As we grapple with the issue of identity as expressed in religion, nationalism, racism, ethnicity and gender, it can be difficult to unravel the many strands, even within oneself. Each of us has multiple identities within us. Identity does not stem only from being women. It comes from ethnicity, from politics, from religion, from family. It is important to allow for these multiple experiences of our identity because it enables us to challenge the stereotypes of who we are as immigrant, refugee or indigenous women.
Ethnicity is important both as a value and a political matter, and for practical reasons.
Thus, many of us have engaged in action which focus on ethnicity or gender at the time because it was necessary to assert our rights and raise issues relating to specific aspects of ourselves. We have sometimes needed to speak from a position of common experience and so we organised as ethnic communities, for example, around the need for interpreters, language classes and ethno-specific services. This required forgetting for a time our gender, political and other differences in the interest of winning specific rights through united action. There are many shared aspects of the migration and indigenous experience that women have drawn on for unity and solidarity. Indigenous, immigrant and refugee women are commonly marginalised through their lack of economic power and direct or indirect discriminations operating in every sphere of their lives.