P Okeke-Ihejirika
Biographic Data
| ID | 48075 |
|---|---|
| NAME | P Okeke-Ihejirika |
| GIVEN NAMES | P |
| FAMILY NAME | Okeke-Ihejirika |
| SIGNATURE | OKEKE-IHEJIRIKA P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Alberta |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1012-4539 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 48 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Between cultures and traditions
Immigrant adolescents in Canada face challenges accessing accurate sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information and services. Many challenges stem from taboos associated with SRH, cultural and religious restrictions, and social beliefs regarding the unnecessity of SRH education for adolescents. We explored the SRH experiences of immigrant adolescents in the context of their cultural and religious perspectives. We engaged adolescents as collab…
The Children Are Not Controllable Because They Follow Western Values” - Narratives of the Parenting Experiences of African Immigrants in Alberta, Canada
“I feel like I’m just nowhere”
The forms and adverse effects of insecurities among internally displaced children in Ethiopia
Successful relocation and reintegration of IDPs would help to alleviate both parent and child post-conflict stressors. Managing and following up on economic reintegration efforts is needed in both the short and long term. Such measures will help to achieve goals for specific projects attached to donor support outcomes, consequently enabling social support and conflict resolution management efforts
Introduction
Currently, at 272 million globally, the number of international migrants across the globe already exceeds the projections of many experts for 2050 (IOM, 2020). Emigrants from the developing regions to Western industrialized countries constitute a significant proportion of these recent global migrants and, not surprisingly, have attracted a fair share of this debate. Until the past decade, research on migrants to Western host societies has focusse…
Intimate Partner Violence Interventions within Immigrant Populations
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a widespread issue in immigrant communities and has severe implications for well-being and safety. With a limited body of knowledge on IPV in Canadian immigrant communities that only scarcely informs or enhances existing programs and services, this scoping review focused on existing interventions across G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States) for more answe…
African Immigrant’s Women Experiences on Extended Family Relations
African immigrants are increasingly migrating to high-income countries, including Canada, in search of a better life. These immigrants often face several challenges, such as keeping healthy ties with their extended families back home and in a new socio-cultural context. We present findings from a participatory action research (PAR) study of Sub-Saharan African immigrants and refugees (SSAIRs) living in Alberta, Canada. Using the theoretical frame…
Mobilizing communities and families for child mental health promotion in Canada
Managing the rising tide of Nigerian migrants to the West—A policy vacuum or a structural challenge
This analysis explores the growing attraction of migrants to destinations perceived as better pastures as well as the roots and consequences of international migration, especially for irregular migrants. The findings of two focus group discussions with Nigerian scholars, policymakers, service providers, and members of society suggest: (1) public policy on international migration should consider the social, political, and economic challenges that …
Immigrants and the Western media
In this paper, we utilised a critical discourse analysis methodology to highlight the discursive representation of African immigrant parenting in Canadian newspapers. We explored unquestioned ideologies and assumptions about African immigrant families and their parenting practices. We analysed 37 newspaper articles, after screening 635 records retrieved from the Canadian Newsstand database. Our analysis revealed discursive patterns that: (1) refl…
Parent–Child Relationships Among African Immigrant Families in Canada
Objective To examine the factors that influence parent–child relationships in African immigrant families in Alberta, Canada. Background African immigrants are increasingly migrating to high‐income countries, including Canada, in search of a better life. These immigrants often face several challenges, including parenting their children in new sociocultural contexts. We present findings from a critical ethnographic study of parent–child relationshi…
A Scoping Review on Intimate Partner Violence in Canada’s Immigrant Communities
Canada relies on newcomers for population growth, labor supply, and cultural diversity. Newcomers, in turn, see Canada as a haven of economic opportunities. However, the extent to which these mutual benefits can be realized depends on how well newcomers fare in Canada. Intimate partner violence (IPV) significantly undermines immigrants’ capacity to rebuild their lives in host societies. As in other Western democracies, recent immigrants and refug…
“If You Say You Have Mental Health Issues, Then You Are Mad”
The health and wellbeing of African children and families, as an emerging demographic, is of interest and concern to various stakeholders in Canada. Yet, few studies have examined how parents and other members of the African community perceive the concept of mental health. This paper examines the perceptions of mental health of African community members concerning parenting children of African heritage. We used critical ethnography and transnatio…
Re-envisioning Resilience from African Immigrants’ Perspectives
Investigations into immigrant resilience are now being called for in scholarly reviews of literature, policy, and practice related to immigrants, following decades in which the challenges they face in or pose to Western host societies took centre stage. Focusing on resilience not only recognizes immigrants’ strengths and contributions to their new homelands, but also creates a fertile landscape to explore possible pathways to optimize migration o…
Beyond Blackness
Beyond Blackness: Sub-Saharan African Immigrant Knowledges and Agency in Canada Philomina Okeke-Ihejirika (bio) Over the past two decades, research on immigrants and refugees (henceforth referred to as “immigrants”) in Canada has revolved around their struggles to rebuild self and family, and hopefully transition into fully participating Canadians.1 In many studies, immigrants are often presented as helpless or needy newcomers requiring the inter…
Reproductive healthcare for women in IDP camps in Nigeria
Health and health service access for women displaced by terrorism from Northeast Nigeria is a serious problem. Existing government and humanitarian initiatives in Northeast Nigeria focus on food, security, housing, water and sanitation to the neglect of health access needs, especially access to reproductive health. With no policy in place and very little existing research, the systemic influences surrounding IDP women's health in Nigeria are not …
Canada’s Sub-Saharan African migrants
Outlier by Necessity
Parenting challenges of African immigrants in Alberta, Canada
African immigrant children and youth have some of the poorest social and mental health outcomes in Canada. Although parenting challenges have been widely documented as a key driver of these outcomes, limited systematic research has investigated this phenomenon. In this paper, we report the results of a study examining parenting challenges among a sample of African immigrant parents in Alberta, Canada. We relied on the theoretical lens of transnat…
Beyond poverty fixation
This paper draws on fieldwork at three camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Northeast Nigeria. It interrogates the pre-displacement experiences of participants, their transition to and experiences of internal displacement, vignettes of life at IDP camps, their relationship with host communities, the non-universality of experiences of sexual and gender-based violence among female IDPs (despite the particularities of experiences of wome…
African immigrant women’s transition and integration into Canadian society
This article contributes to an emergent body of research that explores African immigrant women’s experiences in Western destination countries. Foregrounding these immigrant women’s voices in this research, we aim to better understand the challenges they grapple with as newcomers to Canada. Specifically, our study sought to explore the stressors they faced within and outside the family and how these stressors mediate their transition and integrati…
Support Programs for Women Survivors of Sexualized Gender-Based Violence From African Conflict Zones
The increasing attention paid to sexualized gender-based violence (GBV) against women in African conflict zones by the international community is a welcome development to many stakeholders, including scholars, policy makers, human rights advocates, international organizations, and nongovernmental organizations. Little is known, however, about the experiences of survivors who end up in Western host countries, such as Canada, as newcomers. Much les…
African immigrant women’s experience in western host societies
There is a dearth of literature on new African immigrant populations in Canada, especially women from Sub-Saharan Africa. Much of the sparse literature focuses on men’s experiences. We analyzed the sparse literature on African immigrant women in western host countries with a focus on previous and emerging trends in the discourse, gaps in literature, important areas for consideration in future research as well as potentially viable theoretically a…
Belonging and Transnational Refugee Settlement
Jay Marlowe’s Belonging and Transnational Refugee Settlement: Unsettling the Everyday and the Extraordinary makes a strategic entry into current academic discourses on the unprecedented global rise in forced migration and various forms of displacement. His focus on a multifaceted understanding of belonging repositions the conventional refugee settlement narrative. With a theoretical anchor on belonging, Marlowe examines integration and settlement…
Men Become Baby Dolls and Women Become Lions
Over the past decade, scholars have begun to explore neglected aspects of immigrant family life such as gender relations, domestic violence, parenting, and relationships with service providers. Many of these studies, however, are based on women's experiences. As an equally crucial starting point in building sustainable and resilient immigrant communities, our study focuses on the experiences of African immigrant men in a Canadian context. It reve…
African immigrant women’s transition and integration into Canadian society
This article contributes to an emergent body of research that explores African immigrant women’s experiences in Western destination countries. Foregrounding these immigrant women’s voices in this research, we aim to better understand the challenges they grapple with as newcomers to Canada. Specifically, our study sought to explore the stressors they faced within and outside the family and how these stressors mediate their transition and integrati…
Men Become Baby Dolls and Women Become Lions
Over the past decade, scholars have begun to explore neglected aspects of immigrant family life such as gender relations, domestic violence, parenting, and relationships with service providers. Many of these studies, however, are based on women's experiences. As an equally crucial starting point in building sustainable and resilient immigrant communities, our study focuses on the experiences of African immigrant men in a Canadian context. It reve…
Democratization and State Feminism
This article addresses the link between state feminism and democratization in the global South. The authors use the contrasting cases of Chile and Nigeria to show some of the factors that encourage women to exploit the opportunities presented by transitions to democracy, and link the outcome of state feminism to the strategies and discourses available to women during democratization. Based on evidence from the cases analysed, the authors propose …
Parenting challenges of African immigrants in Alberta, Canada
African immigrant children and youth have some of the poorest social and mental health outcomes in Canada. Although parenting challenges have been widely documented as a key driver of these outcomes, limited systematic research has investigated this phenomenon. In this paper, we report the results of a study examining parenting challenges among a sample of African immigrant parents in Alberta, Canada. We relied on the theoretical lens of transnat…
Managing the rising tide of Nigerian migrants to the West—A policy vacuum or a structural challenge
This analysis explores the growing attraction of migrants to destinations perceived as better pastures as well as the roots and consequences of international migration, especially for irregular migrants. The findings of two focus group discussions with Nigerian scholars, policymakers, service providers, and members of society suggest: (1) public policy on international migration should consider the social, political, and economic challenges that …
Beyond poverty fixation
This paper draws on fieldwork at three camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Northeast Nigeria. It interrogates the pre-displacement experiences of participants, their transition to and experiences of internal displacement, vignettes of life at IDP camps, their relationship with host communities, the non-universality of experiences of sexual and gender-based violence among female IDPs (despite the particularities of experiences of wome…
Immigrants and the Western media
In this paper, we utilised a critical discourse analysis methodology to highlight the discursive representation of African immigrant parenting in Canadian newspapers. We explored unquestioned ideologies and assumptions about African immigrant families and their parenting practices. We analysed 37 newspaper articles, after screening 635 records retrieved from the Canadian Newsstand database. Our analysis revealed discursive patterns that: (1) refl…
Mobilizing communities and families for child mental health promotion in Canada
Asserting Agency by Negotiating Patriarchy
This paper focuses on how African women negotiate the administrative structures of universities as subordinates as well as agents, based on three Nigerian examples. Gender relations within these institutions capture the unequal social status that formal education usually confers on women and men along with its cultural and colonial inscriptions. But as disenabling as this tertiary academic terrain might be, Nigerian women still find ways to negot…
Democratization and State Feminism
This article addresses the link between state feminism and democratization in the global South. The authors use the contrasting cases of Chile and Nigeria to show some of the factors that encourage women to exploit the opportunities presented by transitions to democracy, and link the outcome of state feminism to the strategies and discourses available to women during democratization. Based on evidence from the cases analysed, the authors propose …
Asserting Agency by Negotiating Patriarchy
This paper focuses on how African women negotiate the administrative structures of universities as subordinates as well as agents, based on three Nigerian examples. Gender relations within these institutions capture the unequal social status that formal education usually confers on women and men along with its cultural and colonial inscriptions. But as disenabling as this tertiary academic terrain might be, Nigerian women still find ways to negot…
Support Programs for Women Survivors of Sexualized Gender-Based Violence From African Conflict Zones
The increasing attention paid to sexualized gender-based violence (GBV) against women in African conflict zones by the international community is a welcome development to many stakeholders, including scholars, policy makers, human rights advocates, international organizations, and nongovernmental organizations. Little is known, however, about the experiences of survivors who end up in Western host countries, such as Canada, as newcomers. Much les…
African immigrant women’s experience in western host societies
There is a dearth of literature on new African immigrant populations in Canada, especially women from Sub-Saharan Africa. Much of the sparse literature focuses on men’s experiences. We analyzed the sparse literature on African immigrant women in western host countries with a focus on previous and emerging trends in the discourse, gaps in literature, important areas for consideration in future research as well as potentially viable theoretically a…
Belonging and Transnational Refugee Settlement
Jay Marlowe’s Belonging and Transnational Refugee Settlement: Unsettling the Everyday and the Extraordinary makes a strategic entry into current academic discourses on the unprecedented global rise in forced migration and various forms of displacement. His focus on a multifaceted understanding of belonging repositions the conventional refugee settlement narrative. With a theoretical anchor on belonging, Marlowe examines integration and settlement…
Men Become Baby Dolls and Women Become Lions
Over the past decade, scholars have begun to explore neglected aspects of immigrant family life such as gender relations, domestic violence, parenting, and relationships with service providers. Many of these studies, however, are based on women's experiences. As an equally crucial starting point in building sustainable and resilient immigrant communities, our study focuses on the experiences of African immigrant men in a Canadian context. It reve…
African immigrant women’s transition and integration into Canadian society
This article contributes to an emergent body of research that explores African immigrant women’s experiences in Western destination countries. Foregrounding these immigrant women’s voices in this research, we aim to better understand the challenges they grapple with as newcomers to Canada. Specifically, our study sought to explore the stressors they faced within and outside the family and how these stressors mediate their transition and integrati…
Parent–Child Relationships Among African Immigrant Families in Canada
Objective To examine the factors that influence parent–child relationships in African immigrant families in Alberta, Canada. Background African immigrants are increasingly migrating to high‐income countries, including Canada, in search of a better life. These immigrants often face several challenges, including parenting their children in new sociocultural contexts. We present findings from a critical ethnographic study of parent–child relationshi…
A Scoping Review on Intimate Partner Violence in Canada’s Immigrant Communities
Canada relies on newcomers for population growth, labor supply, and cultural diversity. Newcomers, in turn, see Canada as a haven of economic opportunities. However, the extent to which these mutual benefits can be realized depends on how well newcomers fare in Canada. Intimate partner violence (IPV) significantly undermines immigrants’ capacity to rebuild their lives in host societies. As in other Western democracies, recent immigrants and refug…
“If You Say You Have Mental Health Issues, Then You Are Mad”
The health and wellbeing of African children and families, as an emerging demographic, is of interest and concern to various stakeholders in Canada. Yet, few studies have examined how parents and other members of the African community perceive the concept of mental health. This paper examines the perceptions of mental health of African community members concerning parenting children of African heritage. We used critical ethnography and transnatio…
Re-envisioning Resilience from African Immigrants’ Perspectives
Investigations into immigrant resilience are now being called for in scholarly reviews of literature, policy, and practice related to immigrants, following decades in which the challenges they face in or pose to Western host societies took centre stage. Focusing on resilience not only recognizes immigrants’ strengths and contributions to their new homelands, but also creates a fertile landscape to explore possible pathways to optimize migration o…
Beyond Blackness
Beyond Blackness: Sub-Saharan African Immigrant Knowledges and Agency in Canada Philomina Okeke-Ihejirika (bio) Over the past two decades, research on immigrants and refugees (henceforth referred to as “immigrants”) in Canada has revolved around their struggles to rebuild self and family, and hopefully transition into fully participating Canadians.1 In many studies, immigrants are often presented as helpless or needy newcomers requiring the inter…
Reproductive healthcare for women in IDP camps in Nigeria
Health and health service access for women displaced by terrorism from Northeast Nigeria is a serious problem. Existing government and humanitarian initiatives in Northeast Nigeria focus on food, security, housing, water and sanitation to the neglect of health access needs, especially access to reproductive health. With no policy in place and very little existing research, the systemic influences surrounding IDP women's health in Nigeria are not …
Canada’s Sub-Saharan African migrants
Outlier by Necessity
Parenting challenges of African immigrants in Alberta, Canada
African immigrant children and youth have some of the poorest social and mental health outcomes in Canada. Although parenting challenges have been widely documented as a key driver of these outcomes, limited systematic research has investigated this phenomenon. In this paper, we report the results of a study examining parenting challenges among a sample of African immigrant parents in Alberta, Canada. We relied on the theoretical lens of transnat…
Beyond poverty fixation
This paper draws on fieldwork at three camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Northeast Nigeria. It interrogates the pre-displacement experiences of participants, their transition to and experiences of internal displacement, vignettes of life at IDP camps, their relationship with host communities, the non-universality of experiences of sexual and gender-based violence among female IDPs (despite the particularities of experiences of wome…
Immigrants and the Western media
In this paper, we utilised a critical discourse analysis methodology to highlight the discursive representation of African immigrant parenting in Canadian newspapers. We explored unquestioned ideologies and assumptions about African immigrant families and their parenting practices. We analysed 37 newspaper articles, after screening 635 records retrieved from the Canadian Newsstand database. Our analysis revealed discursive patterns that: (1) refl…
Intimate Partner Violence Interventions within Immigrant Populations
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a widespread issue in immigrant communities and has severe implications for well-being and safety. With a limited body of knowledge on IPV in Canadian immigrant communities that only scarcely informs or enhances existing programs and services, this scoping review focused on existing interventions across G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States) for more answe…
African Immigrant’s Women Experiences on Extended Family Relations
African immigrants are increasingly migrating to high-income countries, including Canada, in search of a better life. These immigrants often face several challenges, such as keeping healthy ties with their extended families back home and in a new socio-cultural context. We present findings from a participatory action research (PAR) study of Sub-Saharan African immigrants and refugees (SSAIRs) living in Alberta, Canada. Using the theoretical frame…
Mobilizing communities and families for child mental health promotion in Canada
Managing the rising tide of Nigerian migrants to the West—A policy vacuum or a structural challenge
This analysis explores the growing attraction of migrants to destinations perceived as better pastures as well as the roots and consequences of international migration, especially for irregular migrants. The findings of two focus group discussions with Nigerian scholars, policymakers, service providers, and members of society suggest: (1) public policy on international migration should consider the social, political, and economic challenges that …
“I feel like I’m just nowhere”
The forms and adverse effects of insecurities among internally displaced children in Ethiopia
Successful relocation and reintegration of IDPs would help to alleviate both parent and child post-conflict stressors. Managing and following up on economic reintegration efforts is needed in both the short and long term. Such measures will help to achieve goals for specific projects attached to donor support outcomes, consequently enabling social support and conflict resolution management efforts
Introduction
Currently, at 272 million globally, the number of international migrants across the globe already exceeds the projections of many experts for 2050 (IOM, 2020). Emigrants from the developing regions to Western industrialized countries constitute a significant proportion of these recent global migrants and, not surprisingly, have attracted a fair share of this debate. Until the past decade, research on migrants to Western host societies has focusse…
Political science (25 works) · Sociology (24 works) · Immigration (18 works) · Gender Studies (17 works) · Migration, Health and Trauma (17 works) · Economic growth (13 works) · Migration and Labor Dynamics (13 works) · Psychology (12 works) · Social science (12 works) · Law (9 works)