"I'm Divorcing Because I Drank Lake Ontario": Marital Breakdown in Ghanaian Immigrant Families in Toronto

Abstract

Much of the recent research on immigrant women in Canada has been focused on women from Asia perhaps due to the relatively large number of immigrants who have arrived in Canada in the past two decades from that part of the world. But it is also a fact that a significant minority of immigrants, including women, have come from the African Diaspora and made Canada their home. These African women have influenced and have in turn been influenced by Canadian culture. Yet there is relative dearth of information about them as women and as immigrants. The relative dearth of information about African immigrant women skews our understanding of the Black experience in Canada. This article fills a gap in the literature by examining the dynamics of gender roles and expectations in Ghanaian immigrant families.