Baukje Miedema

Immigrant Women's Perspective

I would like to thank you for inviting me, particularly when immigrant women have been left out of these conferences for a long time in New Brunswick, and lately for some reason there seems to be a lot more interest.

Because the title for the conference is Discrimination Against Women: A Global Issue, I would like to discuss one issue: the non gender immigration laws in Canada. That is, they do not make a distinction between men and women. Although you may initially argue that means that they are equal, in reality it doesn't work that way. What often happens is that a wide variety of people immigrate to Canada, but the majority are married. The husband will tend to have a job while the wife may not have one lined up, as this is not part of the requirement. Thus, in many cases he will sponsor her. It is the sponsorship that is in many cases a major problem, as the husband needs to sponsor the wife for five to ten years. I should note that the sponsor does not necessarily have to be a husband, as it can also be someone else. But I want to just deal with this particular scenario right now.

The sponsorship term is set by the immigration officer that interviews the couple. Thus, it is up to the discretion of the immigration officer for how many years a husband will have to sponsor his wife. However, after three years, an immigrant person can apply for Canadian Citizenship if he/she is able to fill the requirements. But eventhough the woman may become a Canadian Citizen, the sponsorship remains.

Being sponsored means that a woman is dependant on the man that sponsors her, making a woman financially dependant on her husband. This does not mean that she can't go out to work, but it does mean that she is not eligible to draw upon social assistance. In cases of severe control through family violence, as it may happen in these families like it happens to three out of ten women in Canada, the husband who is legally responsible for the sponsored woman has a tremendous amount of control over her life. Even if there is no family violence, it can still be argued how detrimental total dependency can be for a woman. However, with regard to family violence and sponsorship, the man is able to exercise a lot of control over the woman, and threaten her with deportation if she does not comply.

Therefore, if you look at this immigration law which is gender neutral, you realize under closer examination that women are treated unfairly, particularly when sponsorship overrides citizenship. Furthermore, when we speak about immigrant women, we are talking about women who are not used to Canadian society. They may not speak the language nor be familiar with the structure and sociality of Canadian society. Thus for the women who may reside in situations of family violence, her environment is very unhealthy with virtually no room to move.

As one can see, the non gender immigration laws are not very beneficial for women. These laws do not work for women as they are used in a lot of cases as control mechanisms. I feel very strongly that even if you have sponsorship, once a woman is eligible for citizenship that the sponsorship should cease.

Another important issue to raise is the accreditation of professional and educational degrees. Although this affects both genders, when couples initially immigrate usually only one spouse will have a job, which is usually the man. The woman who may be very educated with regard to her country of origin will not be so accredited in the new country.

There are a high number of women immigrants who are highly qualified lawyers, teachers, doctors, who are not able to practice in Canada because there is very little opportunity to be credited for those degrees. If accreditation was allowed, then it would place these women in a much more favourable position. Presently, in order to be accredited, a woman needs to be re-educated in Canada which can be difficult when one has children. Although these women may be working, they tend to have to work in jobs that are much lower than their educational background prepared them for. Of course, canadian society greatly benefits from this as employers receive highly qualified personnel at much lower wages because immigrants' educational background is not legally recognized in Canada. It would not only benefit immigrant women to be able to practice what they have been trained for, but it would also be a great benefit for the whole of Canadian society.

I should also note that under the new budget, people immigrating to Canada now have to pay $975.00 to come into the country. If you break this down between men and women, as once again if it is the man that has the job and who can pay the fee, then the woman is placed in a very dependant position.

In any event, I think that it is very important that when we discuss discrimination against women as a global issue that we recognize that the reality of immigrant women is different from the reality of immigrant men. Moreover, often this difference is constructed by the rules and regulations that we have in this country.

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© 2007 Atlantic Human Rights Centre, St. Thomas University