Importing Feminisms: Racialized Migrants and Anti-Violence Activism

Within Western liberal democracies, narratives characterizing racialized migrants as threats to gender equality abound. As forms of knowledge about the “other,” these Orientalist assumptions resonate as common sense. In an attempt to denaturalize these characterizations, this discussion asks: what strategies for overcoming gender violence do racialized migrants import with them to the countries in which they settle? Drawing on interviews with service providers involved in the design and delivery of ethno-specific anti-violence programming in Toronto, Canada, this discussion explores this question to develop preliminary insights on racialized migrant feminisms as both a concept and practice.