The human rights organization Amnesty International has launched a global campaign to eradicate violence against women. One aspect of this problem is domestic abuse ? an issue that particularly concerns many immigrant women in the United States. Today on New American Voices, Leslye Orloff, a lawyer and the director of the Battered Immigrant Women Program in Washington, D.C., talks about some of the unique problems immigrant women face, and some of the remedies that are available to them.
Leslye Orloff says that almost 60 percent of immigrant women who are married or were married when they came to the United Stateshave been victims of domestic abuse. One of the reasons for this, Ms. Orloff says, is that U.S. laws give men control over the immigration status of their spouses ? that is to say, the man usually receives the visa, and the wife and children come as dependents.
Immigrant women are often reluctant to report their husband to the police or other authorities. The reasons vary. Sometimes it?s because of their limited language ability, sometimes the fear of being ostracized by their ethnic community. But more often, Ms Orloff says, an immigrant woman fears that her husband will retaliate by refusing to process her immigration papers, and she?ll be deported.
Many immigrant women don?t know where to begin looking for help. Leslye Orloff says there are a number of ways of going about it.
Immigrant women who are victims of domestic violence can turn to all of the services available to battered American women, Leslye Orloff says -- but they also have other options.
In her 20 years as an advocate and activist, Leslye Orloff has dealt with hundreds upon hundreds of cases of battered immigrant women. She says that the incidence of abuse is no greater among immigrants from any one country or culture or faith, than any other.
Leslye Orloff, a petite, dark-haired woman in her early forties, is herself a child of immigrants. Her father was born in the city of Poltava, in Ukraine, and all her forbears, she says, came to this country either from Ukraine or from Russia. She says growing up in an immigrant milieu was a powerful influence on her decision to devote her energies to helping immigrant women.