Barriers for Immigrants
By: Joana Gomez and Stephanie Torres, Bilingual Advocates
At the SAVA Center, we provide services to all survivors of sexual assault regardless of immigration status. Many immigrants come to the United States in search of better opportunities or to flee dangerous situations back in a home country. Living in a country that is not one’s home can be quite challenging. Many immigrants may face racism, discrimination and even victimization because of their immigrant status. All of this can become even more difficult when an immigrant has experienced trauma such as a sexual assault.
In our last blog focusing on immigrants, we talked about three ways sexual violence impacts immigrants in the United States. Now, our two Bilingual Victim Services Coordinators teamed up to write about seven barriers immigrants face in seeking and obtaining services after experiencing a sexual assault.
Cultural and Language Barriers
- One of the biggest barriers immigrants have in obtaining services with regard to sexual assault and even domestic violence here in the United States is not being able to speak English. Many immigrant survivors may not know that any services exist, and even if they do, they may not know how to access them due to this language barrier. Furthermore, even if immigrants do reach out for help, they may not be able to obtain the services they need if the organization does not have a way to provide services in their native language. This highlights the importance of organizations serving immigrants to have policies in place that make their services accessible to non-English speakers.
- In addition to language barriers, immigrants may also experience other cultural barriers that prevent them from seeking services and obtaining safety. For example, in some countries it is not illegal to sexually assault someone within the confines of marriage. Therefore, immigrants may not realize when they come to the United States that what they are experiencing is illegal and will therefore not seek services or report.
- Cultural values can also sometimes act as a barrier for immigrant survivors. Strong family values like those in many Latin American countries may prevent someone from seeking services if they feel it will result in breaking their family apart or cause problems within the family. Victims of sexual assault are often times blamed for being assaulted regardless of whether they are immigrants or not. Additionally many will experience guilt and shame, but these feelings can also be compounded by one’s culture and values. Values with regard to remaining abstinent or a virgin until marriage may cause someone to feel even more shame if they feel they’ve dishonored their family or they may also feel like they’ve been “ruined” and can no longer get married. The shame and guilt survivors experience can be so damaging that it prevents them from seeking help.
Barriers to Reporting
- Given the political climate at any time and discourse around immigrants, and particularly undocumented immigrants, one of the biggest barriers for immigrant survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence is the fear of being detained or deported if they report to law enforcement. Law enforcement agencies in California, Texas, and even Colorado have seen a sharp decrease in reports of sexual assault and domestic violence from Latinx and Hispanic communities. It’s important to note that even if immigrants who report crimes aren’t actually being detained or deported, the perceived threat of deportation and decrease in trust in law enforcement agencies may be enough for an immigrant victim of a crime to not make a report. In domestic violence situations, abusers will also use immigration status as a way to maintain power and control over the victim, often threatening to call ICE on the victim if they try to escape or don’t do what the abuser says.
Although there are some protections for undocumented immigrants who are victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, and human trafficking such as the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), U-Visas and T-Visas, many immigrants are unaware that these protections exist or that they may be eligible to apply.
- Distrust in law enforcement agencies may not only arise from fears of deportation. As previously mentioned, many immigrants coming to the United States are often fleeing violence in their home countries where law enforcement there may be influenced by gangs, drug cartels or religious affiliations and offer no help to victims of sexual assault or domestic violence. As a result, many immigrants may have had very negative interactions with law enforcement in the past which may affect their perceptions of law enforcement in the United States. They may feel that even if they do report, nothing will result from it as it did in the past.
- Distrust in U.S. law enforcement agencies may also come from past negative experiences due to racism or discrimination. Many times immigrants may reach out to law enforcement for other crimes that are committed against them and they are not taken seriously. Even when law enforcement agencies do not work directly with ICE agencies, the interaction alone with certain officers could discourage people from reporting future victimizations. However, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center those victims who have support from advocates and/or attorneys are more likely to seek relief like VAWA, U-Visa and protection orders.
- Another barrier to reporting which is related to fears of deportation is a survivor’s fear of losing their children or being separated from their family either resulting from their detainment/deportation or through a perpetrator’s use of power. As mentioned earlier, keeping the family together can be a strong reason which will prevent victims from seeking help or reporting the assault or abuse. Along with fears of being separated from family, some victims may be concerned about being rejected by their family or community for reporting the perpetrator. This can be very tough particularly for immigrants who may already have a very small community or support system.
There are numerous challenges when trying to adjust to a new country. Additionally, many immigrants face a number of barriers when it comes to reporting crimes committed against them like sexual assault and domestic violence. Often it is also challenging to seek victim services.
As SAVA’s Bilingual Victim Services Coordinators, one of our main roles is working to reduce some of those barriers for victims of sexual assault in our communities.
There is still a lot of work to be done to ensure that all people who identify as victims or survivors, immigrants and non-immigrants, are able to make reports and seek services without feeling fearful. It is important that all survivors have access to confidential services in the community and that they feel comfortable reaching out for help with a degree of confidence in knowing that they will able to receive the help that they need.
If you’re an immigrant survivor in need of support, counseling or advocacy services, contact us at 970.472.4204.