Immigrant women are over-represented in shelters, to the point that they form a majority in the Montreal region. Actors in the field note not only that the phenomenon is increasing, but also that women have increasingly fragile statuses.
Around ten immigrant victims of violence testified to Duty in the last few months. Most asked to be presented under assumed first names for security reasons in this investigation. It’s Caroline, who came with a work permit linked to her student partner. Or Mélissa and Sofia, married in their country of origin to a man already settled here and whose sponsorship was withdrawn once the violence was denounced. It’s Ivonne Fuentes, sponsored by a Quebecer in the region.
These are two women to whom a spouse had promised sponsorship that was never submitted, and who found themselves without status with a newborn. She is a married refugee here who fears her ex-spouse and exclusion from her home community. It’s Silvia, who became pregnant when she only had a tourist visa and who lived for two and a half years without status with her other granddaughter. Others, too, were already permanent residents, but convinced that their spouse or the police had the power to deport them if they filed a complaint, like Lucienne.
The three associations of shelters for victims of domestic violence in Quebec are unequivocal: the proportion of women born outside of Canada sheltered clearly exceeds their weight in the general population.
In the 46 member establishments of the Group of houses for women victims of domestic violence, they represented 69% of women in the Montreal region and 51% in Laval. In the Capitale-Nationale region, they were 27%, which greatly exceeds the proportion of immigrants of 6.7% in the general population.
The general average across the province was 19% last year at the Regroupement, and 26% in the emergency shelters of the Fédération des shelters pour femmes (FMHF).
As for the Alliance of second-stage shelters for women and children victims of domestic violence (Alliance MH2), last year immigrants represented three-quarters of the women housed in Montreal and a third of those outside the metropolis. . The “second stage” refers to access to an apartment and services for a longer period after emergency housing for a few months. On average, in their 18 houses currently operating throughout the territory, almost half of the women housed were born outside of Canada.
Over the past few months, we have also spoken to around thirty other people involved in domestic violence. Shelter workers, social workers, immigrant reception specialists, police officers, lawyers and a nurse: all have had to adapt to this new reality, often with insufficient resources, inadequate programs and laws that do not do not take it into account.
More precarious
What worries shelters even more is that precarious statuses are increasingly common.
Asylum seeker, foreign student, worker, woman sponsored by her partner: approximately one in ten women in accommodation do not have permanent status, according to the groups consulted and the latest diagnosis from Statistics Canada. This is more than three times the proportion of temporary women in the general population.
“There is a fine line for these women to fall without status,” observes Katia Jean Louis, liaison officer at the Maison pour femmes immigrantes de Québec.
These women holding a temporary visa often put maintaining their status ahead of their health or physical well-being. The one who asked to be called Caroline*, for example, wanted above all to keep her job, so difficult to find: “I remained paralyzed, I did my best to protect my face. I didn’t want it to be known at my job,” she says after describing three times her ex-husband hit her.
“I wanted to be able to get a work permit. […] It had become unbearable in the house, but I stayed anyway,” she says, given that her license was linked to that of her husband.
Temporary or permanent, “the thing all immigrant women have in common is really fear. Because this is what is instilled by the violent person: “You are going to be deported to your country, you can’t do anything, you have no rights here”,” explains Mayranie Lacasse, coordinator of Inter-Val 1175.
The women who told us their stories did not all stay in a shelter after leaving their violent partner. But they all said it again and again in their own way: immigration has made them more vulnerable to domestic violence. Even for Lucienne, who arrived in Quebec from Cameroon in 2011, whose ex-husband told her that he had the power to expel her from the country, since he “had brought her there”.
Beyond prejudices
“I can tell you that the immigration process itself is stressful, regardless of domestic violence. So, a woman who is in this process finds herself […] in a situation of double vulnerability in relation to domestic violence”, observes in particular Mme Jean Louis.
It is not because of their personality or their culture that these women are more vulnerable, researchers and speakers emphasize. Immigration and everything that surrounds it here in Canada creates “contexts of vulnerability,” explains researcher Sastal Castro-Zavala, professor of social work at the University of Quebec at Rimouski (UQAR).
Certain contexts “can encourage domination, the taking of power and oppression, and therefore make people more easily vulnerable to this violence,” she explains. She gives the example of sponsorship, which “creates inequalities within a couple”, in particular because of an increased and almost total “dependence” on the spouse who controls the immigration procedures.
This is what happened to Mélissa, a woman from the Maghreb, who says she did not know how to take the bus even after several months spent here. “I traveled, I studied at university, I had my independent side. But when I arrived here in Canada, a country of law with a husband like that, I was in prison,” she explains.
“Many people mix immigration with culture. We say: “Ah! immigrant women, [leur] culture is violent.” We must be careful because many immigrant women find themselves in a context of vulnerability. They do not separate, [ce n’est pas] for a cultural question, but for a structural question” explains Mme Castro-Zavala.
This amalgamation dies hard and is sometimes an “elephant in the room”: how can we address the fact that immigrant women are over-represented in shelters without fueling prejudices against certain cultures?
Women born here “perhaps have networks other than shelters,” says Maud Pontel, general coordinator of the MH2 Alliance. In particular, they more often have “the financial capacity to, for example, move or perhaps family with whom they can go and live”.
No longer be silent
We must also not ignore the weight and influence of the family left behind: “It happens that a woman comes to see us and, while she is talking to us, her phone just rings, the family calls constantly,” says Rose Ndjel, director of Africa for Women. This women’s center in the Parc-Extension district receives three or four women per week, she estimates, who are victims of violence, whether for their food, intervention or referral needs.
“It happens that, when the wife asserts her rights in the house, she becomes disobedient in the eyes of the husband,” she notes. It happened that men “came and threw women’s suitcases in front of the center”, reports Mme Ndjel. But for her, these women are beginning their own speaking out, after years of the #MeToo movement. In a march organized at the end of October 2023, she encourages them: “If you want to speak loudly, go ahead! »
Faced with increasingly pressing needs, the community organization made requests to create La Maison Augustine, a shelter specializing in immigration contexts.
A pioneering resource of this type, The Shield of Athena, notes that, despite some improvements, the needs of these women are slow to be addressed: “We have seen many women who, unfortunately, cannot be treated in the network of existing social services; 80% of all our cases come to us from the existing service network. These are other shelters, CAVACs, the DPJ, hospitals, etc. “, says Melpa Kamateros, the organization’s executive director.
For someone who has worked there for more than 30 years, “there is not the same safety net”, especially for those who do not speak French or English. She still remains optimistic, often still amazed at the strength of these women: “As soon as they get the information, they are ready to leave. They are ready to take charge of their lives. »
Tomorrow: even permanent, women weakened by immigration speak
their story
A clear but partial portrait
Need help ?
If you are a victim of domestic violence, you can call the SOS domestic violence emergency line at 1 800 363-9010.
Need help ?
Contact À coeur d’homme (by telephone: 418 660-7799, toll-free 1 877 660-7799), or go to quebec.ca/famille-et-soutien-aux-personnel to contact organizations helping men in difficulty.