“Where Should I go? Who can I cry to?” The Perspectives of South Asian Immigrant Women In Edmonton who have Experienced Domestic Violence
Date
2020-09-21
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Abstract
This study is about ten South Asian immigrant women survivors of domestic violence in Edmonton, Alberta. The study explores their experiences and perspectives on domestic violence and the challenges they faced in accessing services and supports in Edmonton. The research questions that guided the study were (a) What are the lived experiences of South Asian immigrant women who have experienced domestic violence, and how does culture influence their access to services and support systems? (b) What are the perspectives of South Asian immigrant women survivors of domestic violence on the formal services and supports they received? and (c) What services and interventions would these women like to have received? A qualitative research design and an interpretive phenomenological approach were used to explore the research questions. In-depth face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten South Asian survivors of domestic violence, and the data were analyzed by using thematic analysis. The findings highlight that the women experienced multiple forms of abuse and faced several intersecting barriers that delayed their access to services and supports for domestic violence. Cultural beliefs and practices were only one of the multiple intersecting variables that influenced their access to services and supports. The women’s experiences with formal services and support providers were mainly negative, and the women described the domestic violence support system as fragmented, uncoordinated, and overextended. The women’s experiences and recommendations call for an overall systemic change in this system so that it can meet the needs of racialized minority women experiencing violence. The study concludes by making recommendations for changes to this system.
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Domestic violence, theories of domestic violence, feminist intersectionality theory, South Asian immigrant women, domestic violence support system
Citation
Deenoo, M. D. (2020). “Where Should I go? Who can I cry to?” The Perspectives of South Asian Immigrant Women In Edmonton who have Experienced Domestic Violence (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.