All right.
The two previous witnesses did a good job of highlighting the key issues, so I will not go over them again. I will, however, add a few things.
Although all women in Quebec and Canada likely perform invisible work and carry a heavier mental load than men, the phenomenon is certainly magnified among immigrant women, especially newcomers. These women are in a new environment and may run into barriers because of their immigration status. They may be family class immigrants, refugee claimants and refugees. They tend to have more difficulty speaking the language and to be in a position of dependency, vis-à-vis a spouse who is sponsoring them or immigration authorities who make determinations affecting temporary immigrants, refugee claimants and women with other types of immigration status.
Why is it so important to specifically address women who are newcomers? Because, on top of the housework and child care responsibilities assumed by women overall, newcomers experience unique circumstances. The integration of the husband or spouse tends to take precedence, so that means the husband is the one to learn the language or go back to school, for instance. The women come second. In the past few years, we've seen an ever-increasing number of women newcomers in these types of vulnerable situations. By that, I mean women refugees and women who are family class immigrants, and all those in similar circumstances, such as some temporary workers. Women whose immigration status is precarious really have a much harder time than women with other types of immigration status.
What's more, women immigrants with small children often put off learning the language. In some cases, they focus on finding a job first, out of necessity, so they can look after their families. They run into another problem as far as learning the language is concerned. We've seen it happen in Quebec, with French integration. Once the French language classes are over, these women don't necessarily come away being able to speak French. They don't have opportunities to go to places—