1. Introduction

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Concerns around domestic violence in Canada rarely consider an immigrant woman, particularly an immigrant woman of colour, as the target of violence or the face of policy reforms. Yet a recent online news search using the phrases “immigrant women” and “domestic violence” brings into sharp relief the magnitude of the problem and the glacially slow progress made in supporting immigrant women experiencing domestic violence in their relationships. Headlines such as “Finding a Way Out of Domestic Violence for Immigrant Women” (Wood 2014) or “Indigenous Peoples and Immigrants More at Risk of Domestic Violence in Canada, Study Says” (cbc News 2018) speak volumes about how much progress has been made to combat this enduring social problem. The tragic consequences are that three-quarters (76 percent) of people killed as a result of domestic abuse are women, and more than half of domestic homicide victims in Canada are Indigenous, immigrants or refugees living in rural or remote areas of the country (cbc News 2018). Despite decades of research, community projects, education and outreach and the fiscal resources provided for these activities, systemic inequalities persist and shape our realities such that we continue to live in a society where victims of domestic violence suffer — often silently, terrified of seeking help or unaware of how to do so. In Canada, immigrant women have been an overlooked population in conversations about domestic violence and in the development of support services, and they remain an afterthought for policymakers and legislators. Rarely are abused immigrant women’s challenges given centre stage or prioritized in decisions about resource allocation. Consequently, services that are available to immigrant women in the province of British Columbia (BC) are, at best, piecemeal, scattered and unevenly available depending on one’s geographic location. Urban centres tend to have a

broader range of more accessible resources to support immigrant women, whereas remote and rural regions offer a more limited range of services. Scholarly research on immigrant women and domestic violence highlights and reinforces the complex array of issues that immigrant women must contend with, adding weight to a long-standing claim by community activists and service providers that not enough has been done to support abused immigrant women in Canada.

Immigrant women in BC and in Canada more generally comprise a significant portion of the country’s population. It is rare to find any nonIndigenous Canadian community without an immigrant population, and in BC, a province that receives a very high proportion of immigrants, racial and ethnic diversity is commonplace. Immigrant women account for approximately one-fifth of Canada’s female population, making up 52 percent of the total immigrant population, and they are more likely to be university educated when compared to Canadian-born women (27.7 percent vs 19.2 percent; Hudon 2015). Upon immigrating to Canada, they experience numerous barriers to settlement. Employment, particularly high-paying, stable forms of employment, is difficult to secure, and many immigrant women find themselves in precarious employment situations due to deskilling, non-recognition of foreign credentials, low language skills and discrimination (Bhuyan and Schmidt 2018). Not having a social network and being the primary caregiver for their children also hinders their ability to enter the paid labour market (Bhuyan and Schmidt 2018). Guruge, Khanlou and Gastaldo (2010) found that immigrant women are more vulnerable to abuse and that this is tied to the stresses associated with pre- and post-migration experiences. Prior trauma leading to forced migration as well as settlement challenges directly impacts the likelihood of intermarital conflict and domestic violence (Guruge, Khanlou and Gastaldo 2010; Hyman, Guruge and Mason 2008).

Over the years, immigration policies have shifted towards a more neoliberal approach; immigrants are expected to be self-sufficient and able to “hit the ground running” once they arrive in Canada. Many researchers acknowledge that the funding and availability of settlement services for new immigrants has not kept up with demand, and access to vital services such as language classes has increasingly moved towards a fee-based model (Zhu 2016). The expectation that immigrant women independently overcome the many obstacles encountered during the settlement process