Abstract
The study of battered women of color marginalized by their race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, class, and immigrant status (defined as an intersectional approach) has created new ways of thinking of and dealing with domestic violence in immigrant communities. This article applies the principles of an intersectional and interlocking analysis to the experiences of battered immigrant women in the U.S. In addition, here I bring together another dimension of intersectionality: one that inter-relates certain dynamics of domestic violence specific to immigrant communities and some of the unique ways in which immigrant communities are dealing with domestic violence in the U.S. In these ways, we are better able to see both the concerns about displacement and marginalization, as well as contestation and empowerment of battered immigrant women.
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Notes
Unless otherwise specified, data for this paragraph come from Juliette Terzieff. More services reach abused immigrant women. WENews. 2005. Available at www.womensenews.org.
In her discussion of how feminists can and must enter the debate on immigration in the U.S., Bose highlights the fact that the feminist journal Gender and Society has contributed to this debate by publishing, since its inception a decade ago, 30 articles on women and immigration. However, of those 30 articles, only two are specifically on domestic violence and immigration. See Bose (2006). On the other hand, journals like Violence Against Women have a much better record of including studies on domestic violence in immigrant communities.
While domestic violence refers to physical, psychological, emotional, sexual, and economic violence as it impacts on victims in all kinds of sexual relationships [heterosexual, GBLT (gay, bisexual, lesbian, transgender)], most of the literature on domestic violence in immigrant communities only covers heterosexual couples—either married or cohabiting. Thus, the terms used in this paper typically talk about male perpetrators and female victims—especially in physical and psychological abuse situations. However, it does not mean that this is the only set of relations with which we must be concerned. Moreover, the terms domestic violence, abused women, battered women, abused spouse or partner are used interchangeably. See DeKeseredy and MacLeod (1997).
Unless otherwise specified, data for this paragraph comes from: Elizabeth Clifford and Susan Pearce (2004). Women and Current U.S. Immigration Policies: Fact Sheets. Sociologists for Women in Society. Other important references include Abraham (2000a) and Garfield (2006).
The IMFA (Immigration and Marriage Fraud Amendments) was enacted in 1986 because of the government’s fear that new immigrants might have been falsifying marriages to gain legal status to the U.S. Inherent in IMFA is the notion of coverture which, according to Dasgupta (2005, p. 62) “entails women’s subordination to their husbands and the surrender of all legal power. Historically, married couples were not seen as equal partners; rather the husband was considered to have legal authority over his wife and children. Impressions of coverture are still visible in the recent Marriage Fraud and Welfare Reform Acts [1996]. Although these acts are supposedly gender-blind, in actuality, men, the primary immigrants to this country, become vested with inordinate powers due to them. Thus…the man ends up being the sponsor and controller of his wife.” Moreover, a wife who comes here under an H-4 visa, is still not able to work, which limits her ability to provide for herself if need be.
Available at http://nwaforchange.org/.
This is a complicated issue. As Dabby and Poore (2007) argue, patriarchy, not culture per se, must be challenged.
Available at http://www.harbour.sfu.ca/freda/articles/hlth.htm.
Available at http://www.harbour.sfu.ca/freda/articles/hlth.htm.
My thanks to Margaret Abraham who warns us that issues are always being addressed in the home country as well. Yet sometimes there is a social construction within the immigrant communities in the U.S. that the home country’s culture is static and does not go through important changes (personal communication, April 2007; also see Abraham 2002).
See also Smith and Ross’s (2005) discussion of colonization of Native women in the U.S.
E.g., ethnic enclaves from the same country who migrate to the U.S. in the same period for similar reasons, could have very difference experiences. They have different leaders, different histories, different resource levels; and they are in states with different approaches and monies available to address domestic violence.
Like Jiwani’s study of battered immigrant women of color in Canada, so too Menjivar and Salcido’s analysis of the immigrant domestic violence literature focuses on Western industrialized English-speaking societies as the countries receiving immigrants—especially U.S., Canada, Australia, and Great Britain.
It is important to note that more and more immigrant women, especially those who are highly educated, are coming to the U.S. with English language skills and Western customs. This diversity should not be lost in the analysis of domestic violence experienced by immigrant women.
She suggests this might not be seen by Western feminists who do not have to deal with immigration laws that impact immigrant women. However, this overlap between state and private family spaces is only too well understood in legislation for marriage generally, abortion, birth control, etc.
At the same time, these model minority images have been challenged in the last decade by various grass roots organization and scholars leading to more integrated collaboration with some domestic violence groups. Thanks to Margaret Abraham for her insights here.
One shocking statistic alleges.
Available at http://www.dvalianza.org/pdfs/r_analytical_framework.pdf.
Available at http://www.dvalianza.org/pdfs/r_analytical_framework.pdf.
In the South Asian community, for example, there are certain organizations that service a significant number of battered women. Despite this fact, it is estimated that only about 30 percent of battered South Asian immigrant women in the U.S. are served by domestic violence agencies (communication with Shamita Das Dasgupta 2007a).
In their home country, being darker skinned may not have led to the same kind or degree of racial discrimination that occurs here in the U.S. On the other hand, in the colonial context in India, many people buy into a racial framework that privileges whiteness. So, for example, in the South Asian context, a dark colored woman may also experience color discrimination.
For an analysis of the impact of racism and “soul murder” on the lives of African American women who experience violence against their lives—whether in domestic violence situations or not, see Garfield (2005).
For an analysis that looks at domestic violence in communities marginalized by race, class, gender, as well as immigrant status, see many of the other chapters in Sokoloff and Pratt (2005).
See Safety and Justice for All: Examining the Relationship between the Women’s Anti-Violence Movement and the Criminal Legal System. Available at MSF web site, www.msfoundation.org. Call 212-709-4410 for hard copies of the report. Note: I became aware of this document only at the end of writing this article.
Available at http://www.dvalianza.org.
Note that many of the references in this section come from web resources. This is because these groups are doing some of the move recent creative, challenging and activist work in the area of developing alternative ways to challenge domestic violence in immigrant communities.
To learn more about the importance of creating new non-violent norms of masculinity, see Porter (2004).
Other programs that include men, somewhat similar to the Cultural Context Model, are Caminar Latino, National Compadres Network, Un Hombre Noble, Si Puedo (Yes, I Can) in the Latino community, are directed toward Latino men to take responsibility for their violence, understand and recognize the violence of colonization and to avoid projecting that violence onto their wives, reintegrate the positive involvement of men into their families and communities, to understand both individual violence and systems that support it; and to provide interventions that build on batterers’ strengths that are grounded in prideful aspects of their culture. Alianza advocates for such positions and should seriously be looked at as a model. However, it should likewise be said, that there are many researchers and activists who question batterer intervention programs—even those that are culturally competent. See Perrotta (2006). For a culturally relevant critique, see Mederos and Perilla (2005). Another set of programs using the Cultural Context Model, but with greater emphasis on the underlying misogyny and gender privilege of men in Asian/Pacific Island cultures, see Dabby and Poore (2005).
Although this article does not focus on poor white women, it is equally as important to understand how domestic violence is determined by the intersecting systems of race, class, gender, nationality for these women as well. (See Weis et al. 2005, and especially studies on white European immigrants).
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Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Margaret Abraham, Hoan Bui, and Shamita Das Dasgupta for their thoughtful comments, invaluable insights, and continual support of my work. For making this work more readable, I thank Fred L. Pincus and Susan C. Pearce for their insights and editorial skills.
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For more information on this topic, see the extensive bibliography by Natalie J. Sokoloff, Multicultural Domestic Violence Bibliography, at www.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/research/DomesticViolence/.
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Sokoloff, N.J. Expanding the Intersectional Paradigm to Better Understand Domestic Violence in Immigrant Communities. Crit Crim 16, 229–255 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-008-9059-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-008-9059-3