Leisure Places: Canada

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Leisure PlacesCanadas Ethnic Minority Youth

• Susan Tirone, PhD
• School of Health and Human Performance
• Dalhousie University
• This study was funded in part by Canadian
  Heritage Multiculturalism Program

2
Introduction

• Two ways of understanding space
• Determined by coordinates we can find it on a
  map
• Or, psychologically meaningful situations

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Leisure

• Defined by freedom, autonomy, choice
• Important source of social networks, social
  supports
• Also has an element of individualism

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Leisure, Space and Place

• Helpful for understanding the experience of
  leisure among youth in a longitudinal study
  conducted in 2 parts
• 1996-97
• 2001

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Studies of South Asian immigrants and their
children

• 1991
• Immigrants women and leisure
• 1996-97
• Children of immigrants, mean age 18
• 2001
• Re-visit children, mean age 23
• This data is from the second visit to the young
  people interviewed in 2001

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Participants

• 1996/97 2001
• Female, Hindu, age Married, univ. grad, works
  FT
• Female, Muslim, Teachers college
• Male, Catholic, Grad school P/T,
• Owns computer business
• Female, Hindu Undergrad (Math)
• Female, Catholic Undergrad, in US
• Female, Christian Undergrad,
• Female, Sikh Grad school, in US
• Female, Sikh Dentistry student

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Participants

•   1996-97 2001
• Female, Sikh N/A, living in Europe
• Male, Sikh Pharmacist
• Female, Muslim N/A
• Male, Muslim N/A
• Male, Muslim N/A
• Female, Catholic N/A
• Male, Muslim N/A
•  

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Leisure Places Encountering traditional cultural
practices

• I wish I was closer with more of the Indian
  community. (Rehka)
•  
• I think its kind of like a Punjabi thing. Most
  Indians I know are Punjabi I dont know a whole
  lot of Indians outside of Punjabis, and theres
  jus this nice, down to earth kind of thing with a
  lot of them. I like that. Kaila
•  
• I think the older I get the more I cant really
  think of what the words would be I guess I am
  more proud of my culture, ad I am a lot more
  willing and wanting to help others learn about
  it. Sandia

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Traditional places

• When I finished school and went back home, that
  was very difficult, because, like I said, when I
  was on my own, I could do what I wanted to do,
  with very minimal supervision. Now back at home
  where it is very strict . . . I couldnt even
  make long distance calls to see how they (friends
  from university) were doing and when they called
  me, they couldnt call after nine and things like
  that . . I hate to say but it was like jail time
  coming back again. Rani

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Leisure Places Dominant cultural spaces

• If Im maybe with more Indians, if Im with just
  happen to be meeting up with maybe some family or
  friends or something. Then I might be more Indian
  that day in the sense that like I can discuss
  certain things with them that only pertain to
  Indian culture. But then when Im with you know
  with my North American friends or my Canadian
  friends you know like I cant you know talk about
  stuff like that to them you know and so you know
  then Ill talk about you know the other side of
  me . . . In those cases I can be more Canadian
  that day. Sandia

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More dominant places

• Well the Canadian culture, its so, I guess, its
  so open, you can be who you want to be. You can
  be anything you want to be . . . its very sort
  of open minded, its not as restrictive
•  
• You are only under your parents wing for so long,
  and eventually you go to school like my friend
  did, where all of a sudden he is no longer under
  the restrictions of these very, very traditional
  rules, and he can do whatever he wants, and it
  creates a lot of problems because the parents
  dont seem to understand that you know, youre
  not raising your kids in India, youre raising
  him in Canada, where the assumptions and the
  stereotypes and the values of the people around
  you are fundamentally different than your own.
  Stephen
•  

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Leisure Place Multicultural spaces

• I have four different Asian people living in the
  house and one Canadian and one Filipino, so its
  very different. So we have these cultural nights
  where we all cook our own food from our
  backgrounds and have everyone else feat on it.
  Its kind of good. Beena
• Im sort of a whole bunch of people sort of
  rolled up in one and I guess part of that sort of
  comes from being from one background. And like I
  said cause I never really grew up with sort of in
  the whole big Indian community . . .Im not
  really Indian, like my background I am, but I
  dont really consider myself Indian you know. At
  the same time Im not fully mainstream Canadian
  either. . . and I sort of have a wide variety of
  tastes. Priya

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More Multicultural Spaces

• I moved to university and it is very, very
  diverse and you meet a lot of new people and
  pretty much are exposed to everything in a short
  period of time, so it really opens your eyes,
  especially coming from a small town and going
  into university life, its very different. Beena
• I met friends from high school who have a lived
  in the same area all their lives, and they have
  such a microscopic view of the world. I mean to
  them the world is Toronto, or Mississauga, or
  what have you. Whereas through traveling, just
  your appreciations for other cultures, other
  people, other religions, other ideas in general,
  is greater . . . Stephen

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One more thought . . .

• I think they (her future children) will naturally
  lose like cultural ties and, its weird because
  on the one hand, you know theyre going to be
  brown, you know, so I always get this feeling,
  like you know theyre never going to totally fit
  in and so it would be nice if they knew something
  of their own background instead of being like
  homeless. Not literally homeless, but, its hard
  to describe because a lot of times you think you
  fit in when youre older and you think
  everythings fine and then you'll hear a racial
  slur or just something like really stupid
  comment, right. And then you realize Ok, youre
  still different. Kaila

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Discussion

• Little attachment to place, in the geographic
  sense
• Deep psychological attachments to 3 places
  characterized by
• Minority ethnic traditions
• Dominant culture
• Multicultural, diversity
• It is leisure that occurs in all three
• Leisure facilitates entry and exit to and from
  these places

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What does it mean

• I am not surprised that they experience leisure
  this way
• I am surprised the ease of entry and exit
• Keep in mind that place does not mean geographic
  place
• For the youth it is the meaning attached to the
  experience that occurs in various places
• Keep in mind, Atlantic Canada needs highly
  skilled workers, new business development

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Places Good and not so good

• Home and traditional space
• Oppressive
• Dominant space
• Racist
• Multicultural space
• Seems to the best place for rich leisure
  experiences

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What does it mean for us??

• Leisure is important in the lives of the youth
• Will they stay in Atlantic Canada, if they have
  few opportunities for leisure in 3 places????
• Family
• Dominant culture
• Multicultural

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Next study

• Overview of issues facing minority ethnic youth
  in Atlantic Canada
• Key informants
• May lead to large study to determine how to make
  NS, NB, PEI and NF a place where minority youth
  will want to live out their lives