Pinay on the Prairies

A pioneering look at the experiences of Filipino women in Canada’s Prairie provinces.

An investigation into the experiences of Filipino women in Canada’s Prairie provinces, which reveals much about their understanding of transnational identities, feminism, migration, diaspora, and the rubric of multiculturalism.

For many Filipinos, one word – kumusta, how are you – is all it takes to forge a connection with a stranger anywhere in the world. In Canada’s Prairie provinces, this connection has inspired community building and created both national and transnational identities for the women who identify as Pinay. This book is the first to look beyond traditional metropolitan hubs of settlement to explore the migration of Filipino women in Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. Based on interviews with first-generation immigrant Filipino women and temporary foreign workers, this book explores how the shared experience of migration forms the basis for new identities, communities, transnational ties, and multiple levels of belonging in Canada. A groundbreaking look at the experience of Filipino women in Canada, Bonifacio’s work is simultaneously an investigation of feminism, migration, diaspora, and the rubric of multiculturalism in a global era.