Somewhere to Turn: Making Domestic Violence Services Accessible to Battered Immigrant Women - A 'How To' Manual For Battered Women's Advocates and Service Providers

CHAPTER 1

OVERVIEW OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND BATTERED IMMIGRANT ISSUES ¹

by Leslye E. Orloff and Rachel Little

INTRODUCTION

Immigrant women arrive to this country alone or with their spouses in the hope of creating a better life for themselves and their children. Many flee political repression, severe poverty, domestic violence, unemployment, or war. In their home countries, they may have faced rape or torture for their political beliefs. They may have been forced into prostitution, state-sponsored sterilization programs, or may have been subjected to female genital mutilation. They may bear physical and psychological scars from this abuse and may still be fighting the effects of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Crossing the U.S. border can be a harrowing experience as women and children risk being robbed, raped, or detained. Others face possible mistreatment by the U.S. Border Patrol. Once they are in the United States, they may experience discrimination, unemployment, and isolation. Many may fear being caught by the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS). Immigrant women may also have difficulty obtaining employment in the United States because they lack basic job or language skills. If they are able to find work, they may face low wages, sexual harassment, dangerous working conditions, or long hours because they work "under the table" and their immigration status prevents them from seeking the protection of U.S. labor laws. They may be under considerable pressure to work hard and send money to support their children and other family members back in their home countries.²

If immigrant women are married to military personnel or met and married their spouses through an international matchmaking organization, they may be extremely isolated from their cultures and unable to access traditional sources of support. They may be further stigmatized by the use of the term "mail order bride."³ Farmworker migrant women live a very transient lifestyle and are often even more isolated. They are generally paid significantly less than men, work very long hours in hazardous conditions, and are often forced to turn over their paychecks to their husbands.⁴ These pressures result in very difficult lives for immigrant women, particularly those who are undocumented. If an immigrant woman is trapped in an abusive relationship, these factors make the flight from violence even more problematic. As a result, battered immigrant women are among the most marginalized victims of domestic violence in this country. Through the activism of immigrant survivors of domestic violence and service providers, the domestic violence advocacy community has become more aware of immigrant women's stories and this population's need for accessible domestic violence services.

As a result of this increased awareness of the plight of battered immigrants, this "how to" manual has been created to train battered women's advocates, shelters, and service providers how to offer culturally appropriate and meaningful assistance to battered immigrant and migrant women. Language, culture, social isolation, a lack of understanding about the U.S. legal system, and immigration status are factors that complicate a battered immigrant woman's ability to leave an abusive relationship. Through this manual, advocates will learn how to identify these barriers and work with immigrant women to surmount them. They will further learn how to communicate with battered immigrants in a cross-cultural context.

Moreover, this manual will offer technical assistance on improving shelter accessibility, developing culturally sensitive shelter protocols, networking with existing immigration service providers, and creating effective outreach programs. To work with battered immigrant women, shelter advocates need to become familiar with the special immigration and public benefits laws available to assist battered immigrants. Additionally, they must be able to anticipate the special problems that can arise in family and criminal court cases because of the intersection of family, criminal, and immigration law. To this end, this manual will discuss special considerations when assisting battered immigrants with obtaining protection/restraining orders and preparing Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and other domestic violence-based immigration cases. It will further explore such issues as the availability of public benefits and protecting battered immigrant clients from being reported to the INS.

The extent to which you can apply this information to the operation of your program will depend on the nature of the immigrant communities in the region that you serve. With large, established immigrant populations, there are usually immigration-based nonprofit agencies, community-based organizations, church groups, and community leadership. This existing base can serve as a valuable support network as you begin to implement training and outreach programs. Where an immigrant community is smaller, transient, or where immigrant women are extremely isolated (as is often the case in rural areas, on military bases, or with women in rural communities who met their husbands through international matchmaking agencies), your efforts to reach these women will be more challenging. Every topic that is discussed in this manual will be approached in a manner that accounts for immigrant women's varying life experiences.

his manual is intended to familiarize you with the dynamics of domestic violence experienced by immigrant women, offer suggestions as to how you can make your agency more accessible to battered immigrant women, and teach you how to use the law most effectively to help this particular population of women. As an advocate, your role in helping battered immigrants overcome barriers to services will be critical and empowering to these often silent victims of domestic violence.

THE EXTENT OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Domestic violence is a societal problem of epidemic proportions. Experts estimate that two to four million American women are battered every year,⁵ and that between 3.3 and 10 million children witness violence in their homes.,⁶ Battering affects families across United States in all socioeconomic, racial, cultural, and ethnic groups.,⁷ As information about the extent and impact of domestic violence emerges, it has been identified as a criminal justice issue, a public health crisis, and a costly drain on economic productivity.,⁸

Domestic Violence, Power, and Control Against Immigrants

Domestic violence is a pattern of behavior that one intimate partner or spouse exerts over another as a means of control. Domestic violence is not defined solely by a specific physical act, but by a combination of psychological, social and familial factors.,⁹ In some families, perpetrators of domestic violence routinely beat their spouses until they require medical attention. In other families, the physical violence may have occurred in the past. If the latter is the case, perpetrators exert control over their partners simply by looking at them a certain way or by reminding them of prior episodes. Even sporadic violence may still have the effect of controlling the abused partner. Dr. Mary Ann Dutton, a leading clinical psychologist, defines domestic violence as a pattern of interaction in which one intimate partner is forced to change his or her behavior in response to the threats or abuse of the other partner.,¹⁰

As is the case with all battered women, battered immigrants experience physical violence, coercion, threats, intimidation, isolation, destruction of important documents or possessions, and emotional, sexual or economic abuse.¹¹ Frequently, abusers of immigrant women also use the children to manipulate immigrant victims by:

harming or abducting the children to a foreign country,
threatening to harm or abduct the children,
taking money that the immigrant victim was planning to send to support her children and other family members in her home country,
forcing the children to participate in the abuse of the victim,
using visitation as an occasion to harass or monitor the victim,
fighting protracted custody battles to punish the victim,
raising the immigration status of the victim in custody cases to divert the court's attention away from his violence.¹²

Perpetrators often invent complex rules about what victims or children can or cannot do, and force victims to abide by these frequently changing rules. For example, abusers may limit the amount of times that the victim can leave the house to go to the doctor or the grocery store. Moreover, abusers may inform immigrant women that if they seek the help of the police or the courts, the abuser will automatically gain legal custody of the children. This may often be the case in the battered immigrant's home country.

Furthermore, abusers of immigrant women use culture and cultural taboos to enhance their control by:¹³

writing or telling the victim's family lies about her,
embarrassing her in front of family and friends,
divulging family secrets,
causing her or her family to lose face in the community,
preventing her from meeting with people from her country who speak her native language,
canceling her subscriptions to newspapers and magazines in her language,
calling her racist names,
accusing her of abandoning her culture,
isolating her from supportive individuals within her cultural community.

Economic control may be exerted by:¹⁴

forcing her to work illegally,
harassing her at work so that she is fired from the only job at which she can legally work,
preventing her from working,
stealing the money she is sending to her home country to support her family,
taking control of the family finances,
preventing her from learning English and attaining other skills that she needs to secure a job which pays a living wage.

Other tactics abusers use to solidify control over battered immigrants include: controlling the victim's interactions with the English-speaking community, forcing her to sign papers in English that she does not understand, and screening the information, correspondence, and phone calls that she receives (particularly those from family and friends).¹⁵

Cases of battered immigrants are ultimately complicated by their abuser's use of immigration status as a tool of control. Research on domestic violence conducted among immigrants indicates that immigrant women are very often victims of domestic violence due to vulnerability related to their immigration status.¹⁶ In a survey of immigrant women conducted by Ayuda, 62% of the respondents reported that they were subjected to weekly physical or emotional abuse. Thirty-one percent of respondents reported an increase of abuse with immigration to the United States. Another 9% reported that abuse began with immigration. One-fifth of the respondents reported that their spouses use threats of deportation, of not filing immigration papers, or of withdrawing these papers as a power and control tactic in abusive relationships. One-fourth of the participants stated that fear relating to their immigration status prevented them from leaving the abusive relationship. This survey highlights the relationship between domestic violence and immigration status. It further illustrates some of the specific problems battered immigrant women face in their efforts to stop the violence. Congress relied on this research in deciding to include special protection for battered immigrant women in the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).¹⁷

Fears surrounding deportation are often aggravated because abusers convince immigrant victims that they will lose custody and be permanently severed from any relationship with their children through deportation. Abusers believe and often try to prove in custody cases that the victim's lack of lawful immigration status outweighs and shifts the "best interest of the child analysis" toward this unlawful status and away from the abuser's violence. This position is contrary to recommendations from experts on domestic violence and children.¹⁸ Moreover, where the judicial system condones these tactics, battered immigrants are more likely to return to their batterers and subject their children to further effects of domestic violence.¹⁹ If an abuser raises this issue in a custody case, the battered immigrant woman will need the assistance of an attorney who can counter these charges using current evidence from the "ABA Report on The Impact of Domestic Violence on Children" and other resources.

Sexual Violence

As in all other domestic violence cases, abusers of immigrant and migrant women use physical and sexual violence as a means of exercising power and control over their intimate partner. Sexual assault frequently occurs in domestic violence cases. This may include forcing a victim to engage in a range of unwanted sexual acts, either through physical force or threats. Sexual abuse can include behavior that may not be criminal, but can cause devastating psychological and physical effects. This could include:

forcing the victim to view or perform in pornographic videos or engage in sexual activity with other persons,
calling the victim a prostitute,
informing her that she is required to have sex with him whenever he wants,
accusing her of sleeping with other men,
alleging on legal papers that she has a history of prostitution.²⁰

Psychological Abuse

Sexual or physical abuse typically coincides with psychological abuse of the victim.²¹ In many cases, psychological abuse may occur in a relationship where there is no physical abuse. Abusers of immigrant women often focus on the following psychological tactics:

threatening to harm someone in her family in the United States or in her country of origin,
hiding or destroying important papers (such as her passport or the children's passports or birth certificates),
destroying her personal belongings (such as clothes, letters, heirlooms, photos, or other items brought from her home country),
convincing her that his violent actions are not criminal unless they occur in public,
telling her that she provoked the violence and is responsible for it,
accusing her of marrying him only for lawful immigration status and threatening to or actually reporting this to the INS
blaming her for breaking up their family if she leaves him.²²

Who are Victims and Perpetrators of Domestic Violence?

Domestic violence crosses ethnic, racial, age, national origin, religious, gender, and socioeconomic lines.²³ The rate of abuse does not vary significantly from culture to culture nor is it based on the country of origin of the victim or the abuser. Studies have shown that the only common traits between victims are that they are being abused by their intimate partners or spouses and that the majority of heterosexual victims are female.²⁴ Immigrant domestic violence victims come from many socio-economic levels. Not all battered immigrants are from lower socio-economic classes. Immigrant victims may be doctors, business owners, scientists, or child care providers. Perpetrators may be police officers, military personnel, sports heroes, diplomats, or college professors. Unlike victims, perpetrators do have at least two common traits -- the majority of perpetrators witnessed domestic violence in their childhood homes and are male.²⁵

Although domestic violence affects persons from all backgrounds, battered immigrant women face even greater obstacles in their efforts to escape violent relationships. Language, culture and immigration status exacerbate the level of violence, block victims from access to information about legal remedies, and complicate their efforts to obtain the relief they need to end the violence. Culture, religion, socio-economic, and immigration status do not determine whether domestic violence will occur, but rather influence what barriers a battered immigrant must confront, what relief she will need to obtain from the legal system or other sources, what should be included in her safety plan, what threats the abuser will use against her, and what excuses the abuser will use in an attempt to justify his violence.²⁶

In order to offer battered immigrant women effective assistance through the legal system, attorneys, advocates, police officers, and courts need to allow and encourage battered immigrants to choose when they are ready and when is it safe to leave their batterers. Battered women need to know that the advocate will offer assistance whether or not they choose to leave their abuser or if they choose to reconcile with their abuser. Even when the victim decides not to leave the relationship, she may still obtain a civil protection order and advocates should advise her about that option. Battered women who choose to stay should develop a safety plan and be assisted in obtaining protection orders that simply order the abuser to not harass or commit further violence against them. These orders may also require that the abuser participate in a batterers' treatment program. This helps shift the balance of power in their relationship and offers the victim better protection when and if she chooses to leave.²⁷

BARRIERS IMMIGRANTS MUST OVERCOME WHEN SEEKING HELP TO END ABUSE

Abusers of immigrant women use the power and control tactics listed above to exert control over a battered immigrant woman's movements, emotions, thoughts, relationships with the outside world, and potentially every aspect of her life. In addition to their abusers' use of violence or coercion, immigrant victims of domestic violence face unique obstacles when obtaining help from domestic violence services providers and protection from the legal system.

Language Barriers

One of most immediate hurdles facing battered immigrants are language barriers that prevent them from obtaining legal or social services. For instance, if the police respond to a domestic violence incident, an immigrant victim of domestic violence who does not speak English may not be able to communicate with the law enforcement officer. The officer may then defer to the abuser because he speaks English and believe the perpetrator's claim that the victim initiated the violence or that nothing happened at all. If an English-speaking child is asked to translate, the child may not tell the officer what really happened out of fear of the abuser. Based solely on language barriers, a police officer may inappropriately arrest a victim, let a perpetrator go who should be arrested, or fail to provide a victim with information about her legal rights. When an arrest is made or a report is taken, language barriers and the use of untrained translators may result in the police officer preparing and filing an inaccurate report. This creates credibility problems for the victim when the police report is introduced during a trial. It may also serve to undermine her already tenuous trust in the police and discourage her from making reports in the future.

Similarly, a battered immigrant may be unable to access other community resources because of language issues. Most courts have only limited access to interpreters and many do not have interpreters readily available at clerks' offices or domestic violence programs in the courthouse. An inability to communicate with court personnel can make the process of seeking help from the legal system even more difficult for battered immigrants. Victims may encounter similar frustrations if they attempt to get aid from local domestic violence shelters, crisis hotlines, or social services agencies.

To help address these problems, battered women's advocacy programs should identify social service agencies that work with significant language minority populations in their communities. Advocates should meet with representatives from that agency and should develop agreements under which their staff will assist with interpreting and translating for domestic violence cases that advocates are working on. In exchange battered women's advocates should offer training on domestic violence for social service agency personnel and assistance with battered women in their case loads. In addition, volunteer translators and interpreters can be recruited from local universities and church groups. Social service staff and volunteer interpreters should receive training on domestic violence so that they will be better able to help battered women when called upon to provide translation, interpretation, or other support services. These ideas are further discussed in chapters two through six of this manual, which cover cultural competency training, cross-cultural communication, recruiting bilingual staff, shelter protocols, and outreach.

Perception of Law Enforcement and the Legal System

Battered immigrants may fear that the police or courts will not help them because of experiences with repressive or non-responsive law enforcement and judicial systems in their countries of origin. Victims may fear the police in the United States because of police brutality in their home country, in their local neighborhood, or because they are afraid that the police will report them to INS or take their children away.²⁸ (See Chapter 13 on Reporting) A recent survey found that nearly 83% of battered immigrants did not contact the police for help despite lengthy histories of domestic violence.²⁹

Most immigrant women, even those who have attained lawful permanent residency or become naturalized citizens, are afraid to use and do not understand how our legal system works.³⁰ Battered immigrants may hesitate to utilize the legal system because they come from countries with different legal procedures or standards for credibility.³¹ In these countries, the legal system is often based on a civil law system where oral testimony is not valid evidence. When oral testimony is taken, it must be corroborated. In some countries, corroboration may only be provided by men. In many other countries, the testimony of a man has more value as a matter of law than testimony provided by a woman. As a result, battered women from such countries could have great difficulty understanding that their testimony has any value in the U.S. legal system.³² Other battered immigrants may be familiar with a legal system in which money or governmental ties, rather than due process, determine legal outcomes.³³ Battered women who have learned not to expect justice from such legal systems find it difficult to believe that our system will function differently.

Battered immigrants may further distrust the United States legal system as a result of misinformation and lies told by their abusers. For battered immigrant women, the connection between control over legal immigration status and domestic violence is very strong.³⁴ Abusers may tell the victims that they will never be believed, that they have no legal rights, or that they will be deported if they call the police or go to court. Advocates for battered immigrants should discuss the U.S. legal system with their clients and ease their fears by explaining how the legal system works, that their testimony can be credible evidence, and that legal relief is available for all victims of domestic violence.³⁵ Advocates should also discuss their track record and experience obtaining protection orders for victims to further alleviate their fears. Finally, offering to take a battered immigrant with the advocate to court prior to her court date can be helpful as well. This experience provides battered immigrants with an opportunity to see how our system works and observe that other battered women do testify and receive favorable court orders from the judge.

Fear of Deportation

One of most powerful threats abusers use against battered immigrants is that of deportation.³⁶ Abusers frequently threaten to have their partners or spouses deported if they seek any type of help. As a result, many immigrant victims remain silent about the abuse, and refrain from calling the police, going to the hospital, or seeking legal assistance. Regardless of their actual immigration status, victims of domestic violence frequently believe that their abusers can have them deported because that is what their abusers have told them. This is may be true even for lawful permanent residents who attained their green card through marriage. Some have been repeatedly told by their abusers that because their abuser helped them get their green card, he can have it taken away. This is untrue. In other cases where the victim is undocumented, the INS may actually carry out the abuser's threats. For example, the INS may act on information supplied by the abuser even if the abuser has contacted INS to punish the victim for pursuing criminal charges or a civil protection order.³⁷ Battered immigrants who qualify for relief under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) can cut off their abuser's ability to influence the outcome of their immigration case. VAWA's confidentiality provisions prevent the INS from relying on information in a self-petitioning case that is supplied by the abuser.

Fear of deportation has dire consequences for battered immigrants, as it may prevent them from getting help to stop the violence. In a survey conducted in San Francisco, 64% of undocumented battered women said that the fear of deportation was the primary reason why they did not seek social services.³⁸ This hesitation to seek help may lead to a dearth of corroborating evidence about the domestic violence despite the long history of abuse. The victim may not have any medical records, police reports, or protection orders. A lack of documentation of the abuse may then affect a victim's ability to obtain immigration relief, which requires proof of the abuse. (See Chapter 8 on VAWA and Confidentiality issues).

Abusers of battered immigrant women constantly threaten them with deportation if they complain about the abuse, threaten to leave, or threaten to call the police or others for help. If a battered immigrant woman who does find the strength to leave her abuser becomes subject to deportation, her abuser's threats are realized. Battered immigrant women often fear deportation for very legitimate reasons relating to the abuse. They are afraid that they will be ostracized by the abusers' relatives, their own relatives, or community members for cooperating with the prosecution of their batterer.³⁹ She may face the shame of losing her job and the ability to send money home. Moreover, if deported, she may be sent to a country that the abuser can freely travel to and that may not have domestic violence laws. She may also fear that if she reports the abuse, her abuser will be deported and she will lose child support or other economic assistance that he provides. She may love him, value his relationship with their children, depend on him economically, or fear reprisal by him or his family. While for many women the benefits and safety that come with reporting outweigh the risks, each battered immigrant must weigh the pros and cons for herself and make her own choice. She should consult with an immigration expert to understand the potential consequences of her abuser's deportation.

To counter these fears and the abuser's threats, advocates and attorneys should provide battered immigrant women with correct information about whether they face risks of deportation and whether they may qualify for VAWA or other immigration benefits. Advocates should develop relationships with immigration attorneys and experts who can help determine if a client is eligible for VAWA or any other available immigration options. An advocate should never call the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) without first consulting with an immigration lawyer or trained immigration expert. To identify immigration lawyers and accredited representatives in your area, contact Gail Pendleton at the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyer's Guild at (617) 227-9727 or one of the National Network on Behalf of Battered Immigrant Women groups listed in Chapter 14 of this manual. Advocates also need to help battered immigrant women learn what is considered "domestic violence" and that in our society domestic violence is a crime. Legal, medical and social service professionals are willing to help them stop the violence and with the exception of TANF welfare workers are not required to report undocumented battered immigrants to the INS.

Cultural Issues

Cultural factors may stop victims from seeking services for domestic violence. A victim may be under pressure from within her own community to remain in an abusive marriage for complex reasons, ranging from cultural mores about the role of women or the sanctity of marriage, to the abuser's powerful standing within the community. Battered immigrants may worry that if they seek help from outside of their community, they will be ostracized by members of their community, which might include all of their family members or friends in the United States.⁴⁰ Victims are often under tremendous pressure to keep family matters private. In some cases, immigrant women who speak out against their abusive husbands may be blamed for the violence, lose social respect, and cause uninvolved family members to be ridiculed.⁴¹

As a result, many battered immigrants seek solutions to end the violence that do not require them to separate from their abusers. Unfortunately, few domestic violence programs offer assistance with protection orders to battered women who intend to continue living with their abusers. It is extremely important that advocates not blame the victim for her choice to remain with the abuser and offer her needed assistance. Advocates should send a clear message that the victim can seek help from them at any time in the future. ⁴² They should work with each battered immigrant to help her address each need, fear, or barrier through civil protection orders, safety planning, public benefits assistance, immigration relief, education, and support.

Battered immigrants may also hesitate to seek help if domestic violence programs do not provide culturally or linguistically appropriate services.⁴³ Victims from immigrant communities may have cultural traditions -- such as eating or sleeping arrangements -- that are very different from the rules imposed by the domestic violence shelter. These cultural factors may discourage battered immigrants from seeking assistance. Those battered immigrants who do attempt to live in shelters often feel alienated, uncomfortable, unwelcome, alone, and afloat without access to culturally familiar surroundings.

Addressing this issue is crucial to reaching battered immigrant women and assuring that they receive effective assistance from shelters and domestic violence programs. This process may include allowing the battered immigrant to prepare food for herself and her children separate from the meals that are prepared for all shelter residents (see Chapter 5 for more information).⁴⁴ Additionally, battered immigrants may choose to find alternate housing arrangements apart from battered women's shelters by evicting the abuser from the family home or by living with friends, co-workers, or family members. Advocates should help battered women obtain protection orders to protect the battered immigrant and any third parties who offer her shelter. When battered immigrants seek safe shelter outside of battered women's shelters, advocates should also assist them with accessing ancillary services (e.g., social work services or support groups run by shelter programs).

Religious Issues

Victims from tightly knit religious communities may find that their religious beliefs conflict with standard legal remedies for domestic violence. For example, victims or their family members may have religious beliefs that emphasize the sanctity of the family and prohibit or discourage divorce. In some cases, religious principles may require wives to obtain their husband's permission to divorce him, giving perpetrators an additional means of control.⁴⁵ Advocates should work with battered women from these communities to develop creative responses that counter violence but avoid forcing victims to choose between deeply held traditional and spiritual beliefs and much needed legal remedies.

Victims who live in insular religious communities may be afraid to reveal the family violence to service providers outside of their community. They may fear that if they seek outside assistance, members of their community will support the perpetrator, particularly if the religion emphasizes the rights of men to rule their families. When they do disclose the violence to religious leaders, victims often fail to receive support and are told instead that it is their duty to make their marriage work. Battered immigrants who receive such advice are often reluctant to leave their abusers. At the same time, some battered immigrants may prefer to disclose the abuse to people outside of their religious or cultural group as they expect that they may not be judged so harshly. Advocates should work closely with these abuse victims, offering them safety planning and protection orders that do not require the parties to separate. These orders can require that the abuser not molest, assault, harass or commit any threats or acts of violence against his wife, and that he participate in a certified batterers' treatment program (see Chapter 9). Advocates can also work with religious leaders by educating them about domestic violence and forming partnerships to assist battered members of their religious communities or congregations.

The Role of Racism

Battered immigrants from some racial or ethnic minority groups may face additional barriers in obtaining legal relief to end domestic violence. For example, victims may experience racism when they seek services from providers who characterize all men from African or Latin American countries as violent or women of color as more prone to victimization.⁴⁶ The history of institutional and individual racism against people of color may lead some victims to avoid the police and the courts because these entities are part of a system that has traditionally discriminated against them.⁴⁷ Battered immigrant women of color may also suffer from the intersection of the effect of racism, gender-based discrimination, and anti-immigrant discrimination.⁴⁸ Even if nondiscriminatory services are available, victims may face pressure from within their own communities to endure the violence or to deal with it privately because of allegiance to their community. Women of color may hesitate to contact law enforcement to arrest their batterers because of a pattern of police brutality against members of their community.⁴⁹

Battered women's advocates should invite advocates for battered immigrants to become involved in the domestic violence coalition and domestic violence coordinating council in your state or local community. Advocates from immigrant communities should work together to train justice system personnel, battered women's advocates, and attorneys in your community about the dynamics of domestic violence experienced by battered immigrants. Training should also include information on creative remedies that offer each victim the relief she needs based on her own cultural context. Battered women's and immigrant rights advocates should work with the local domestic violence coalition to identify problem organizations or individuals and to develop strategies for instituting policies and procedures that do not perpetrate racist stereotypes. Joint strategies should be developed in which those persons familiar with cultural and immigration issues can work together with domestic violence experts to counter problems that arise.

Economic Barriers

While many victims of domestic violence face financial obstacles when they leave their abusers, battered immigrants may have even more severe economic barriers to overcome. Undocumented immigrants may not be able to obtain work authorization. Even those immigrants who are eligible for work authorization based on an approved VAWA self-petition or other means may have lengthy waiting periods before they actually receive this authorization. Battered immigrants who work without authorization are more likely to have low-paying jobs with no benefits or job security. Moreover, immigrants who make a false claim about U.S. citizenship or purchase or use false documents in order to obtain employment risk being barred from obtaining lawful permanent residence. As a result, battered immigrants are less able to support themselves and/or their children alone. Even those who have work authorization may have difficulty finding well paying jobs because they often lack child care, transportation, or language capabilities. This inability to obtain decent employment traps many battered immigrants in abusive relationships.

Recent studies indicate that the majority of women who are homeless and/or receive public assistance are currently being abused by their partners or spouses or were formerly abused.⁵⁰ Due to changes in welfare laws, however, battered immigrants who do not qualify for relief under VAWA may not be eligible for many types of public assistance that are available to U.S. citizen victims of domestic violence. Some battered immigrants with U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident children may be able to receive some benefits for their children (See Chapter 11). Nonetheless, lack of access to the economic safety net of public benefits makes it even more difficult for some battered immigrants to flee from abusive relationships. A recent survey supported the need for economic resources for battered immigrants, finding that the primary reason immigrant women remain in abusive relationships is a lack of financial resources.⁵¹

Under INS regulations and procedures that implemented the 1994 Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), work authorization is available to immigrants who file and have received approved VAWA self-petitions. Work authorization is also available for suspension of deportation and cancellation of removal applicants after deportation or removal proceedings have been initiated. VAWA-eligible battered immigrant women should try to get work authorization as soon as possible in order to be able to support themselves and their children. Beginning to work will also help battered immigrants prove to INS that they are not likely to become a public charge when they are eligible to apply for lawful permanent residence or a "green card." (See Chapters 2, 8, and 11 for more information).

Many undocumented battered immigrant women do work. For these women, being employed can enable them to escape an abusive relationship. Advocates must caution undocumented battered women who plan to work that they must not purchase or use false papers in order to get employment or represent to an employer that they are U.S. citizens. If they commit those acts, they are likely to become ineligible to receive relief under VAWA or any other immigration benefit they may qualify for. They may also be subject to deportation.

International Parental Kidnapping

Abusers with battered immigrant spouses or partners are likely to use the children as a tool of control. They may threaten to abduct the children if the victim leaves the relationship. If abusers have ties to other countries, the potential for international abduction becomes very real. Battered immigrants may decide to remain with their abusers in order to prevent their children from being abducted and taken out of the country. Advocates working with battered immigrants whose abusers are threatening to kidnap their children should take these threats seriously and take legal steps to deter or head off the abuser's kidnapping attempts. (See Chapter 9).

COMMON QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Why don't victims just leave?

Victims of domestic violence almost always attempt to leave violent relationships. Some victims make repeated attempts to leave. A range of serious obstacles forces some victims to return to their abusers and prevents others from leaving in the first place.

Perpetrators of domestic violence against immigrant spouses or partners frequently threaten to have their partners or spouses deported if they leave or seek help. Until recently, immigration laws gave U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident spouses control over their spouse's immigration status, even if they were domestic violence perpetrators. This thereby permitted them to exercise control over their victims. While this is no longer true, battered immigrants who believe that their spouses control their immigration status may be afraid to leave for fear of being deported.

Many victims, including battered immigrants, fear that they will be harassed, stalked, or killed if they leave their batterers. These fears are justified, as nearly 30% of female homicide victims are killed by their current or former boyfriends or husbands. A victim's fears in a particular case may be based on the batterer's verbal or physical threats (e.g., "I'll kill you if you leave me"), the batterer's prior behavior (e.g., the violence increased the last time the victim left), or information about the batterer's history (e.g., the batterer was imprisoned for assaulting or killing his former wife).

Battered immigrant victims who have sought and been denied or have received culturally inappropriate assistance from outside sources, such as the police or courts, are more likely to fear retaliation from their batterers. They may believe that the judicial or law enforcement systems cannot protect them. Many victims come from countries where domestic violence laws do not exist or are not actively enforced. Moreover, women wanting to flee a violent relationship may not know where to turn for effective assistance.⁵²

Victims of domestic violence may be unable to leave their abusers because they cannot financially support themselves and/or their children. Since perpetrators often withhold economic resources from victims, victims may not have the means to pay for basic needs on their own such as housing, food, clothing, or medical care. Batterers may forbid victims from working, or force them to turn over their paychecks if they are employed. A lack of savings or limited access to family income traps many victims in abusive relationships.

Additionally, many victims stay in abusive relationships out of concern for their children. Batterers frequently threaten to harm, abduct, or gain custody of the children if victims leave. This can be terrifying for victims whose batterers have ties with foreign countries. Batterers often carry out their threats to abduct the children. Domestic violence underlies a large proportion of the nation's estimated 354,000 yearly abductions.⁵³ While some victims may be concerned about losing their children, or their ability to care for their children's basic needs if they leave their abusers, others may feel that it is important for the children to live with both parents. Thus, children often bind victims of domestic violence to their abusers.

Victims may feel pressure to remain with their abusers due to cultural or religious mandates that require women to remain with their husbands despite "marital problems." Victims who consider leaving may be advised by family members, community members, or clergy to try to work out the marriage. A lack of support from family or community members, combined with inconsistent responses from the legal system, may discourage victims from leaving abusive relationships.

Don't battered immigrants stay in abusive relationships because they are accustomed to women being treated poorly in their cultures??

It is critical when presenting information about battered immigrants to avoid cultural stereotyping. In most countries around the world, as in the United States, there are a variety of subcultures and traditions about the roles of women - some are positive and others are oppressive. Battered immigrant women do not remain in abusive relationships because they enjoy the abuse, or because they come from "backward" cultures in which all women are constantly degraded. Like all victims, battered immigrant women face safety, economic, cultural and psychological pressures when deciding whether to leave their abusers. Immigration laws, language barriers, and a lack of financial resources often create additional obstacles for battered immigrants.

CONCLUSION?

To assist immigrant victims of domestic violence, advocates must be educated about the sociological and psychological aspects of domestic violence in immigrant families and the legal ramifications of domestic violence. Without an understanding of the power and control dynamics exercised by batterers of immigrant women, advocates will not be able to address developments such as a victim's concerns about whether or not to pursue criminal charges.⁵⁴ Domestic violence advocates and service providers must understand that power and control issues are as central to domestic violence cases involving battered immigrants as these are with all battered women. Advocates can enhance their ability to offer culturally appropriate help to battered immigrants by creating a safe space in which battered immigrant women can talk about their needs, concerns, fears, and the cultural barriers that they must overcome. Only then will advocates be prepared to promote safe, culturally sensitive solutions aimed at ending the violence.

CHAPTER 2

CULTURAL COMPETENCY TRAINING

by Leslye E. Orloff, Rachel Little, and Magdalena Spiewla As highlighted in the previous chapter, cultural barriers frequently prevent battered immigrant women from seeking the assistance of domestic violence programs. This is particularly the case when battered immigrants are from cultures, religions, or socioeconomic classes that differ from those of an agency's staff. To overcome these barriers and offer meaningful assistance to battered immigrants, shelter staff and domestic violence service providers should be trained to improve their cultural competency. Culture can be defined as the concepts, habits, skills, languages, institutions, beliefs, etc. of a given group of people. Cultural competency refers to the development of skills that one can use to behave in a culturally appropriate way with this given group. This involves sensitivity to cultural differences, the use of appropriate cultural symbols when interacting and communicating with members of diverse populations, and the acceptance of cultural differences in an open, genuine manner.¹ By utilizing these skills, staff will be better equipped to understand domestic violence from the perspective of battered immigrant women. They will further be better able to create an atmosphere in which immigrant women can safely discuss their experiences, needs, fears, and concerns.

An effective training program should examine issues about oppression and privilege. It should encourage advocates to become more aware of their own biases and prejudices so that they can effectively assist women from other cultures. It should further address the stereotypes and misconceptions that staff may have about working with immigrants, the barriers that immigrant women face to accessing domestic violence services, the cultures of immigrant women in your agency's service area, and the special legal/social service needs that battered immigrants may have. Several strategies exist for conveying this information to your staff. This chapter will first outline these strategies. This will be followed by a more detailed discussion of specific training topics.

TRAINING STRATEGIES

There is no single method that is necessarily best for training staff, interns, and volunteers to be culturally competent. The strategy that you ultimately choose will depend on your agency's internal and community resources, the nature of the immigrant community in your area, and the individual learning styles of your staff. To develop a successful training program, it is recommended that you consider the course of action listed below:

Ensure that there is an agency-wide commitment to assisting and empowering battered immigrant women. Structural changes that occur after training will be much more manageable if the staff are unified around this issue.²
If possible, hold the training program during a staff retreat outside of the office. The information that needs to be explored in the training sessions may be intense, particularly with regard to such issues as oppression and stereotypes. A more informal environment gives staff some space to relax, interact more freely between sessions, and enjoy the change in scenery. When having shorter follow-up events, consider doing them over a brown-bag lunch.
Use a multifaceted approach to train staff as each member may process information in a different way. A successful training program mixes lectures, discussions, videos, and written materials with role plays and group projects. Interactive training methods that force staff to walk in the shoes of battered immigrants are helpful as well. This could include having staff imagine that they are in a foreign country where they do not speak the language and are unfamiliar with the laws. Have them think about what it would be like to rely on another person to translate for them and explain how things work. They should then imagine what it would be like if this person were harming them and how they would feel about trying to get help in this country. Ask them how they would want to be treated or assisted by service providers.³
Training programs that require staff to discuss their personal values and feelings about oppression can often be emotionally cathartic. Be supportive of this process, but do not let it take over the event. Instead, make sure that staff are given the support they need during sessions to channel these feelings into effective advocacy work when they return to the shelter or service program.⁴
Locate a facilitator with expertise in group dynamics, domestic violence, immigrant issues, and diversity training. If possible, try to find someone from the local immigrant community. If resources are limited in your area, contact your state coalition or national advocacy groups that work with battered immigrant women for more information.⁵ It is also important to have experts participate in the training who are not a part of the immigrant community. The reason for this is that the group may be more open to discussing their personal issues and doubts with someone whom they can identify with.
If possible, consider inviting elders, leaders, or other members of the immigrant community, particularly those with an interest in or experience with domestic violence, to participate in the training event.⁶ These persons can be called on to provide input into the development of the training materials and curricula, to lead actual training sessions, and to assist with locating a facilitator. Your staff should offer to conduct community education programs and training events for immigrant community organizations in exchange for their assistance with this training and with your community outreach efforts. Community leaders may often be uninformed about domestic violence issues in their community and could deny or be defensive concerning this problem. If this proves to be the case, work with immigrant rights agencies and attend interagency meetings with these groups. This will encourage the creation of trust between community leaders and your agency. Immigration service providers may also be able to advise you as to who could be an appropriate community leader to involve in cultural competency training.
Seek the advice and support of immigrant rights agencies in your community and across the state, if necessary. These groups could be another source of facilitators, individual session leaders, resource materials, and successful outreach strategies. Cross-train with these agencies and other allied professionals in exchange for their services. Your agency will benefit from their knowledge of the immigrant community, immigration law, and cultural issues. They will in turn benefit from your expertise with the dynamics of domestic violence. Sharing information builds trust, collaborative working relationships, and ultimately improves the quality of client services. Moreover, as greater numbers of shelters and domestic violence service providers create links with immigration organizations, these connections can help immigrant and migrant women obtain continuous assistance if they need to move to and work in different jurisdictions.⁷ You may either want to schedule an event at which several organizations participate or tailor shorter presentations to individual groups. When preparing training presentations, include such topics as the definition of domestic violence, myths and facts about abuse, the role of your program, community resources available to victims, the dynamics of power and control in violent relationships, power and control used against immigrant victims, immigrant community concerns, cultural issues, immigration law, public benefits law, and special issues for immigrants that arise in family court cases.
Attend statewide and national conferences if local support is limited. This is a good opportunity to locate model training materials, meet with experts, and improve the structure of your training program.
Make cultural competency training an ongoing part of agency programming by holding continuing education programs and maintaining a library of training materials and other information. Decorating the agency with culturally diverse posters, crafts, and artwork will help make your shelter or program feel more inviting to battered women from diverse cultures. Be sure that posters about domestic violence portray victims from a wide range of ethnic identities so that residents and staff can identify with them. Good sources for these posters include the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the Family Violence Prevention Fund, and educational catalogues used by primary and secondary school teachers. Create a bulletin board with updated training and cultural information.⁸
Designate a staff member to be in charge of continuing education programs and future training events within your agency for new staff members. This person can also be an agency liaison and coordinator for cross-training events, serve on working groups around relevant issues (such as immigrant rights or welfare rights), organize joint service delivery to battered immigrants with area agencies, and advise the staff of new information as it is received.

OPPRESSION, STEREOTYPES AND MISCONCEPTIONS

During training, staff should be encouraged to look at how oppression and privilege have affected their lives and their work in the domestic violence advocacy community. They should process through any biases, prejudices, and stereotypes that they may have about immigrant women.⁹ It is difficult and uncomfortable to analyze personal feelings and beliefs, particularly if these could be viewed as "politically incorrect." However, these feelings can limit the creation of positive working relationships with battered immigrants if they are allowed to persist in a domestic violence program. As a result, they must be properly addressed and broken down. To facilitate this process, ground rules should be established to allow each staff member to share freely and honestly. It may be valuable to do trust building exercises before beginning any discussion as well.

When conducting the training program, start your first session with the development of working definitions of prejudice, stereotypes, oppression, and privilege. Tailor these toward the needs and experiences of the group. The following is a suggested framework for this and is based on the model used by the Artemis Center for Alternatives to Domestic Violence in Ohio:¹⁰

PREJUDICE - To prejudge or have negative feelings about a person or group based on misinformation, ignorance, assumptions, or stereotypes.

STEREOTYPE - A generalization about an entire group that is based on distorted cultural norms, cultural misunderstandings, or a real/perceived characteristic of an individual member of that group.

OPPRESSION - The impact of assumed and unjust superiority that entitles persons or institutions to dominate,

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CHAPTER 1 OVERVIEW OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND BATTERED IMMIGRANT ISSUES 1