Immigrant Women and Family Violence

Family violence is a pervasive problem that affects us all.  Even if you have not personally been the victim of abuse, it is a problem that exists in all of our communities and has touched the lives of women we know:  our sisters, mothers, co-workers, and friends.  Victims of abuse often endure in silence, afraid to speak out for any number of reasons.  Some women fear they would simply not be believed; others worry about how the news might devastate and tear apart their families, while others live in fear of what their attackers would do to them if they spoke out.  Violence against women occurs in all socio-economic classes and is not solely the result of patriarchal power.  The interplay of race, class, and gender mediates women’s experiences of violence and shapes the resources available to women to deal with their abusive situations. 

In recent decades, feminists have worked to bring greater awareness of family violence.  We now know that for many women, the home is a dangerous place.  In most cases, the abuser is not a stranger, but someone known to the woman, a boyfriend, a husband, a trusted relative, etc.  We’ve also seen improved resources for abused women and their children and more aggressive criminal intervention in cases of wife abuse.  Yet men continue to abuse their partners.  For immigrant and refugee women living on the margins of society, racism, classism and sexism all operate to limit their opportunities and contain them within vulnerable positions where they have little power. 

There are many structural barriers that marginalize immigrant women and make it difficult for them to leave abusive relationships.  Canada’s adoption of the Point System in 1967 transformed Canada’s immigration policy from an explicitly racist policy to one based on an objective set of criteria, yet racism and sexism continue to pervade Canadian immigration policies.  Indeed, the criteria for entrance do not take into account global gender inequalities which deny women access to educational and employment opportunities.  These inequalities make it difficult for women to qualify for entrance in the economic class as ‘independents’ and therefore most women are only eligible for entrance into Canada under the family class category as ‘dependents.  The consequence of this legal status is that these women are denied federally-sponsored language training and employment assistance programs (Arat-Koc, 1999; Dua, 1999).  Without access to English or French language training, immigrant women are severely restricted in terms of the employment they make take.  Unable to speak English, immigrant women are relegated to low pay, low status jobs in the lowest echelons of the labour force (Menjivar & Salcido, 2002).  Immigrant women become financially dependent on their husbands, which becomes much more problematic in cases of spousal abuse. 

In addition to trapping women within the lowest economic levels of society, the inability to communicate effectively in English also isolates women within their homes, making them dependent on their children to act as translators and mediators for them into Canadian society.  For those women who cannot speak English and therefore would be unable to find alternative social networks, the fear of ostracism by their ethno-racial community effectively immobilizes them from reporting the abuse (McDonald, 1999).  Already excluded from Canadian society, abused immigrant women are reluctant to report their abuse for fear that they may not be believed and therefore may be excluded from the one community they feel they belong (Jiwani, 2001).  Abused immigrant women’s lack of English language skills also restricts their access to social service agencies and to the justice system, making them dependent on an interpreter for translation (Shirwadkar, 2004).  Often the interpreters are members of the woman’s cultural community.  This compromises confidentiality and can engender feelings of shame and embarrassment for the abused woman (Jiwani). 

As I’ve already mentioned, women’s limited language and job training relegates them into low pay, low status work.  This racialized and feminized job ghetto ensures women’s dependency on their husbands.  Because they are financially dependent on their husbands, abused immigrant women fear that if they leave their husbands, they are their children will be completely destitute (Martin & Mosher, 1995).  Many immigrant women are not well informed about financial matters and seldom have their own bank accounts.  Because many of these women are sponsored by their husbands, they are not entitled to receive welfare or other forms of government assistance, and therefore finding good affordable housing is particularly difficult.  Moreover, immigrant women who do leave abusive relationships often report being exploited by their landlords, a situation exacerbated by language barriers and immigrant women’s unfamiliarity with Canadian law and tenants’ rights. 

For many immigrant women, the fear of deportation causes further submission to abuse.  Because immigrant women are usually sponsored by their husbands, they fear that if they report the abuse, the separation from their husbands may be grounds for deportation (McDonald, 1999).  Unlike other Canadian women who are privileged in their citizenship status, immigrant women are often unaware of their legal rights and therefore continue to endure the abuse. 

Many immigrant women are unwilling to report their abuse because they fear racism from the police (Shirwadkar, 2004).  Das Gupta (1998) points out that many abused immigrant women believe that if they disclose their experiences of violence, this will solidify Canadians’ already negative perceptions about their own community, which will serve to further marginalize all members of their community.  Studies also suggest that women in the Caribbean community in Toronto feel particularly trapped by racist discourse.  These women are discouraged by their own community from reporting the abuse to the police because black men ‘already have a hard time’ (Paredes, 1992).  These women are expected by their community to protect black men from further racism by keeping silent and enduring the abuse.  Because racism is so pervasive at all levels of Canadian society, including the police and the judiciary, women who report violence are perceived by their community as ‘race traitors’ (Jiwani, 2001).

To effectively deal with wife abuse, we need to look beyond individual instances of violence and address the structural inequalities that pervade society.  Part of the solution involves providing women with access to English and employment training, affordable housing and quality, affordable childcare.  We also need to provide services that can meet the specific needs of immigrant women.  Ethno-racial specific organizations that are equipped to provide linguistically appropriate and culturally sensitive services are a must.

June 17, 2008 | Filed Under family violence | Leave a Comment