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Abstract

This essay is an ethnographic account of the lives of Punjabi Sikh women cannery workers in northern British Columbia. Using the concept of difference as an analytical tool, I am extending the analysis beyond the intersections of the differences of race, class, and gender to include regional, ethnic, age and caste variations among the members of this community in order to illustrate the complexities of being a South Asian Canadian woman. By employing individual socio-histories and narratives based on work life, my descriptions revolve around the difficult and rewarding aspects of being an immigrant in the larger Canadian context. As well, I am describing the contradictions and tensions present in raising children in the West while continuing to be a member of an immigrant community which bases some of its norms and accepted behaviours on a displaced Punjabi context.