The author(s) shown below used Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice and prepared the following final report: Document Title: Violence Against Immigrant Women and Systemic Responses: An Exploratory Study Author(s): Edna Erez Ph.D. ; Nawal Ammar Ph.D. Document No.: 202561 Date Received: 11/14/2003 Award Number: 98-WT-VX-0030 This report has not been published by the U.S. Department of Justice. To provide better customer service, NCJRS has made this Federally- funded grant final report available electronically in addition to traditional paper copies. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Violence against Immigrant Women and Systemic Responses: An Exploratory Study Edna Erez, LL. B., Ph. D. Institute for the Study and Prevention of Violence Kent State University Kent, OH 44242 and FINAL REPORT Nawal Ammar, Ph. DApproved B~: Department of Justice Studies Kent State Universitmate: Kent, OH 44242 In collaboration with The National Network on Behalf of Battered Immigrant Women Co-Chaired by Leslye Orloff, NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, Washington, D.C. Gail Pendelton, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, Boston Leni Marin, Family Violence Prevention Fund, San Francisco May 2003 Report submitted to National Institute of Justice in fulfillment of requirements for Grant #98-WT-VX-0030 Views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the National Institute of Justice. This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Violence against Immigrant Women and Systemic Responses: An Exploratory Study Table of Contents Preface Introduction Chapter 1: Background and Literature Review Chapter 2: Legal Protection for Battered Immigrant Women: Historical Overview Chapter 3: The Battered Immigrant Women’s Experiences Chapter 4: The Perspectives of Social Service Providers Chapter 5: The Perspectives of Attorneys and Legal Rights Advocates Chapter 6: Conclusion and Policy Recommendations This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. “The God makes the sun comes out for all nations; that we be treated with justice not only in the family but through the judicial system.” (Battered immigrant woman interviewee no. 28) “The immigration laws should not punish people like me who are victims.. I did not know that my husband was already married and that our marriage is not valid.” (Battered immigrant woman interviewee no. 1 10) “Yes. I think it not only myself. I’m going to talk for many people. I feel I have no options but to stay with my abusive husband. I am a hard- working, honest person, who just wants to live in peace with no violence in my home, but I don’t have a job or a car or what is the most important: employment authorization in the U.S. If I would be able to work in the U.S., I would be happy and I would have happy children.” (Battered immigrant woman interviewee no. 130) ‘‘I was very happy to know about the VAWA program, but when I was told all the requirements, I started crying. It is very necessary to make changes in the law for people like myself.” (Battered immigrant woman interviewee no. 13 1) This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Preface This research is a collaborative partnership established with the Network on Behalf of Battered Immigrant Women (hereafter the “Network”). The advisory board of the research project consisted of the co-chairs of the Network, our partners in the study-- Leslye Orloff, Gail Pendleton and Leni Marin--and members of the Network who work with different immigrant populations or in related capacities in various parts of the country--David Durand (Wisconsin), Lori Guzman (Texas), Christine Marriott (Pennsylvania), and Sujata Warrior (New York). The advisory board members, particularly the co-chairs, provided invaluable advice on multiple issues related to the project. They also played a significant role in our ability to access one of the most hard- to-reach populations--immigrant battered women. There is no doubt that without their informed advice and relentless efforts in making contacts, we would not have been able to tell the stories of so many different immigrant women. Our partners also undertook a critical role in convincing the overextended and overworked providers of legal and social services to immigrant populations, particularly those who serve women, to take time from their busy schedules and respond to the survey questionnaires. Without our partners’ help, the service providers’ experiences associated with working with this disadvantaged population and their frustrations, obstacles, and rewards would not have been documented in this report. This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Special thanks go to the many bilingual social service providers who conducted the interviews of the battered immigrant women in the victims/survivors’ native language. These dedicated interviewers from numerous programs or organizations worked in the following places: Clinica Monsignor Oscar Romero, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), Central American Resource Center (CARFCEN), the Legal Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA), Glendale YWCA in Glendale, Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence in Ventura, and Asian Women’s Shelter and Mujeres y Unidas Activas in San Francisco--all in California; Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Service (ACCESS) in Detroit, Michigan; Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center in Miami, Florida; New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence in New York, New York; Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence in Des Moines, Iowa; The Political Asylum Project in Austin, Texas; Jewish Family Services in Cleveland, Ohio; Northwest Immigrant Center in Seattle, Washington, and the Miles Foundation in Connecticut. The service providers not only helped in identifying battered immigrant women willing to be interviewed but also volunteered their time, spending numerous hours interviewing the women well beyond what had been called for in their contracts. Their assistance and interviewing efforts were vital for overcoming interviewees’ language barriers and fear of talking to strangers--obstacles which could have defeated any attempt to interview this vulnerable and fearful population. The different data sets presented in these chapters were diligently processed by Shayna Chazin, Jae Russ, Melissa Solomon, Brandon Winarchick, and Marc Swatt. Shayna Chazin also helped with the writing of parts of the report. Marc Swatt assisted This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. with transforming the qualitative data into quantitative categories. Joan Marold provided valuable assistance with typing the manuscript, Kathy Campbell copyedited it and Linsey Britz gave the report her final touch. Special thanks to our NIJ project monitor, Leora Rosen, for her help, advice, support, and encouragement in various stages of the project. We are also thankful for her patience with the project progress and her understanding relative to meeting a firm deadline and dealing with various unanticipated problems encountered during the research. This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Introduction Migration is a worldwide phenomenon affecting a large number of people. The United Nations Population Division and the UN High Commission for Refugees (1993) estimate that at a minimum, two percent of the world’s population are migrants. Furthermore, the rapid globalization of the worldk economies and political environments will ensure that the number of migrants, at least half of whom are women (in some countries, women account for the overwhelming majority of migrants), will increase substantially in all of the worldk major geographical regions well into the 21st century (Teitelbaum and Russel, 1994). Migration exacerbates the gender-linked vulnerability of women. It makes women further dependent on and at times puts them at the mercy of their husbands or intimate partners, sponsors or employers, nuclear or extended families, and their own ethnichacia1 communities (Erez, 200 1). Violence against women, or gender violence, has been recognized as a special risk for immigrant or refugee women (Erez, 2001; Kelly, 1999; Perilla, 1999). Recent research in the U.S. has confirmed that violence against women is one of the most common victimizations experienced by immigrants (Davis and Erez, 1998). Yet there has been little systematic research on the victimization of immigrants in general and women immigrants in particular.