Violence Against Immigrant Women

mmigrant women are disproportionately represented among female abuse victims in Canada. This research paper will demonstrate how immigrant women's cultures, contexts, and legal status increases vulnerability to abuse, creates barriers for women to seek assistance, and is used by perpetrators to control and abuse immigrant women. In order to do so Iit is important to recognize different forms of partner abuse and of the destructive effects of racism and discrimination toward immigrant women in Canada. This paper approaches the topic of violence against immigrant women from an "intersectional feminist framework"(Erez et al. 34) because acknowledging the racial and class identity of women is critical. I hypothesize that social categories influence
"This term referred to non-English speaking, working- class women from southern Europe and the Third World" (Agnew 9). This term is problematic because it refers to immigrants as being outsiders to what is defined as "Canadian". Violence against immigrant women is maintained by cultures and laws that push towards a patriarchal culture, where men dominate the power hierarchy. This gives men control over their wives, children, and the home. Male partner violence can be defined as, "acts of physical assault, psychological aggression, verbal abuse, and sexual coercion perpetrated by a women's marital or common-law partner" (Brownridge & Halli
However, for future research it would be beneficial to look at literature in various languages because many immigrant women struggle with language barriers. Thus, they are not able to explain their ‘lived experiences’ through the English language. Furthermore, only those books and articles published since 2000 were included in this research paper because I required up to date information on this research topic. In terms of the content of the literature, the chosen literature used qualitative methods of inquiry and analysis. One exception to this is the work of Brownridge and Halli. It was noticed that the quantitative method was less useful than using qualitative research when discussing a topic about the abuse that immigrant women suffered from. For this topic, it was essential to learn about the lived experiences of these women which was not possible through the quantitative method. However, the statistics that were in the article did strengthen my research and was used as a source of