SECTION 7: SYSTEMIC VIOLENCE AGGRAVATING THE STRESS OF FAMILY VIOLENCE

Systemic discrimination can be experienced as violence. We see it in its many forms in society when a dominant group or class perpetuates the marginalization of other populations through forms of social exclusion (Rylko-Bauer & Farmer, 2017) such as colonialism, racism, anti-Black racism, capitalism, heteropatriarchy, ageism, and ableism (Perez & Salter, 2019). Systemic discrimination can take the form of aggression, such as overt discrimination, or subtler forms, such as exclusion from career opportunities through “de-skilling,” or non-recognition, of qualifications and work experience from the country of origin (Guo, 2015; Thobani, 2000, 2007). In this section, we look at how the data explicates this type of experience, examining how support-seeking and accessing service provision were negatively influenced by systemic factors.

Models of Service Delivery that Disregard Racialized Immigrants’ Realities

Sandiran discussed how gaps in community services and healthcare failed their family but also pointed to how culturally inclusive programming can profoundly impact the treatment experience.

Our healthcare and social structures, and our community structures have failed us profoundly. . . . What my father was going through . . . so much pain . . . because our healthcare system had failed him, our community had failed him. . . . [He also] harmed the relationships that he had. Schizophrenia [is] a psycho-social disability. It’s one that’s so relational. . . . [This is why] I was very adamant on getting him into [a] transcultural care [program] in Montreal.

Sandiran also contacted a mental health service provider for assistance with the trauma created by FV and the stress of their father’s and sister’s mental health. The service provider did not provide culturally appropriate, trauma-informed service. However, when their family got into a program that had a transcultural focus, they saw positive changes on a relational level.

I fought at the emergency to get him in, and to get our family into family therapy. . . . We essentially go in as a family . . . and we speak to a transcultural psychiatrist, and there are people on the team who are professors, social workers, all of whom take a transcultural [psychiatric] approach to understanding the dynamics in our family. We bring in situations of domestic violence, especially the most recent thing that happened. . . . There’s a lot that needs to be changed about that program, but essentially that could be a model where we’re supporting the well-being of the family as a unit.

As the policing and justice systems respond to reports of FV, their approach does not always include a recognition of the impact of the violence on all family members. In Sonia’s family, the police arresting and charging her father had a negative effect on all family members:

It was the arrest that sparked all this. If he didn’t get arrested . . . and my mom never made a police statement [it would have been better]. [My mom] just wanted the situation to de-escalate, and she was begging and pleading with the police officers [to not] take him away. . . . Maybe if they were brown [it] would have de-escalated because [when you have] people that are similar to you, who are your equal [it is different] but . . . if you have two white men, who are coming in, protecting the person that you just fought with obviously you’re gonna have your defences up.

Sonia’s excerpt highlights several issues. First, it speaks to the possibility that the situation would have been de-escalated if police officers were South Asian and spoke their language. Second, the resulting arrest of her father and charges laid against him had devastating implications for the family, raising questions about the arrest policy for FV cases. Total disregard for Sonia’s mother’s request (who could not speak English) and enforcement of the stipulated protocol demonstrates the colourblind and racist law enforcement approach.

Fear and Distrust of Social Institutions

Some participants shared that they feared or did not trust educational and social institutions to respond to a disclosure of abuse in a way that was helpful to the family. Sandiran described how their family was concerned about accessing support when the children were younger because of the possible involvement of CPS, resulting in the separation of family members:

I think over the course of our childhood, at least my mum was very adamant on teaching my brother and my sister and I too . . . not utter a word about what was happening at home to anyone. And I’m, you know, the more I grow up, the more I’m so thankful that she did that because I think we would have ended up in foster care.

Sandiran’s assessment hints at the history of CPS separating racialized children from their parents and the gratitude that their mother gave instructions and ensured that it did not happen to them.

Samantha’s family became involved with CPS because her mother was a sole parent and lived with physical and mental health issues and trauma. Samantha described how as a 12-year-old, she had to strategically navigate her interaction with CPS when her mother was hospitalized. Child welfare policies of having a family member as Samantha’s primary caregiver conflicted with the realities of how Samantha’s uncle and trusted family friends collectively provided care so that Samantha could live with as little disruption to her life as possible.

Living and Growing Up in Poverty

Sandiran shared how poverty compounded the impact of FV:

My father had schizophrenia, and he wasn’t able to work, and he made my mom go to work like I think within the first two years he was on heavy medication . . .he just couldn’t work. . . . And so, we always knew that we were in a very financially precarious situation.

Sandiran discussed the trauma of growing up in a low-income neighbourhood:

We grew up in a neighbourhood that had quite a bit of gang violence . . . there was a lot of violence already in the neighbourhood, and then in our building, it was a public housing building . . . we had neighbours. . . who were dealing with substance-use challenges . . . mostly alcohol, and there was so much noise so much I was terrified all the time . . . but then added to that there was the dynamic of my neighbours. . . . You would hear pounding on the walls and our front door. . . . I thought someone was gonna break in and kill us.

The excerpts demonstrate the trauma of systemic violence Sandiran, their sister Abi, Samantha and Sonia experienced besides FV. The systemic violence they experienced created an additional layer of trauma they had to deal with, further complicating their experience of FV. While the current strategies of addressing FV focus only on domestic issues and their impact on children, based on what these excerpts have shown, there is a need to include systemic violence for an effective resolution of FV in racialized immigrant communities.