“We have found a small Albania here.” The immigration experiences of Albanian women in Canada

Abstract

This thesis examines the settlement and integration experiences of Albanian immigrant women in Canada, situating their personal trajectories within the broader historical contexts of Albanian emigration and Canadian immigration. While Albanian migration to Canada has a history extending over more than a century, larger numbers of Albanians began arriving in the 1990s, following the profound political, economic, and social transformations that reshaped Albania and the wider Albanian-speaking world. Drawing on an oral history approach, the study foregrounds women’s voices to explore how they experienced migration, early settlement, and longer-term integration, and how prior lives in Albania, Kosovo, or North Macedonia continue to shape their identities, family roles, and community participation in Canada. The thesis argues that migration does not simply place Albanian women into a new social environment; rather, it produces an ongoing negotiation between inherited norms, personal agency, and the opportunities and constraints of Canadian institutional and social life. Attention is paid to the emotional, legal, and logistical challenges women encountered, as well as to their cultural, economic, educational, and social integration. By linking individual narratives to wider historical processes, including war, political transition, and transnational mobility, the study shows that Albanian women’s experiences in Canada are marked by resilience, downward mobility followed by recovery, and a simultaneous process of cultural preservation and adaptation. In doing so, it contributes to broader discussions on immigrant women’s integration, gendered migration, and transnational identity formation within the Canadian context.