Acculturation as an ecosystem service? Urban natural space supports evolving relational values and identity in new female migrants

1. New migrants display unique use patterns and relationships with their host coun -try's natural spaces. Understanding migrants' values about and interactions with nature requires identifying the meanings, benefits and capabilities that arise from their socio- ecological interactions. 2. This research seeks to understand how new migrants' engagement with their host country's urban nature affects their lives, behaviours and identities post-migration. Using qualitative semi- structured interviews and background surveys, this study characterizes the ways in which 27 recent international female migrants to Metro Vancouver use, perceive and derive value from their relationships with their host country's nature.


| INTRODUC TI ON
Human activity is causing dramatic climate change and widespread biodiversity loss, jeopardizing existing ecosystem dynamics and threatening the well-being of current and future generations IPBES, 2019). A global sustainability transition comprised of transformative economic, social, political, legal and technological changes is necessary to combat current negative trends in climate, biodiversity and ecosystem health IPBES, 2019;IPCC, 2018). Such a transition requires widespread collective buy-in and action for transformative structural change that not only motivates efforts but also drives support for systemic changes implemented by government and industry. Despite this need for widespread environmental protection, migrants, particularly those from vulnerable and marginalized socio-economic and demographic groups, have historically been excluded from natural spaces and from the project of environmental sustainability (Kloek et al., 2013(Kloek et al., , 2015. For example, Canadian social justice scholar Jacqueline Scott highlights this marginalization by arguing that the outdoors is still portrayed and perceived as white spaces (Scott, 2018).
Relationships and stewardship inclinations towards nature are founded on environmental relational values, those associated with individual and collective senses of culture, identity, interpersonal relationships and quality of life . These values are shaped by cultural ecosystem services: the benefits, capabilities and experiences derived from nature that enrich and sustain human lives (Chan et al., 2011). One such ecosystem service is place attachment with regard to the identities, meanings and experiences tied to certain places (Abson & Termansen, 2011;Chan et al., 2011;Daniel et al., 2012;Tuan, 1974). Familiarity and duration of time spent interacting with a particular place have been associated with an individual's or community's degree of place attachment (Hay, 1998;Hernández et al., 2007), suggesting that newcomers and migrants may have a weaker connection to and place a lower value on their host country's natural environments.
Migrant's other identities such as their gender, age, religion and socio-economic status also shape their access to urban natural areas and their experiential socio-ecological relationships (Boyd et al., 2018;Byrne et al., 2009;Ho et al., 2005;Lovelock et al., 2011;Marne, 2001;Rishbeth et al., 2019). For example, Lovelock et al. (2011) found there to be gender differences in migrant park use. Female participants expressed safety concerns over entering local parks, particularly when alone or in unfamiliar areas. Their experiences of their host country's natural environments were simultaneously and interdependently shaped by various intersecting identities including those of newcomer and woman. Thus, access to and experiences of natural spaces might be fundamentally shaped by intersectionality or how experiences are informed by interlocking systems of oppression and the interaction between an individual's distinct marginalized identities (Crenshaw, 1989). In particular, urban-dwelling migrant women live at the intersection of multiple overlapping vulnerable identities which may interact synergistically or depreciatively to influence their use of and relationship with natural environments.
Leisure studies research has found that some migrants' experiences in their host country's natural environments allowed them to acquire sociocultural capital, make cross-cultural friendships, develop a sense of belonging and evolve their personal identities (Hordyk et al., 2015;Seeland et al., 2009;Stodolska & Floyd, 2016).
These experiences might be viewed as cultural ecosystem services that contribute to the process of acculturation, the changes in cultural patterns of one or both groups of individuals, resulting from repeated cross-cultural contact (Redfield et al., 1936). Accordingly, migrant-nature experiences in their host country's natural environments may be heavily influenced by the evolution of migrants' imagined sociocultural meanings, identities, values and behaviour patterns. Cultural ecosystem services literature has not yet adequately considered this role of natural environments facilitating acculturation as an ecosystem service.
Using semi-structured qualitative interviews and a background survey, this study analysed 27 recent Metro Vancouver female migrants' experiences in and relationships to Metro Vancouver's natural spaces. This research sought to understand how new migrants' engagement with their host country's natural environments affects their lives, behaviours and identities post-migration. First, a brief review of specified existing relevant literatures will be provided. Then, this study's research methodology will be described. This will be followed by this study's findings, a discussion of them relative to existing literature and an exploration of their implications.

| BACKG ROU N D
Ecosystem services are the ways that ecosystems and their interacting components sustain and enrich humans' lives (Daily, 1997).
Cultural ecosystem services are a subset of ecosystem services defined as "'ecosystems' contribution to the nonmaterial benefits (e.g. capabilities and experiences) that arise from humanecosystem relationships", Chan et al. (2011, pp. 206). Cultural ecosystem services consider and situate social and cultural benefits including sense of place, identity and social interactions within the larger research framework of ecosystem services (Chan et al., 2011;Daniel et al., 2012). As a category of ecosystem services, cultural services have always sat awkwardly, such that only a small number of easily quantified services initially received the lion's share of attention (Chan, Guerry, et al., 2012;Daniel et al., 2012). Whereas initially culture was imagined by some as an ecological output of value, it has since become broadly recognized that cultural services and resulting benefits are socially K E Y W O R D S acculturation, cultural ecosystem services, migrants, nature, relational values constructed Fish, 2011)-that is, there is no service that is not shaped by cultural context (Pröpper & Haupts, 2014). Thus, the benefits experienced by an individual are shaped by human social and economic systems which are influenced by many variables including class hierarchies, financial markets, traditions and prescribed gender roles (Fortnam et al., 2019).
Recognition of this importance of cultural and social context was central to the proposed umbrella framework of nature's contributions to people (Díaz et al., 2018).
Despite these developments, the ecosystem services literature has largely focused on the benefits that individuals and communities derive from nature, rather than analysing how individuals' conceptualization and definition of their values is partially influenced by their experiences in nature (Chan & Satterfield, 2020). Thus, there is little cultural ecosystem work on how individuals ' and communities' values, understandings, meanings and identities are affected by their encounters in and with natural environments, although such work is consistent with Fish et al.'s (2016) comprehensive conceptual framework for cultural ecosystem services.
More mutable and intangible cultural services such as the development of social connectedness, the evolution of cultural identities and the cultivation of sense of place can be supported by the emerging idea of relational values which reflect deeper conceptions of nature's contribution to human well-being . Chan et al. (2016) stress that some individuals believe that particular places mediate the benefits they receive and that these services and places impact their identity and well-being. Accordingly, engaging with particular places or elements of nature can provide services that strengthen or embody certain values by facilitating certain activities and interactions, both interpersonal and socio-ecological. It can also reinforce identities that relate to individual and communal values or visions of what it means to live a good life. Despite the utility of considering human-nature relationships through a relational values lens, few empirical ecosystem services studies have yet employed this conceptual framework.
Access to natural environments shapes an individual's relationship to and conceptualization of those environments. An individual's ability to derive certain services and benefits from natural environments can be constrained by their social, cultural and economic conditions (Wieland et al., 2016). Immigration and its associated circumstantial changes like downward socio-economic movement and unfamiliarity with a host country's physical and cultural environments serve as barriers to accessing outdoor spaces (Aizlewood et al., 2006;Boone et al., 2009;Byrne, 2012;Jay & Schraml, 2009;Rishbeth & Finney, 2006;Stodolska, 2000). Furthermore, women may face additional obstacles to accessing urban natural environments including safety concerns of using parks on their own (Lovelock et al., 2011;Rishbeth et al., 2019). The dimension of access defines migrant relationships to and values about their host country's nature as it constricts their ability to engage with or benefit from outdoor environments. Furthermore, such access may be further constrained or enlarged by individual migrants' other identities including their gender and class. From a relational values' perspective, access is a defining feature of the meanings and identities that migrant communities may associate with nature in their host country. For example, the inability to access these shared spaces may reinforce perceptions of exclusion and an identity of being 'other'.
Place is a central concept in understanding both the services that individuals accrue from nature and the relational values that they develop about nature. Places can be understood as areas of experience and meaning (Wilson, 2003) or concentrations of social interactions and practices (Kearns & Gesler, 1998). This aligns with the description of place as a space for which meaning and significance are shaped by cultural, individual, emotional and social processes (Altman & Low, 1992;Stedman, 2003). As such, places are defined by the social interactions and activities that they host and the meanings that various actors ascribe to those phenomena (Altman & Low, 1992). Sense of place and the identities tied to those places are one example of individual and community benefits derived from cultural ecosystem services (Abson & Termansen, 2011;Chan et al., 2011;Daniel et al., 2012;Russell et al., 2013). This conceptualization of place situates sense of place as a cultural ecosystem service that should be viewed from a relational lens. In fact, Tadaki et al. (2017) argues, 'the concept of relational values is thoroughly place-based'.
Leisure literature has found that migrants' experiences in nature facilitate their acquisition of a range of beneficial services. Nature provided restorative and healthful services that were particularly beneficial to migrants facing multiple health stressors including family separation, foreign environments, poverty and linguistic limitations (Stodolska et al., 2011). Furthermore, nature could contribute to a range of acculturative benefits including cross-cultural engagement, socialization, development of a sense of belonging to a community, fostering of attachment to a particular place and evolution of migrant identities (Jay & Schraml, 2009;Lovelock et al., 2011;Peters et al., 2010;Rishbeth & Finney, 2006;Seeland et al., 2009;Stodolska & Floyd, 2016). In fact, Gordon (1964) found that Latino migrants in the United States cited acculturation as a reason for their leisure behaviour in natural environments. This literature identified acculturation and personal evolution as processes that migrants experience in their host country's natural environments. However, it emphasized the derivation of benefits from recreation and interaction with the outdoors (in general), rather than deeply engaging with how particular environmental contexts and natural places serve to shape migrants' values and identities. Thus, applying a cultural ecosystem services lens to analyse these phenomena could illuminate how specific natural places influence migrant relationships to their host countries and their perception of themselves.

| Study area
Metro Vancouver, British Columbia comprises 21 municipalities, one electoral area (land that remains unincorporated into any particular municipality) and the Tsawwassen First Nation, and has a population of 2,463,431 residents (Statistics Canada, 2017b). Recent migrants, those who moved to Canada 5 years prior to the date of data collection, make up approximately 5.8% of Metro Vancouver's population (N = 142,535;Statistics Canada, 2017b). In 2016, 6.5% of recent migrants were refugees, 63% were economic migrants,

| Data collection and analysis
This study received ethical approval from the University of British Columbia's Behavioural Research Ethics Board (UBC BREB # H19-00703). Participants needed to meet predetermined inclusion criteria of being over 18 years old and having moved to Canada in the past 5 years. Neighbourhood community centres and regional immigration partnerships with pre-existing relationships to local migrant populations helped identify and recruit participants through oral announcements at their regular programming and pamphlet distribution. It is worth noting that this recruitment approach likely influenced the make-up of this study's sample, as newcomers who use the aforementioned organizations often require social services and support due to factors including poverty, financial instability, linguistic limitations, lack of childcare, unemployment and limited education. As such, the individuals recruited for this study likely over-represented more vulnerable and underprivileged migrants. These participant's other vulnerabilities likely interacted with their migrant status in shaping their socio-ecological relationships.
Participants indicated their preferred interview language.
Participants were interviewed in English (8), Arabic (10), Spanish (2) and Cantonese (7). The mother tongues of the eight participants who chose to be interviewed in English included Spanish (1), Tigrinya (1), Farsi (3), Kurdish (1), Arabic (1) and Dari (1). Prior to the interviews, the consent forms and interview questions were reviewed with the translators. This process helped establish a shared understanding between the researchers and the translators of the aim and nuances of the research questions. While a multi-lingual approach was appropriate and necessary to engage with Metro Vancouver's diverse migrant population, reliance on translators for data collection creates the risk that the nuances and meanings conveyed in respondents' answers could be lost through the process of interpretation. This risk is especially pertinent given this study's emphasis on the meanings, understandings and perceptions of individual's experiences.
This study used semi-structured qualitative interviews and a background demographic survey to collect data. In advance of conducting the interviews, researchers and translators broadly described the study's purpose and reviewed its consent form with prospective participants in their preferred language. Participants then gave written consent before the formal interview process For each of these places, participants were asked to describe their experience, including details regarding visit duration, frequency, activities, individuals involved and felt emotions. Participants were also asked oral survey questions, some of which were administered pre-interview and some of which were asked post-interview. The background survey provided consistent and quantifiable information that was further explored and contextualized throughout the semi-structured interviews. The interviews were all audio recorded and transcribed. 1 The interviews were coded in an iterative multistage process.
A preliminary review catalogued data relative to the project's research questions which helped classify, compare and quantify some basic themes across interviews including barriers to natural spaces, frequency of outdoor experiences and outdoor activity types.
Subsequent rounds of inductive analysis produced a series of codes that were then systematically categorized into larger themes. These later rounds of coding revealed broader trends that had not been captured in the initial analysis.

| Participant backgrounds
Participants needed to meet few prerequisites to qualify for this study. However, individuals interested in participating in the study were not as diverse as these modest restrictions might suggest. The final sample population consisted of 27 women between the ages of 19 and 61, who had lived in Canada between 7.5 months and 5 years, from Syria, China, Iran, Iraq, Colombia, Eritrea, Honduras and Afghanistan. Eighteen participants immigrated to Canada as refugees, three as skilled workers, two as a skilled worker spousal applicant, one as a student visa spousal applicant and three did not know their immigration category. Twenty-four participants were mothers, with between one and six children. Twenty participants were not employed and the seven who were employed had only part-time jobs. Only one participant had an individual annual income over $C20,000, and no participant had an annual family household income above $C59,000. At least 10 (probably more) of the participants lived in families with annual household incomes below the Canadian poverty line of $C37,542 for a family of two adults and two children (Statistics Canada, 2015). Accordingly, many of the participants were living in large impoverished families. Although our sample was narrow in respect to its focus on new-migrant women of low socio-economic status, it also had members from multiple countries and cultural contexts. Thus, common findings across participants suggest that their shared cultural ecosystem services and relational values about Canadian nature are prevalent across diverse migrant populations.

| Frequency
Participants frequently used outdoor spaces with 48% (n = 13) spending time in nature every day and over 96% (n = 26) doing so at least once a week. While this basic finding seems to challenge claims that migrant and ethnically diverse populations use some natural environments less frequently than their white and nativeborn counterparts (Jay & Schraml, 2014;Johnson-Gaither, 2014;Kloek et al., 2015), it does not identify the kind of outdoor spaces that this study's participants were using. For example, Johnson-Gaither (2014) focused on migrants' infrequent use of more remote wilderness areas. The outdoor places that this study's participants visited most often were urban or semi-urban parks, beaches and forests, rather than more distant wilderness spaces. However, Jay and Schraml (2014) also found that individuals with a migrant background were less likely to use urban forests in Germany than their counterparts with no history of migration. This study's finding of frequent use of outdoor nature seem to contradict supposed blanket underrepresentation of migrants in outdoor environments.
Although the new migrants in this study used natural environments often, their use of these spaces must be understood in tandem with the caveat that the type of outdoor spaces they accessed were often limited in variety and proximity. These use patterns seem to better align with findings presented in Kloek et al.'s (2015) analysis of migrant urban and non-urban outdoor recreation in the Netherlands, which found that migrants used urban natural environments more frequently and non-urban outdoor spaces less frequently than their non-migrant counterparts.

| Activity type
Research participants engaged in a wide variety of outdoor activities. The most frequently reported pastimes were walking (n = 20), having weekend family outings, often with food (n = 18) and bringing children to the park (n = 16). These findings reflect those in past studies (Jay & Schraml, 2009;Özgüner, 2011;Rishbeth & Finney, 2006).
Fourteen participants reported changing the type of outdoor activities they engaged in after moving to Canada. For example, one respondent described her family's opportunity to try skiing for the first time. She said, "I really enjoyed everything, especially watching my kids skiing… It was a really different feeling because I have never experienced anything like that in Iraq or where I lived. There was never snow and hills and all of this is a new experience." (Participant 14) Moving to a new country may offer migrants the opportunity to engage in a range of activities in which they were unable to participate in their countries of origin (Hurly & Walker, 2019;Stodolska & Alexandris, 2004). Engaging in new activities associated with the host country's culture is one way that migrants acculturate and familiarize themselves with their new home and community (Hurly & Walker, 2019;Rishbeth & Finney, 2006). Thus, engaging in activities associated with Canada could represent a way that participants were connecting with Canadian culture and recreational behaviours.
Thirteen participants continued to practice the same outdoor activities that they did in their countries of origin. Many noted that their outdoor experiences represented an opportunity to recreate and or maintain their traditions and routines. Some studies indicate that migrants participate in outdoor activities that help them reconnect with their home countries but, at the same time, give rise to feelings of nostalgia (Hurly & Walker, 2019;Lovelock et al., 2011;Rishbeth & Finney, 2006). For example, Brook (2003) argues that some migrants design gardens that remind them of home and also facilitate the establishment of a similar relationship to their new place. Similarly, this study's participants reported engaging in the same activities in which they had engaged in their home countries, such as weekly family picnics or daily gardening. Participants would assert that such practices evoked feelings of nostalgia but helped them continue to feel connected to cherished people, places and traditions from their home countries.

| Social dimensions of outdoor experiences
Twenty-four participants indicated that their routine visits to outdoor spaces were sociable. These findings align with existing research on migrant recreation patterns in outdoor spaces in various Western European countries and Turkey (Jay & Schraml, 2009;Kloek et al., 2013;Özgüner, 2011;Rishbeth & Finney, 2006). Twenty-two participants indicated that they most frequently spent time in outdoor spaces with children as they felt outdoor recreation positively impacted their child's well-being. Hordyk et al.'s (2015) similarly noted that migrant families in Montreal viewed natural spaces as vital and affordable resources that supported both child and parental development, well-being and socialization. Stodolska et al. (2017) found that many migrants stated that natural environments felt like 'home', a space where they could spend time with family and feel comfortable. This study's participants seemed to as-  In comparing Canadian outdoor experiences to those in their home country, some participants noted that outdoor recreation in Metro Vancouver revealed Canadian culture and social norms. This underscores that many participants value some Canadian natural environments in a relational way as they feel that their relationships with these spaces reflect and embody certain preferences, virtues and norms . Participants felt that their outdoor experiences and habits in Canada reflected what they perceived as defining characteristics of the country such as safety from war, lack of pollution and limited sexism. This was best expressed by some participants from Middle Eastern nations who stated that the outdoors gave them a new sense of independence and freedom from a patriarchal social structure. One woman said, "When I go for walk, the first thing is it is clean and there are less people and I mentioned, there is blue sky. And the main thing that I usually think is that people are free. Yes, Freedom … We had a park in Iran, near to us, and my daughter used to go there, and I remember that one time I came back and she was crying. And she said she would never go again for bicycling because some people told her that, "Oh it's not good for a girl to bicycle in public." And here, when I see people are free to do anything that they want, anything logical… it's amazing." (Participant 11) Pohl et al. (2000) suggest that outdoor recreation can provide women with opportunities to deconstruct proscribed gender roles that Multiple participants also stated that these Metro Vancouver's outdoor spaces facilitated socialization and relationship building with other Canadians. One participant, who was a member of a community gardening program, said that spending time in the garden helped her make friends and feel like she belonged in Canada. She said, "The community garden gives me a sense of belonging. It feels like we are a big family. I think going to the garden gives me a feeling that Canadians are united, because they will know each other better by working together. People will strive and fight for the same goal. Gardens make you build better relationships with your neighbors." (Participant 8) Participants reported that their environmental and cross-cultural engagement with Metro Vancouver's nature gave them the opportunity to generate social networks and learn about the landscape of their new home. But, these more practical acculturative services also contributed to the development of migrant identities and relationships to Canada. In essence, these experiences helped our participants feel Canadian.

These participants' shared conception of nature in Metro
Vancouver as a representation of Canada itself helps frame the remainder of this study's findings. The participants expressed a shared conceptualization of Metro Vancouver's natural environments as a unique generalized embodiment and singular place that not only provided a range of services but also communicated sociocultural meanings and norms that contributed to their understanding of themselves in their new social, cultural and environmental context.

| Overview
Participants viewed natural environments as spaces that can provide therapeutic services that moderate migration-related stressors (Table 1). Metro Vancouver's natural environments were conceptualized as places that represented a respite and escape from the challenges and struggles migrants faced at home, work and school.
These spaces contributed to positive emotional changes by generating feelings of happiness, relaxation, connection and empowerment.
They also provided environments for recreational and social activities that contributed to participant's physical and social well-being.
Furthermore, participants' interpersonal relationships, values and identities fundamentally changed their perception and experience of certain therapeutic and acculturative benefits from their time spent in Metro Vancouver's natural environments. Individuals' gender and socio-economic identities were likely particularly co-influential in shaping the migrant participants' relationship to and experience of Metro Vancouver's natural spaces. This is highlighted through the experiences of mothers whose identities as caretakers shaped their relationship to and value about these spaces. Other studies mirror findings that time spent in natural spaces helps migrants reduce their acculturative stress by providing therapeutic and restorative psychological, mental and emotional services, and a safe space where migrants can go to forget their struggles (Hordyk et al., 2015;Main, 2013;Rishbeth & Finney, 2006;Stodolska et al., 2017).

| Motherhood
The gendered identity of being a mother may influence outdoor environment experiences. For example, Ho et al. (2005) indicated that women were more likely to engage in the stationary activity of childminding in park environments, while men were more likely to be ac-

| Access
Generally, participants frequently engaged with outdoor spaces in the Metro Vancouver area and accordingly had access to some nature. This finding largely negates the expected manifestation of participant's marginalized identities synergistically interacting to create barriers that hindered their ability to benefit from natural spaces.
However, it must be noted that participants did face some obstacles to accessing certain outdoor spaces, particularly more remote and non-urban natural environments. Lack of transportation, limited financial resources, constraints on leisure time, a lack of knowledge of the area and language, and perceived ethnic exclusion were identified as barriers to access. These findings reflect those found in other studies (Aizlewood et al., 2006;Byrne, 2012;Rishbeth & Finney, 2006). These barriers indicate that this study's participants' social, political and/or economic situations prevented them from fully benefiting from certain natural spaces. Furthermore, the individual participant's other identities like their gender and socio-economic class may have exacerbate some of these barriers, as past studies suggest that women and individuals of lower socio-economic status may face additional gendered and class-based obstacles that hinder their access to outdoor spaces (Byrne et al., 2009;Ho et al., 2005;Marne, 2001).
Three women in the study described experiencing racism, ethnic discrimination and segregation in certain Metro Vancouver parks that prevented them from returning to those particular spaces. For example, one respondent noted rules against music that made her family feel unwelcome. If outdoor environments are designed and managed in a way that makes migrant and minority communities feel unwelcome, they are less likely to benefit from these spaces. Not only does failing to accommodate diverse preferences prevent new migrants from using particular places, the meaning ascribed to this exclusion can define migrants' perceived identities in Canada. This study's participants expressed that the Metro Vancouver natural environments they used represented Canada as a whole. Thus, lack of access or marginalization from certain natural environments might also be perceived as exclusion from Canada itself. Although most of our research participants did not report similar experiences of racism, these three women's accounts suggest that to some migrants, nature may be a space of alienation rather than acculturation.

| Services, meanings, identities and values
This research finds that new migrants displayed significant place attachment and deep relational values to Metro Vancouver's natural environments, challenging previous research that links familiarity and duration of engagement with value and attachment strength (Hay, 1998;Hernández et al., 2007 These statements suggest that Metro Vancouver's outdoor spaces were non-substitutable to these migrants, as they provided a space and service that no other place could supply. Furthermore, their reliance on outdoor spaces demonstrates an aspect of place attachment called place dependence, meaning functional attachment to a particular place and its related services (Stokols & Shumacker, 1981).
There is an interesting tension in some of these migrants'

| Implications for nature
Given the connection between stewardship inclinations towards nature and the kind of environmental relational values that seem to be building among new migrants , it is possible that migrants' experiences in outdoor natural spaces might be facilitating those migrants to take a variety of actions to care for nature. While this work did not analyse migrant engagement in ecological stewardship activities, understanding some recent migrants' relational values to their host country's natural spaces represent fertile ground upon which further analysis can be developed. Some studies have found evidence of this with some migrants participating in local environmental practices to protect shared outdoor spaces as a means of acculturation and socialization with their host communities (Carter et al., 2013;Hordyk et al., 2015). However, analysis into how to systematically or institutionally leverage and magnify migrants in proenvironmental behaviour at scale is still warranted. Furthermore, to encourage migrant ecological stewardship that significantly impacts biodiversity and regional ecosystem processes, newcomers may need to experience and develop relational values and care towards wilder places that many of them currently do not or cannot access.  . A few studies indicate that migrants may participate in local environmental practices to protect shared outdoor spaces as a means of acculturation and socialization with their host community (Carter et al., 2013;Hordyk et al., 2015). However, analysis into systematically or institutionally leveraging and magnifying migrant participation in proenvironmental behaviour at scale is warranted.

| CON CLUS IONS
Urban-dwelling migrant mothers of low socio-economic status face a collection of overlapping and mutually influential discriminations and disadvantages. Thus, one might expect that the intersectionality of their marginalized identities might manifest in the creation of synergistic barriers to the benefits of nature. Our study's participants-27 recent migrant women living in Metro Vancouver-expressed a contrary idea. They reported that their near daily engagements with Canadian nature provided significant psychological and non-material benefits that were reinforced and shaped by their existing identities.
This was particularly evident in the ways in which gender, motherhood and existing family values interacted with their experiences in Metro Vancouver's natural environments. Furthermore, despite their varied backgrounds, these women expressed shared relational values of and benefits from their engagement with Canadian natural spaces suggesting that such experiences might be shared across broader migrant populations.
Cultural ecosystem services researchers have theorized that individuals' or communities' identities are sometimes shaped by relationships between people and places (as one factor), emphasizing longstanding and subconscious relationships. In contrast, this study suggests that individuals may consciously use activities in nature as a vehicle to take on a new desired identity, even over shorter time

ACK N OWLED G EM ENTS
The authors thank Dr Cecily Maller, the contributing Associate Editors and the other Reviewers for their thoughtful and thorough comments throughout the review process. Their advice and provocative questions helped us refine and better communicate our findings in such a way that vastly improved the impact and relevance of the final manuscript.

CO N FLI C T O F I NTE R E S T S
The authors affirm that they have no affiliations or involvement with any entity or organization with any interest, financial or otherwise, in the materials or subject matter contained in this manuscript. It must be acknowledged that Dr. Kai M.A. Chan, one of the authors, is a Lead Editor for People and Nature. However, he was not involved in the peer review and decision-making process.

DATA AVA I L A B I L I T Y S TAT E M E N T
This manuscript's data are not publicly available in accordance with this study's Behavioural Ethical Review Board application for the purpose of protecting the identity and personal information of participants disclosed throughout the interview data collection process.

E N D N OTE
1 Due to a perceived lack of precision in the in-person translation of the Cantonese language interviews, bilingual translators aided in the transcription of these interviews' recordings to ensure linguistic accuracy.