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March 2004
Nowhere to Turn?
Responding to partner violence
against immigrant and visible minority women
Voices of Frontline Workers
Introduction
This report presents highlights from focus group discussions with frontline community workers involved in helping immigrant and visible minority women who have experienced abuse by their partners.
About 60 organizations serving immigrant and visible minority clients sent representatives to focus group discussions in seven major cities in the fall of 2002. The focus groups held in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax were part of a study designed to:
- deepen understanding of the nature and risk factors of partner abuse experienced by immigrant and visible minority women;
- identify actions to enhance the capacity of the justice system, social services and other community agencies to respond to partner violence;
- increase awareness of the needs of this diverse and evolving population, and recommend ways to support victims and reduce partner abuse.
Focus group participants came from organizations that provide a variety of services, including emergency and transitional housing for victims of violence, a range of immigrant and refugee settlement services, victim support services in the justice system, community health services, counselling, public education, training, information, advocacy, and other community-based services.
Most of the focus group participants were themselves immigrants to Canada and members of visible minority groups. There was great empathy expressed for women who have been separated from their culture of origin, yet are not fully accepted or protected in the mainstream society in which they now live. One participant summed up the overwhelming concern of the focus group when she said: "We have to give them hope."
The focus group participants were not a homogeneous group. Everyone brought a unique perspective, based on their own experiences, the organization in which they worked, and their linguistic and cultural community. Yet there was considerable consensus among participants across the country on the major issues, needs, barriers and solutions to this problem.
This Report
To begin, we discuss the context in which the discussions were placed by the participants. The context includes a recognition of different forms of partner abuse and also of the destructive effects of racism and other forms of discrimination on the lives and hopes of immigrant and visible minority women in Canada.
The main section of this report deals with the unique vulnerabilities of immigrant and visible minority women in the context of Canadian laws, practices, attitudes and service systems. It discusses barriers these women face in getting out of abusive situations at home and accessing services as they strive to create a better life for themselves and their children.
The final section summarizes the focus group discussions and suggests actions that had broad support in the discussions across the country.
Not everyone who attended the focus groups will necessarily agree with everything that is written here, and much more was said than could be included in this synthesis. However, it is hoped that all the focus group participants will see in this document many of the dilemmas and directions that they discussed with such energy and candour.
Context
A Societal Problem A Sensitive Issue
The experience of partner abuse is shared by women from all cultures and countries of origin. During the focus group discussions, concerns were expressed about the sensitivity of associating partner abuse with immigrants and visible minority communities. When it comes to partner violence against women, one participant said, immigrant and visible minority communities are just part of the picture.
"Certainly it can be exacerbated by certain customs and cultural practices. But that becomes an excuse for society to say that it is more accepted in these communities. Violence towards women is accepted in the mainstream culture, period. It is just a reality."
"Once we accept any form of violence, we open the door a little bit more for all the types of violence."
Certain cultural practices and beliefs can add to the barriers experienced by women in visible minority and immigrant communities, but there was widespread agreement among participants from different cultural communities that their cultures per se were not the problem.
"Patriarchy exists in every culture. There are differences, but they are differences in degree. Women have been socialized to do a certain role, the same with white women. It's not that different....The experience of violence is universal."
"There is a general notion out there that immigrant men from some communities are much more prone to violence than other men. But violence is basically about issues of power and control. There is no excuse for it, that simply because someone is an immigrant or refugee that their situation allows them to abuse their powers. It can happen in a rich family, middle-class family, a low-income family and so on. It happens in all communities."
"I think there has been a rise in the number of women who have died at the hands of violence, and you hear it more and more on the radio. I think something can be done with the legal system and also with the media because of the way that violence is reported. When it becomes simply a statistic, it neutralizes the women so you don't know the identity of the person and whether they were of a particular culture or community. And it neutralizes any effects we can have in terms of interventions we might want to do. When the person who has died is treated as a statistic you hear on the radio, it doesn't bring home the reality of who and what these women really are. The way it is reported: 'another person and her kid dead' really disturbs me. When you are just a statistic, the issue gets buried."
Some participants spoke of being criticized by members of their own cultural communities because they defend the rights of women and identify abuse when others deny it. Naming abuse can run up against deep-seated attitudes about family life and male-female relationships:
"What is abuse? They think it's discipline. The husband has to teach his wife and children. To slap the wife, that's like spanking the child. It indicates the man cares about his family.... They say we don't want to be like Canadian families where 50% of marriages end in divorce!"
Another participant put the sensitivity in a different light:
"People may not want to talk about it because there is already a lot of discrimination against their community. There is domestic violence in our community, but we don't talk about it because we don't want to reinforce the prejudice. It can feed into stereotypes. People already think you come from a violent place, and that you must be hot-tempered or whatever."
In one group, when discussion turned to the acceptance of domestic violence as a "normal" part of some cultural communities back home, another perspective was given:
"Where this woman came from, there was no domestic violence. She married a white, middle-class, mainstream Canadian man and he was abusive. She thought that was what was normal in Canada."
The Reality of Racism
Racism and other forms of discrimination came up in every focus group discussion. Participants said that racism must be recognized as part of the context in which minorities in Canada live. To pretend that it does not exist is like pretending that partner abuse does not happen.
"They may not want to talk about abuse because they don't want mainstream society to know; there is already a lot of discrimination against them. I imagine it is that way in other cultural communities too
so you keep it in because of the racism and not wanting to share that shame."
"The experience of abuse is compounded by racism. Women are victims of multiple forms of oppression."
"I have a problem with the justice system, which is just now coming to terms with and starting to recognize hate crimes."
Understanding this context is crucial because of the impact it has in so many areas from the reporting of violence by abused women, to opportunities for visible minorities in the job market.
"Immigrants are treated as the 'other.' They want to be perceived as individuals and treated with respect like everyone else and not lumped into the category of 'immigrant.' Women may have a different culture, but they are essentially women."
"Because I'm a minority woman, I don't know how I am going to be treated. How are people going to respond when I ask for help? So I will continue living in an abusive situation... Being accepted: that's something important."
Focus group participants said there was reluctance among some immigrant and visible minority women to report domestic violence because they feared that if their husbands were arrested and jailed, they would be beaten or killed because of their race. So the women sacrifice their own safety and well-being and do not call for help.
"The issue of racism has to be flagged all over the place. Women feel like they are in a position where they have to defend their culture because it is being attacked by service providers or the judicial system. They are told that their culture is backward and barbaric, and that is why this violence happens."
"We are now talking about racial profiling, hate crimes, racial harassment and how it impacts on cultural communities in its many forms. It is really a question that needs to be dealt with, and I don't think the justice system has responded to cultural communities around the question of violence and all the ways that they experience it. There is a lot that needs to be done and quickly."
The feeling of being an outsider from the mainstream society contributes to isolation and alienation. That feeling, coupled with the frustration of unemployment or underemployment, may be a risk factor for immigrant and visible minority men.
"They expected to lead the same kinds of lives they lived before, but they are not able to play the role they expected to play. It's no excuse for violence and it should never happen. But I have seen a lot of situations where things start happening, and the men are not able to be the kind of person that they would ideally want to be."
Different Forms of Abuse
Focus group participants described different forms of abuse. Abuse was characterized generally as being about power and exerting control over another person. A major aspect was the use of physical violence, including sexual assault, but there were also references to other "weapons" for example, emotional, psychological or financial manipulation by a partner to ensure subservience.
One participant described women who are virtually captive in their own homes:
"Some of the women who have suffered the most have never been hit. For them, it is an issue of emotional control. I'm not dismissing the homicides or broken bones and bleeding noses. But we also see other types of abuse not letting her go out and take English classes, not letting her communicate with her own family and friends. You see women living like that for 10 years. Sometimes, it's not until she takes her child to school and the teacher speaks with her that there is an opening."
Financial power can also be used to keep a woman in line. "He has the financial means, so he can do anything. He can say that the woman is incompetent and can't take care of the kids." Even women who have jobs can be trapped.
"A woman may be allowed to work in a factory and care for the home and children, but she doesn't see the money. He takes it. She has no friends, no life. She goes from the factory to home. How can we help her? She tells us a little and then she stops. When we tell her where she can go for help, she will not accept it."
Some women emerge from abusive situations with emotional, psychological and physical health problems. Some don't emerge at all.
"Just yesterday, a woman who was really looking forward to coming to a training class backed away. 'I really want to come,' she said, 'but we've learned to live this way. We've learned to put up with the violence.' There's that sense of not having hope. We have to give them hope."
While other forms of abuse were acknowledged, physical violence was the major topic of the focus group discussions. Every group heard about battered women fleeing for their lives and hiding from their abusers.
"Women in violent situations go through a process of mourning, and the process of mourning and denial seems like forever. Some cannot get past that stage unless they receive psychological help. Once it gets out that they want help, they are in danger of being killed by their abuser, or of killing themselves."
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