Saskatchewan Federation of Police Officers 47 The following are some of the key structural barriers that immigrant women may face in accessing public services, as well as the intersecting challenges that may await them in New Brunswick due to their gender, race, ethnicity, religion and language abilities. ACCESS TO INFORMATION • Newcomers are often overwhelmed with new information to process upon arrival. As such, immigrant women may only begin to learn about Canadian law and public services as they pertain to D/IPV when they become personally affected by violence or begin to identify the abuse that is taking place in their relationship. • Information concerning D/IPV is available through the government’s Love Shouldn’t Hurt website as well as other resources, but immigrant women may not be aware of this website, may not know where to find local information, or may not have safe or sufficient access to the internet to search for resources. • Immigrant women come to this province from a variety of countries, many of which do not have extensive public services, particularly for victims of D/IPV; as such, these services may be completely new and unknown, and the process may be intimidating and confusing for newcomers. • Abusive partners, or other members of the community, may provide false information or restrict women’s access to information and/or financial resources that could be used to plan for security and safety. LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION BARRIERS • Many immigrant women struggle to communicate using either of the official languages in New Brunswick and find it challenging to access and understand important information concerning the resources available to them. • Even women with high levels of language proficiency may be criticized by members of the locally-born population for speaking with a strong accent. • Access to translation and professional, accurate and sensitive interpretation is very difficult to find and limited in New Brunswick; professional interpretation services are often costly and can lead to longer wait times, while turning to other community members may jeopardize the client’s confidentiality, comfort and the accuracy of the communication. • Inter-cultural communication is a complex process requiring new skills, patience, and understanding on both sides of the conversation; the English terms associated with D/IPV may have no direct translation in an immigrant women’s primary language and vice-versa. WHYWON’T SHE LEAVE: STRUCTURAL BARRIERS FACED BY IMMIGRANT WOMEN Image by Drazen Zigic on Freepik
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