The Single Mother Phenomenon

The Somali Crisis in Canada:
The Single Mother Phenomenon

by Ladan Affi
http://caafi.tripod.com/culture1.html



Traditionally Canada has welcomed immigrants and refugees from around the world, particularly those of European heritage. Although the percentage of immigrants to Canada has remained relatively steady since World War II, their cultural backgrounds have not. Figures published by Statistics Canada reveal that the ethnic diversity of new Canadian has increased dramatically during the past decade.


Further, within the last few decades the composition of immigrants has changed dramatically, from approximately 80 percent from countries with European heritage to almost three-quarters from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Almost half of Canadian immigration now comes from Asia. Between 1971 and 1986 the number of Canadian who had been born in Africa, Asia and Latin America grew by 340 percent.


Recently, there has been an increase of immigrants and refugee claimants from African countries such as Somalia, Ethiopia, Eriterea and the Sudan. Within 5 years, the Somali population in Ontario has increased by 613 percent. There are no 70,000 Somalis living in Canada, 13,00 of whom live in Ottawa.


Somalis first entered Canada in 1988 after the destruction of Northern Somalia, and in larger numbers in 1991, after the outbreak of civil war in the southern part of the country. The majority of refugees originally arrived in the United States and, after long and harsh examinations, received refugee status in Canada. It is estimated that the majority of Somali women in Canada are single mothers. The focus of this paper will encompass the problems that Somali single mothers face in the process of adapting to life in Canada. Major emphasis will be given to the immigration process, employment, systematic barriers and family disintegration in Canada.


"The growing Somali community is considered to be one of the most disadvantaged among the visible and ethnic minorities In many cases, women fled Somalia with false passports and could only bring the number of children stated on these passports. The financial issue of the cost to bring the children to Canada was also used as a factor to decide which children to bring. The decision of who would depart and who would stay is a most difficult one since there are mother who leave young children behind in the hopes of sponsoring them, once they become permanent residents. This process however, on average, takes over one year and sometimes longer.


Third, the rate of divorce among Somali couples is incredibly high. The confilicts which arise are mainly due to the redefinition of traditional cultural roles between women and men and the stress of trying to cope in a foreign country. For example, women raise a family without the help of their husbands, yet it is the men who expect to be treated with respect and exert authority as heads of households as they once had in Somalia. These men are expecting to be obeyed without contributing very much to the well-being of the family.


In Somalia, men did not help their wives with household chores and caring for their children because there are many relatives helping them instead. In Canada, however, this kind of support from relatives does not exist, yet Somali men fail to understand that.


The result is an extremely high divorce rate. Marital break-ups are also often the result of there being no mechanism in Canada similar to the one in Somalia of mediation in the event of marital conflicts. Conflicts which might lead to divorce are often solved in Somalia, therefore saving the marriage. Another factor is lack of knowledge of Canadian law. For example, one Somali woman who was angry with her husband called the police but had no intention of charging him with anything. She had just wanted to teach him a lesson. She did not anticipate that the police would adopt harsh measures.


One of the most immediate issues that these women face on their arrival to Canada is the immigration process. First, women have to retain their own lawyer, attend numerous interviews with authorities, write a coherent statement regarding why she should be considered a refugee and convince an immigration officer and the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada that she has a legitimate claim. When making a refugee claim in Canada, the claimant has to remember exact dates and times of when events occurred. This is extremely difficult for Somalis who have a tendency not to put emphasis on how far they traveled from one city to another, or the date of when the left. This often leads to their claim being rejected due to inconsistencies or for lack of facts. Throughout this long process the claimant is living with the uncertainty of what will happen to them and at the same time beginning the stressful process of appealing the negative decision. Women who have been raped or sexually assaulted are faced with yet a further barrier. Somali women are not likely to mention the rape or assault in the context of their claim or hearing. Yet without this information, the claim may be rejected. Women under such circumstance are forced to reveal the violations or choose to remain silent about what has happened to them, out of fear of being ostracized or blamed for the abuse within their community.


Canada introduced, in March 1993, gender guidelines which are intended to take such factors of the abuses women refugee claimants suffer into account. Unfortunately, the stigma of making a claim based on rape or sexual abuse in Somali society is so great that few Somali women have used the guidelines, although some would no doubt qualify. Another obstacle was created by the new immigration law, Bill C-16, which was implemented in February 1993. This Bill requires that claimants, even after being found to be convention refugees by the Immigration and Refugee Board, are still compelled by Immigration Canada to have documentation predating their entrance into Canada, in order to prove their identity. "Our primary concern is not to enter a situation where we are landing people and we don't know who they are." say Jim May, Chief of Immigrant and Visitor Operations. Since identify documents were not widely used in Somalia and since Somali women were less likely to own one, as they likely did not drive or work where documentation was needed, they might have no documents. This requirement directly affects women more than men because men often do have access to such documents. Also, refugees are usually fleeing dangerous situations and war conditions. Under these conditions, there is no available system to apply for documentation proving their identity. However, this is a reality that immigration official fail to acknowledge. Refugees with their proper paperwork and documentation are rare.


Some Somali women have had their claim rejected on the basis that they could live in safe areas, inhabited by their children's clan. Although the clan system is strong in Somalia, many clans are at war and no area can be considered safe. Refugee women also face sexism from Immigration and Refugee Board officers as was the case of a Somali woman whom the Immigration officer referred to as "my dear lad," and also described her as "little lady." Such language is clearly sexist and patronizing. Some immigration officers ever refer to Somali women's dress styles, conforming to Islamic Shari'ah, as outdated and backward. This type of attitude may influence how a woman's claim is decided.


Canada is no longer "a nation in which single-wage earners predominant," single mothers feel the pressure more than two-parent families. Due to the fact that many Somali women are in a situation where they are the only adult in their family living in Canada, there are certain responsibilities that she alone must fulfill such as supporting family members back home by sending money, and trying to sponsor other family members into Canada. Sponsorship has been made somewhat more difficult under Canada's recently restricted immigration which only allows sponsorship of spouses and children under 19 years of age. Parents and grandparents, minor age siblings, and adopted and orphaned children can be sponsored only if the sponsor is working. The Somali women are thus forced, due to "economic pressures, to take any jobs. Theses jobs, however are usually low-paying and result in having to accept two or three part-time jobs in order to meet the minimum requirement for earned income set by immigration.


"Immigrant women experience extreme difficulty finding decent employment at every level of the Canadian labor force" and Somali women tend to face the addition hardships of "cultural and language barriers (Somali and Muslim) and discrimination (Black, female and Muslim). "The visibility of Somali women in terms of dress and behavior has major implications for both employment opportunities and access to services. The majority of Canadian employer inevitably ask for Canadian educational experience and are not likely to acknowledge previous work and "most immigrant women into jobs well below their overall skills and almost always below their potential." Women also lack work experience as they might not have worked in their home country.


Due to all these barriers, the majority of Somali women are employed in some form of domestic work because there is minimum language requirement and such "unskilled" jobs are available in greater numbers to women. Once women enter these menial jobs it is difficult, if not impossible, to escape this employment ghettos.


Since the lack of English or French language skills is often not considered a problem with such low-paying jobs, they do not have opportunities to improve their language skills at work. Women therefore remain ineligible for occupational training or upgrading. On the job, these women have few opportunities to learn the official languages because work is done in isolation. The long hours and the exhausting nature of the work also make it extremely difficult for women to attend evening or weekend language classes. They are "caught in a self-perpetuating trap, which makes them vulnerable to exploitation."


Due to the breakdown of the traditional support systems available in Somalia, abusive relationships among married couples as well as between parents and children is increasing in the Somali community. There are increasing incidents of violence within Somali families, "where stress may be high and where abused family members do not know their rights and/or sources of help." Marital conflict which sometimes becomes abusive, aside from being the result of power inequities in society between men and women, can also be attributed to several other factors. First, the political conflicts in Somalia are often transferred to Canada. The effects of this conflicts are magnified, especially if the husband and wife are from different clans. This manifests itself in the form of who to send money to; should it be her clan or his/her family or his/or should they spend it on their own needs?<


Second, a large percentage of Somali men are unemployed due to the current recession and lack of recognition from employers of previous work experience as well as education. Somali women, on the other hand, are willing to take dead-end, low paying jobs in order to support their family in Canada and abroad. This creates a role reversal as women become financially independent of their husbands. This results in men feeling alienated, useless, angry and frustrated, eventually, reaching a point where their frustrations are taken out on their wives and children. This leads many Somali women to look to the police for protection for themselves and their families.


There are also a large number of children who speak either English or French and have figured out how to use the system to their benefit and are also in many cases abusing their mothers. Somali children tend to believe that "they are deprived of the freedoms that Canadian children enjoy." This leads the children to threaten to call the police or the Children's Aid Society (CAS) and report abuse unless they get their way in the family. Police and CAS intervention is the nightmare of most Somali single mothers in Canada, as many who have had contact with such agencies have had their children taken away from them


All of the above are only a fraction of the problems faced by Somali single mothers. Housing has also been identified as a major issue. Families on welfare are asked to provide the name of a co-signer who has an income of $50,000 or over. This criteria cannot be met by many Somali single mothers and they have no option but to enter shelters in order to qualify for subsidized housing from the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Housing Authority. This, in turn, has led to an influx of Somalis into certain areas of the city. Due to the increasing intolerance in Canada towards newcomers and towards the Somali community specifically, there has been an increase in conflict between Somalis and white Canadian who have stereotyped Somalis as abusing the social assistance system. This conflict has manifested itself to the point where Somalis are increasingly facing individual and systematic racist which has made their integration much more difficult. In many cases, Somalis have been physically attacked and injured.


A poll done in 1993 by Maclean's, one of the leading magazines in Canada, revealed that there is increasing intolerance toward newcomers and found that "34% [of those interviewed] said that immigrants should be encouraged to "blend with larger society." Another previous poll done by Maclean's in 1990 indicated that "40% of the respondents... said that new immigrants should be encouraged to maintain their distinct culture and ways." These are contradictory messages and most likely reflect the confused state of what multiculturalism means to Canadians.


Recently, the Somali community has faced increasing, systematic racism in the media and government, and from the general public. Many Somalis have been charged with collecting multiple claims for welfare in order to send money to their warlords of choice. Even though these allegations have been shown to be false, the Somali community continues to face the repercussions of such false reporting.


Despite these difficulties, the Somali community in Ottawa-Carleton has organized to assist their members. Several programs have been implemented to make life easier for community members. Some community health centers such as the Calington Community Health Centre and the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre have hired Somali workers to do outreach and counsel Somali single mothers and the Somali community in general. Canrlington Community Health Centre, for example, has a Somali women's program where the women get together, decide upon the topics to be discussed as well as who to invite as speakers. They have also attempted to recreate the support mechanism that they had in Somalia and have empowered themselves by finding out how the Canadian system works and how it can benefit them. Other governmental agencies including the three levels of government as well as non-governmental organizations have hired Somalis to render the services accessible and available.


Numerous heritage schools where the Somali language and culture is taught have also emerged in the area. Women get together on weekends to teach each other skills and exchange ideas. There are also increasing numbers of Somali religious elders who now do counseling in a way similar to that done in Somalia. During ramadan, the holy month of fasting, Somali women organize locations to break the fast together and share prayers. During holidays such as Eid Al Fitr, women organize camps and picnics for the community to come together.


Somali women have not only tried to improve life in Canada for themselves but have had a positive impact on other refugees and immigrants in Canada. In 1991, a group of Somali women in Toronto who were part of a support group being offered by the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture and facilitated by Fadumo Dirie, decided that one of their immediate needs was access to government housing which was not available to refugee claimants. The women did research, collected support from other agencies and members of the provincial parliament and then launched a lawsuits against the Housing Authority stating that they were being discriminated against. This has led to the law being changed to make all refugee claimants eligible for subsidized housing.


As the Somali community continues to face many problems in Canada, Somali women, as the majority of the adult population, will continue to play a major role in solving the above-stated problems. While Somalis have been victims of racism due to their vocal resistance to being discriminated against, they have become scape-goats in the media, which makes them vulnerable to even worse racism and discrimination. The Somali experience in places such as Ottawa has played a significant role in policy changes which have benefited newcomers as a whole and which can be used as a model for organizing Somali communities in other parts of Canada.


Bibliography


Adan, Zeinab, "Somali Refugee Women in Canada" INSCAN, Vol. 6. No.2/3 Ottawa: November 1992.


Boyd, Monica, "Immigrant Women in Canada: Profiles and Policies." Research Division, Immigration Canada and Status of Women Canada. Ottawa, March 1987.


Cairns, Alan C., "Charter Vs Federalism:The Dilemma of Constitutional Reform." Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1992.


Ethnocultural Data Base, Policy Services Branch, Ministry of Citizens, Ethnic


Hanafi, Ahmed, "Family Problems" INSCAN, Vol.7 No.2, Ottawa, November 1993.


McGowan, Sharon, "Immigrant Women in Canada: A Resource Handbook for Action."Vancouver, B.C.:Tasks Force on Immigrant Women, July 1982.


Wood, Nancy, "Immigration: A Reluctant Welcome" Maclean's Vol. 105, no.101, Ottawa, January 4, 1993