Speaker
Description
This presentation explores how two refugee families adjusted to life through leisure in the City of Montréal, Québec, Canada. Between 2019 and 2022, we conducted an ethnography alongside two newcomer families from Chad, Africa. Our analysis yielded three prominent themes that we explore throughout this presentation: First, we explore how numerous social and cultural factors impeded newcomers’ engagement in various leisure activities. For example, our participants experienced severe exhaustion as single mothers in a foreign land trying to discover new leisure opportunities for their children whist juggling other personal and professional responsibilities. Next, we explore how conflicting definitions of leisure among newcomers and their children resulted in several disagreements about free time. For example, while children preferred spending their leisure time with friends or on the internet, both mothers prioritized school, family, and social advancement over any type of leisure pursuit. Finally, we examine how various socio-economic inequalities in Montréal were ultimately enhanced during the global pandemic, making life more difficult and stressful for our participants. Consequently, the ability to engage in—or even contemplate—leisure pursuits was severely complicated by the “chaos monde” (Glissant, 1990) of resettlement during unprecedented times.
