Reduce, Reuse, Reminisce: Acculturation and Practice Memory Shaping Sustainability Consciousness Among First Generation Canadian Immigrants

As global efforts intensify to cut greenhouse gas emissions, Western sustainability models continue to dominate the narrative of what constitute a sustainable lifestyle. This includes individualized, consumer-driven action centred around purchasing power and technology, which overlooks culturally embedded, low-consumption everyday practices. Despite its despite its high immigration rate and multicultural vibrancy, Canada has rarely acknowledged such forms of practice at a large scale. Research shows practice memory, acculturation, and lived experience among first-generation immigrants all inform perceptions of sustainability and can therefore improve environmental and social justice outcomes. Using a qualitative, reflexive thematic analysis approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with thirteen participants from diverse cultural backgrounds to understand how they perceive sustainability. The analysis revealed three overarching themes; practice memory served as a foundation for sustainable behaviour, sustainability goes through a constant process of negotiation through acculturation, and the level of engagement in sustainable practices is shaped from previous lived experiences. Participants described how cultural and intergenerational teachings, spirituality, and early education informed their understanding of sustainability. While not verbally proclaimed, sustainability was still often practised as a result of these embedded memories and values post-migration. These findings underscore the need to recognise culturally embedded forms of sustainable behaviour as legitimate and valuable components of environmental engagement in order to expand dominant frameworks beyond Western-centric paradigms.