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Homelessness: Immigrant Women and Domestic Violence

Shashi Assanand

Homelessness for an immigrant or refugee woman starts when she leaves her home country and moves to a new environment, which in itself is stressful. Added to this could be the culture shock she may experience if she is from a culture that is different from the dominant western culture of Canada. And it must be understood that the stresses facing immigrant and refugee women are not the same as those experienced by visible-minority women who were born or raised in Canada.

The stress of immigrant settlement and coping with culture shock can have a severe impact on a relationship, resulting in domestic violence. This does not imply that all immigrant women experience domestic violence. Domestic violence is a social problem regardless of culture, religion, educational background, socio-economic status, or ethnicity.

However, immigrant and refugee women are more vulnerable due to poverty, unemployment, underemployment, sexism, and racism, which are often compounded by their inability to speak English. In addition, in their new environment, immigrant and refugee women may find that their ability and experience in negotiating the social and legal systems are limited, and these limitations can increase their vulnerability to violence even further.

In discussing the issue of homelessness and domestic violence with the staff at Vancouver and Lower Mainland Multicultural Family Support Services Society, it became evident that the women we support face endless battles when they are leaving violent relationships. Their vulnerability increases depending on their own abilities, their social network, and their responsibilities regarding their children.

Let’s start with a call to 911. Even though 911 services have made many strides with interpretation services, there are still women who have difficulties, as interpretation is not available in the languages they speak. If a woman is unable to make a call, her children may have the responsibility of making the 911 call. The impact of witnessing violence can have a lasting effect on any child’s life; when one adds that they must take the responsibility for making this call, that impact is magnified. Yet funding is limited, and consequently limits resources, for programming for children who witness violence.

Our experience shows that, if women overcome this hurdle and escape to transition houses, immigrant and refugee women may be unable to take full advantage of the support offered. Their inability to speak English as well as cultural differences may pose challenges for the women and the transition houses. If women (and this applies not only to immigrant women) have sons over 14 years of age, they may not be allowed to stay in transition houses with all their children. Or if women have mental-health issues, they may not qualify to have access to some existing transition houses.

The problems continue for women who reach the point of requiring second-stage housing. In order to be eligible for second-stage housing or BC Housing, women need income to pay rent. Even though transition houses have a priority-placement agreement with BC Housing, the waiting period is fairly long. Moreover, when women state on their applications for BC Housing that violence is their reason for seeking housing, their applications are very strictly scrutinized in order to prevent misuse of the system.

In order to obtain income, many women must apply for income assistance. However, to be eligible for income assistance, immigrant women who were sponsored into Canada by their spouses must prove sponsorship breakdown. This requires court action. With legal-aid cutbacks, this has become extremely difficult for women, most of whom are totally inexperienced with the justice system. For a woman who is sponsored by one of her own family members, there could be added pressure from the family for her to stay in her marriage because, if she does not, that family member would be required, by the sponsorship agreement, to support her.

Sponsorship agreements, which can continue for three to ten years depending on the relationship, (three-year period for a spouse) increase women’s vulnerability. These legally binding agreements require the sponsor to financially support the sponsored individual for the time stated in the agreement. This, in turn, increases the sponsored woman’s dependency on her spouse. In cases of domestic violence, a violent spouse can use this as a tool to control the woman.

Refugee women’s immigration issues present even more complications. For example, if a woman comes to Canada with her spouse, who is the primary applicant, and subsequently wants to leave him because of violence, her refugee status will be affected. In order to be a refugee applicant, she will have to establish that her own life is in danger in her home country. Although there is more than one avenue for doing this, choosing the best one requires expert legal counsel, legal aid for which is no longer available, but without which she may unwittingly undermine her own application. This situation becomes even more complicated when children are involved and the woman’s application for refugee status becomes bound up with issues of custody, access, and the children’s own status in Canada. There are so many ways that the legal ramifications of refugee status complicate the situation for women experiencing domestic violence, and increase their vulnerability to homelessness, that it would take a separate article to describe them.

Women also tell us how they are exploited by their landlords, a situation that may be exacerbated by language barriers or unfamiliarity with Canadian law and tenants’ rights. Women with children tell us of having been evicted for things such as children making noise or if they complain to landlords about mould, or lack of heat, which could be harmful for the children. Finding housing for single women and senior women poses additional difficulties as there is very little available for them.

To top all this, there is the constant threat of children being apprehended if women remain in violent relationships. In this, women are caught in a double bind: Social workers tell them that they must leave in order to provide safe homes for their children, yet they may have nowhere to go, no income to support themselves and their children, and no means of gaining employment if they do not speak English.

There is no question that immigrant and refugee women understand that the safety of their children is paramount. However, many immigrant and refugee women are left with a choice between staying with a violent partner and risking that their children will be apprehended because of the violence, or leaving and risking that they will not be able to provide food and shelter for themselves and their children.

This is further complicated by other types of vulnerability that are unique to immigrant and refugee women. For example, if the family with whom a woman has found shelter has relatives or friends in their home country who wish to emigrate but lack sponsorship, the woman may feel obligated to sponsor the would-be immigrant into Canada, which may involve complicated relationships, such as marriage, that she would not otherwise choose. In addition, due to cultural nuances regarding the roles of women, single immigrant women are particularly vulnerable to being pushed into prostitution in ways that are unlikely to occur and difficult to explain in the context of western culture. In these and other ways, immigrant and refugee women experiencing partner violence face homelessness—and hopelessness—in more ways than Canadian-born-and-raised women in similar situations.

With all of these barriers to escaping violence, immigrant and refugee women can find themselves with fewer opportunities than Canadian-born-and-raised women have to escape the abuse without ending up on the street. In one heart-moving story we encountered, a woman fleeing violence spent three months sleeping in different parking lots and showering in public washrooms. Finally, she connected with our agency and was able to acquire, with much difficulty, a place she could call home.

The list of problems faced by immigrant and refugee women experiencing partner violence goes on and on. The choice these women have is between the devil and the deep sea. And all of this occurs while they are trying to find a sense of belonging in a new country and a new culture. This is a life-long process for immigrant and refugee men, women, and children in the best of circumstances. For these women, a single lifetime may not be long enough to feel that they have found a home in their new country.

In order to support immigrant and refugee women, we need to address the unique problems they face. We need to look at all the gaps that exist in the social and legal systems and coordinate existing services so that their transition from violence to violence-free life is not traumatic. Only then will we have supported them to find homes.

Shashi Assanand, RSW, is the founding Executive Director of Vancouver and Lower Mainland Multicultural Family Support Services Society. The society provides support, counselling, and advocacy to women and children experiencing violence. The services are provided in 24 different languages.