultural world, with how we (re)shape our stories to live by, as we compose lived stories in a new place. Within this perspective, this thesis demonstrates, inspired by the voices of David and Sam, how that at the same time we immigrants, paradoxically, try to keep our identities and to maintain our culture within a plurality of worlds and a plurality of lived experiences, we, can shift our identities in relation to the sense of living and belonging to a place. Lastly, this thesis also stresses the importance and the role of the community-based organizations that support newcomers, immigrants, and refugees. Precisely, through the voices of David and Sam, this thesis demonstrates how the support and some programs offered by community-based organizations affect and shape the context of identity making when living in a new world composing new stories to live by. In the discussion, I argue that embracing multicultural worlds through narrative inquiry can explore the understanding of identity making, (re)shaping ourselves, interwoven with being at ease in a ‘new world’ and the sense of happiness and openness to new cultures and stories. In addition, in the discussion, I claim about the importance and the intersection of the necessity of community-based organizations for newcomers in (re)shaping our stories to live by