Domestic violence against immigrant women is an issue in Canada, even though feminism is a "phenomenon" in Canada and ladies in Canada have more equalities in the present, however, when immigrants arrived Canada, they brought some patriarchy values in and apply them to Canada.
This study conducted in Norway shown the huge impact of domestic violence in immigrant family(Bo Vatnar, & Bjorkly, 2010): immigrant women are in higher risk of facing mortal abuse when they have a n immigrant partner, and there is higher chance of the abuse is exposed to their children if the parents were immigrants. I believe that these are due to some abusers believe that physical violence is some kind of "discipline" for their wives. This is dangerous because the generalization of domestic violence could be mortal to women who are abused, and there will have some negative impact to their child because they will learn these "bad characteristics" from their parents.
There was a study conducted in Toronto tried to find out the reason why Hindu speaking immigrant women are hesitate to seek help from domestic violence(Ahmad, Driver, McNally, & Stewart, 2009) . They found out "social stigma, rigid gender roles, marriage obligations, expected silence, loss of social support after migration and limited knowledge about available resources and myths about partner abuse" are the reason of them afraid to seek help to free themselves from family abuse. I can feel immigrant women in the present are living under fear of "getting out of the frame", like Canadian women want to get divorce 50 years ago, back when divorce is not a norm that everyone can accept. Also the tradition values of men should be superior and women should obligated to men are deeply rooted in these women mind.
I think the issue of family violence among immigrant families reveal that immigrant women are having difficulties to seek help from others because of the hesitation and silence that their culture taught them. The state should have more community education to immigrants that family abuse is forbidden, and the community should tell immigrant women about their rights in Canada. So the rate of family abuse could decrease.
Sara
Sara
Reference:
Ahmad, F, Driver, N, McNally, M.J., & Stewart, D. (2009). "why doesn't she seek help for partner abuse?" an exploratory study with south asian immigrant women . Social Science & Medicine, 69(4), 613-622.
Bo Vatnar, S.K., & Bjorkly, S. (2010). An interactional perspective on the relationship of immigration to intimate partner violence in a representative sample of help-seeking women. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 25(10), 1815-1835.
I agree its important that immigrant women know their rights in Canada. I have heard from social workers that when working with immigrants the hardest thing is talking to injured, bruised immigrant woman who will admit to being beaten but just say it is ok in our culture. It should be a top priority to make sure immigrant women know their rights as women in Canada.
ReplyDeleteDavid H.
It is awful that some of these women do not seek help because they feel what is happening to them is acceptable. Living in Canada should provide these abused women with more freedom than their home countries, and we need to make sure this happens. Hopefully by putting in place programs and promoting rights to these new immigrants they will be able to see that what is happening to them is really not ok!Good post Sarah.
ReplyDelete-Eliza R.
Interesting! I too have the same thoughts on this topic. I believe that Immigrants who are women are taken advantage of by these men who have traditional roles in who is more powerful than the other. They are abusing these women because like you have mentioned, they see it as a form of "discipline" rather than it being a sign of violence and abuse. I believe these men were raised by their families in this way, and that they were raised in such a traditional type of family. Now, these men are applying what they have learned from their family life and are now doing it to women. This definitely needs to be dealt with, because we live in a society where it is wrong to treat women with such disrespect and violence.
ReplyDelete- Angelene