Canadian Race Relations Foundation

In earlier times women immigrants from Third World countries were referred to as 'visible minority women,' 'women of color,' 'Third World women,' and 'immigrant women.' Scholars critiqued these names for the values and assumptions underlining them, as for example, in the neutral sounding label 'immigrant women.' Although the term 'immigrant woman' refers to the legal status of women in everyday usage it is commonly understood to focus on the individual's lack of English language facility and to her working-class status. Although there is no consensus on the most appropriate way to refer to them, it is useful to groups women immigrant from Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean together for the intersection of gender, race, and class to create commonalities of experience among them and to provide useful cross-cultural comparisons. (p. 3).