Body in motion: experience of walking amongst elders immigrant women in Montréal

Résumé En

As part of an ongoing study on "older immigrant women and their relationship to aging" conducted in Montreal, the experiences of aging in regards to the self and body are particularly questioned. The data presented in this paper are from 15 focus groups, 90 women from different backgrounds and cultural communities with diverse migration routes. From this data, the lives of these immigrant women are presented through a common practice: walking. A comparative analysis of transcripts especially has helped to understand the importance granted to movement. Notably walking attests to the unanimous commitment these women reveal; that of remaining autonomous and independent. This is the result found in all focus groups. Indeed, whatever the person's age, autonomy, cultural background, religious practices, their migratory route or family status, walking is a way to experience and live their environment-their lived space. Beyond the vision that describes aging in terms of limitations and disabilities, we mobilize the prism of movement to show how these women adjust their body to stay as much as possible consistent with their environment. We highlight in this section if getting older and having physical limitations may represent obstacles in every day movement, however not necessarily in a definitive way. Furthermore, we will show what this attitude towards walking reveals about the person practicing it. Travel and daily movements, for example, enables social relations.