I apologize. When the interpreters are not in the room, they're not very evident. I will slow down.
So we also know that, generally, immigrant women want to be free of their abuse, not of the abuser. They come here and they're very vulnerable. They don't know people outside their immediate family, and that's a challenge.
We also know that our immigration and refugee sponsorship processes often put one partner over the other. There are some major examples of this. The conditional permanent residence status for sponsored spouses has become a huge issue for us in the settlement sector. This puts newcomer women at greatly increased risk of violence and abuse. It's a form of abuse uniquely faced by immigrant women: the threat of reporting them to immigration authorities and having them deported. This particular policy has had an extremely serious impact on the lives of many women, and we have seen it again and again. It's feeding family violence.
Our best practices here at ISANS, of education, workshops, information in different languages, no longer work. We used to be able to say, “Don't worry, nothing is going to happen,” but something can happen now. It's not true, but many women fear deportation much more than they fear spousal violence. So here is a real and desperate need, a desperate need to reconsider this policy. Review the impact, look through the gender lens of policy with this one in particular to identify how it compromises women's personal and economic security.
As for isolation, and Lana talked about it as well, immigrant women are extremely likely to confront isolation as part of the immigration experience. This can be exacerbated by being prevented, for example, from going to English classes or French classes, or from working. It can take the form of alienation from the cultural community, by saying, “You're a bad wife. You're a bad mother,” or accusations of leaving or failing their culture, of being made to lose face in the community.
The challenge here as well is eligibility for services. There are many women in our communities, for example, the spouses of temporary foreign workers, or even temporary foreign workers themselves, and also refugee claimants, who are ineligible for many of the services that the immigrant settlement sector provides.
I'm glad that Lana brought up housing. Housing is a significant issue for any woman who is in an unsafe situation, especially with children, and how they get out of that situation. So a housing strategy is a desperate need.
Threatening to take away the children is a challenge for many women in this situation, but it's faced by immigrant women who don't know their rights. They have no other contacts or support and a very limited understanding of the Canadian process and laws. We can't talk about any of this without considering the impact of cultural and religious practice, and it's really complex.
So as for best practices, what can we do? Education, education, education; it's family orientation. Do the workshops in groups. People feel much more comfortable when talking about taboo topics. Make sure there are programs for only women. Make sure there are programs for only men. But at ISANS, our most successful programs are when men and women are together. We have managed to break many of the assumptions about immigrant men, by having family programs that in fact very often have more men in them than they do women.
Our starting point is not that we need to protect women, the violence against women, although we understand that is a critical issue and there are times when we need to do that. Our starting point is that parents want to do their best for their families. We don't start with violence; we start with, “You're a good father. You're a good mother. You want what's best for your family.” Our approach is to look at families holistically, at how people can live their best lives in Canada, through all our programs.
But we need accessible programs with trained interpreters and information in different languages. Whatever your status is in Canada, you need to be able to access these services.
At ISANS we work in partnership with hospitals, women's organizations, and a number of family resource centres.
Finally, the immigrant victims of violence often encounter bias when they turn to the justice system for help in domestic violence, family, and criminal law cases. These biases undermine immigrant women's ability to obtain effective protection orders, legal custody of their children, child support, and cooperation in the criminal prosecution occasionally of their abusers. We need to provide training to improve the justice system's response to immigrant victims of violence.
Beyond that, we need to make sure that family doctors, other health care personnel, social services, police, child protection agencies, and immigration authorities understand the complexities but also understand the culture in which these actions are taking place, and that they understand immigrant victims' legal rights. There are often so many incorrect assumptions about culture, about rights, and about standards in Canada that people get very different and very confusing advice.
Immigrant women in this dialogue are one of the most vulnerable groups. We certainly welcome this opportunity to be able to speak to the standing committee today and look forward to the actions and tasks that come out of it.
Thank you.
I'd like to pass you over now to my colleague, Madam Cha.