Mating, Dating and Marriage: Intergenerational Cultural Retention and the Construction of Diasporic Identities among South Asian Immigrants in Canada

The research on which this paper is based explores the ways in which identity is negotiated among South Asian women living in Canada. Based on face-to-face interviews of 40 first- and second-generation women, the study provides an examination of cultural retention and transmission, with a specific focus on mate selection, dating and marriage. The ways in which diasporic identities are constructed is dependent upon how ‘traditional’ culture is incorporated and how the group itself is inserted into the country of settlement. The research illustrates that traditions around marriage are an important part of immigrant identity construction and brings attention to the intersections of various social identities which structure the lives of immigrant women. Marriage practices and gender norms play a central part in how the immigrant experience unfolds and how identities are constructed across social boundaries which intersect and impact on one another.