Immigrant Women's Dangers: Domestic Violence, Language Barriers, Cultural Differences - Essay Sample

Introduction

The video has focused on the exceptional challenges that immigrant women faces while they navigate the dangerous road to independence. Firstly, it focuses on five women who experience domestic violence and who face various challenges arising from language barriers, cultural differences, social isolation together with economic insecurity that stem from their incapability to acquire legal employment (Battacharjee & Bogale, 2014). Secondly, all the five women experienced domestic violence from their husbands who took advantage of their economic insecurities, after they lured them to move to America. Only two of the women were earning, but the husbands took the little money they had too, which made them economically insecure too. Another similarity is that in all the five cases, police were involved in taking part in their rescue. In all the five cases, the husband was extremely in control and involved physical assaults. Additionally, all the women are seeking help in all the cases where they finally get help and fully recovers becoming brave domestic survivors.

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One notable difference is that all women came from different countries as follows Argentina, China, Pollard, Mali and Morocco(Battacharjee & Bogale, 2014). Additionally, while four of the women experiences involve women being convinced to move to the US by their spouses, one case from Mali is different since the woman had run there with the younger sister to escape female genital mutilation. Also, two of the cases have the women having a challenge of the language barrier in their attempt to explain their challenges, while one case lacks legal documents.

Theories Explaining the Origin of the Issues Facing Women Under Domestic Violence

Assessment on the development of domestic violence among immigrant women is essential since it sets a platform for framing imperative theoretical questions, and also notifying policy. Firstly, American feminist theory perspective can be used to explain the origin of the issues that women face in domestic violence. This feminist explanation upholds that domestic violence and abuse in immigrant women exists as a form of patriarchal social structure. It is also an intentional design of behaviour applied in establishing and maintaining power and control over a women partner. The imbalance of power thus attributes to men assaulting women partners who come from foreign countries as depicted in the video.

Secondly, social ecology theory can be used to assess the issues in the perspective of language where women are impeded from accessing helpful services. Immigrant women who lack knowledge of the legal process and do not understand the new language are prone to domestic violence as in the case of Maria in the video.

Also, the social change theory explains about isolation from and contact with family and community for the immigrant women. It is so since all the immigrants have left behind their families as well as beloved ones (Menjivar & Salcido, 2012). They thus enter a foreign country where they do not know the culture or even geographic locations. In such circumstances, it becomes very easy for men to control the lives of these women in both emotional and physical perspectives. Furthermore, as a result of isolation, men are well-positioned in gaining sole control on the resources that may provide legal, financial, and emotional support to the women spouses as reflected in the video when Aisha's husband ran away with all essential papers that belonged to her.

How to Use Sociological Imagination

The sociological imagination primarily refers to the capability of seeing things socially, as well as examining how they relate and influence each other (Mills, 1959). Having a sociological imagination makes an individual capable of pulling away from the situation to view and think from another alternate perspective. The issue highlighted in the video is domestic violence, and thus it is essential to examine whether it a personal or social problem. It will help the individuals, in this case, the five women, to learn the means of dealing with the situation.

Even if domestic violence for women is taken as a public issue, most women thought they were alone and unique in the abuse they experienced. Sociological imagination will help them realize that they are not alone since one out of three women in the world experience domestic abuses from their spouses (Choudhry & Herring, 2017). Also, the issue of domestic violence is now so public that there are groups as well as activists who are continuously advocating against domestic violence against immigrant women. Women who are having language barriers in their quest to move out of domestic violence will only get help when they are in social support. For instance, in the case of Aisha in the video, it is people who called police, thus rescuing her from her husband's brutality.

Solutions to Domestic Problems

As already highlighted in this paper, the issue addressed in the video is about domestic violence against immigrant women that is escalated by factors like language barriers, social ecology and isolation. To address these issues, courts, the government and community agencies need to reorganize the formal system and view immigrant women in domestic violence states as having needs that vary from others in the mainstream population. This approach will ensure the immigrant women are informed using their own languages, educating them about their rights and how to improve their immigrant-related condition. The main limitation of this recommendation is the recurrent sociocultural perception that it should not be reported as women affected are not accustomed to speaking their experiences.

References

Bhattacharjee, S., & Bogale, T. (Directors). (2014, December 18). Between Worlds: Immigrant Women and Domestic Violence [Video file]. Penn Law Documentaries & the Law Program. https://www.law.upenn.edu/institutes/documentaries/videos/

Choudhry, S., & Herring, J. (2017). Righting domestic violence. In Marital Rights (pp. 71-96). Routledge.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Shazia_Choudhry/publication/31009372_Righting_Domestic_Violence/links/5ae85bfd45851588dd7fe5be/Righting-Domestic-Violence.pdf

Menjivar, C., & Salcido, O. (2012). Immigrant women and domestic violence: Common experiences in different countries. Gender & Society, 16(6), 898-920.

https://www.peacepalacelibrary.nl/ebooks/files/Immigrant-Women-and-Domestic-Violence-Experiences-Menjivar.pdfMills, C. W. (1959). The Sociological Imagination. Chapter One: The Promise. http://sites.middlebury.edu/utopias/files/2013/02/The-Promise.pdf