The Refugee Woman and 

As survivors of a U, refugee families 
arrive already under the stress produced by 
the refugee experience. Upon arrival they 
have to continue to cope with these 
stresses, as well as the new stresses that 
are part of the immigrant experience. 

In order to help, we need to know more 
about the dynamics of the refugee family 
and the ways support can be given in 
restoring its members' sense of well-being 
to a reasonable level of functioning. 

The refugee family has to deal with many 
losses: 

loss of the support of the extended 
family; 

the sense of loss of dignity and self, 
particularly in the case of victims of 
torture and imprisonment; 

loss of material possessions; 
loss of status; and, 
loss of culture and language. 

To cope with these losses there is a need 
after escape to reorganize and reconstitute. 
It is essential for the survival of the 
family after a crisis to readjust the roles of 
its members to the new situation. 

A critical factor of stress for refugees is 
not only the dislocation they experience, 
but also that the time between dislocation 
and settlement can take anywhere from six 
months to many years. 

In some cases, the rebuilding and 
restructuring of family life needs to start 
three or four times before the final 
destination is reached. Some of the 
symptoms of stress become entrenched and 
others are suppressed. Since the 
functional necessities of life -- shelter, 
food and the need to secure a final 
destination -- are overwhelming, the 
psychological effects of the stress are often 
dclayed. 

In studies of families that are victims of a 
disaster, the capacity of the family to rally 
around, to reorganize its internal resources 

by Eva Allmen 

her Family 

is a key element in its members' 
emotional and economic recovery. 

Coping mechanisms often include the 
following: 

In some cases, families go to the 
extreme of isolating themselves from the 
outside world until it is safe to connect 
again. 

There may be intense activities 
involving all family members with a great 
deal of interaction and time spent together. 

They may develop ways that would 
supplement the loss of the extended 
family, such as establishing networks 
with fellow refugees which provide a 
semblance of the extended family. 

Roles of Women 
Women's pivotal role in family life is a 
known fact, but this role is even more 
critical in the refugee situation. A great 
deal of the rebuilding, reorganizing and 
nurturing of the family falls on women. 
They are called upon to continue their task 
of maintaining a home during transition 
and immediately upon arrival. Regardless 
of the circumstances, they must cook, take 
care of the children and be supportive to 
others. 

Women in these situations have to expand 
their traditional roles. They must 
maintain their status as homemakers and 
mothers and must assume additional roles 
as workers or students. At the same time, 
men's role as providers may be undermined 
in the context of a new country, forcing 
them to assume tasks that were previously 
considered female functions. Very often 
the extension of the woman's role is 
resented as it is seen as a threat to the 
family. 

Helping Strategies 

At Ontario Welcome House, hundreds of 
refugee women come for services. This is 

but one of the agencies that services 
refugees in Toronto, and is the one with 
which I am most familiar. 

Through many years of obse~ation, I 
have formulated the following suggestions 
to facilitate and improve the services 
rendered to refugees: 

1) It is important to recognize that most 
refugees are successful and capable 
individuals. They are only recent 
casualties of political and social 
events well beyond their control. 

2) Service provided should investigate and 
note their previous life style and not 
make assumptions based on what they 
do or where they live now. 

3) Child care requires sensitive support. 
The economic need that leads to a 
parent's decision to place a child in 
the care of strangers is difficult to 
cope with. 

4) Refugee women are often extremely 
isolated. They feel the loss of the 
extended family's support. 
Alternative networks of women with 
similar experiences would help. 

5) Because of the stresses and the length 
of the transition from exile t 
settlement, refugee women's h 
may have been neglected. They 
extensive health care and nueiho 
iilfolmation. 

of the family. 
n The trauma and the losses of e 

often cause emotional problema 
Moreover, a new life in a new l a d  
carries with it addi tional pressures 
burdens. 

Eva Allmen, a Supervisor qf Se 
Services on leave from Ontario 
House, is currently involved 
tablishing a National Working G 
Refugee Women under the sponso 
the Canadian Council for R@ug 



Women and Religion: 
"Mennonite Hmong" 

by Daphne Abergel 

The Hmong of Laos, a Wtionally 
animist and preliterate people, speak a 
SineTibetan language and are culturally 
close to the Chinese. Due to their 
strategic location and scouting and 
fighting skills, the Hmong were singled 
out during the war in Indochina to 
collaborate with the CIA as front line 
guerrillas. The eventual assumption of 
power in 1975 in Laos of communist- 
backed Pathet Lao forces, resulted in 
increasing hardships and danger for those 
Hmong who had complied with the U.S. 
Army Special Forces. By 1980, more 
than 110,000 Hmong were forced to flee 
Thailand. Most Hmong from Thai refugee 
camps resettled in the U.S., France, 
Australia and Canada. The Mennonite 
Central Committee's (MCC) policy to aid 
sponsor cases like the preliterate and non- 
industrial Hmong resulted in a 
proportionately high influx of Hmong to 
Ontario; hence Kitchener-Waterloo (K-W) 
has been dubbed the "Hmong Capital" of 
Canada by immigration officials. 

Of the fdteen to twenty Hmong families 
that initially resettled in Kitchener- 
Waterloo in 1979, only five or six were 
baptized Christians before their arrival. 
Over the last seven years in Canada there 
has been a steady increase in the numbers 
of Hmong converting to Christianity, 
specifically the Mennonite faith. The 
Hmong Christian Church (Mennonite), es- 
tablished under the auspices of the Men- 
nonite Conference of Ontario and Quebec 
in 1984, has proven to be an important are- 
na for the negotiation of Hmong beliefs, 
values and norms, specifically those 
relating to male-female relationships. 

Of the estimated sixty-five Hmong 
families now living in the Waterloo 
region, approximately one half attend the 
Hmong Christian Church, a substantial 
increase fiom six years ago. The Hmong 
church has adopted an "open door" policy 
for those Hmong who are intimidated by 
rigid institutional rules or structures. 
Among older Hmong in particular, the 
church serves more as a facility for social 
interaction with other Hmong than as a 
source of spiritual help. The church 

leadership has struggled over the last few 
years to get people involved. Recently 
Hmong women began to be very active in 
the church. Although the young Hmong 
pastor hied to draw women into the church 
by offering Hmong literacy classes to 
women and organizing workshops on nutri- 
tion and hygiene, the women themselves 
have taken the initiative by contributing 
their services to the congregation. 

When Hmong women first arrived, they 
were unresponsive to volunteer efforts. 
They were also reluctant to get involved in 
government and community-sponsored 
language and job-placement programmes. 
When asked why they resisted attempts to 
resettle and integrate them into their new 
community, they responded that they felt 
uncomfortable participating in these 
programmes with Hmong men. Hmong 
women were in these and other cases 
abiding by traditional norms governing 
malelfemale roles. For example, the 
traditional custom of arranged marriages 
between young teenagers continued until 
Mennonite church officials intervened and 
counselled Hmong on acceptable Christian 
and Canadian legal practices concerning 
marriage. 

The involvement of women in the 
workforce has brought about significant 
changes to the traditional notion of the 
family as an economic unit, particularly in 
those cases in which women are the sole 
source of family income. Virtually all 
Hmong women are wage earners working 
on assembly lines in local factories. 
Women now exercise greater freedom in 
choosing marriage partners and are 
marrying later. 

Although these changes to same extent 
parallel thase of the much largea Hmong 
communities in the U.S., there are majar 
diffeaences b e t s e a  Canadian Hmong and 
their Americarr c o u n m  In Bme- 
cities such as Denvw, h&hwapo& ad 
Orange Countyf segmentary kinship based 
on corporate sub-lineages at the clan and 
lineage levels is common. Relationships 
based on common descent link many 
Hmong families within the wider Hmong 

people from all parts of Laos, most of 
whom are not related to others in the area. 
Thus what one finds in K-W is a relatively 
small community of Hmong, internally 
differentiated along geographical, ethnic, 
linguistic, religious and other lines. It is 
clear then that a significant number of 
Hmong attend church out of a desire for 
community and not doctrine. The Hmong 
Christian Church thus provides an 
opportunity for regular social in~raction 
which would otherwise be severely 
curtailed. However, the church proviaes 
additional incentives for women in 
particular. The Women's Fellowship 
Committee is available as a forum in 
which women can share their ideas and 
concerns. Church attendance not only 
gives women the chance to socialize but 
also share information and make use of 
educational facilities and other services 
offered by the church. Most importantly, 
it provides an opportunity to build 
important support networks. 

Although it may be a while before these 
women gain the confidence to face new 
challenges, the congregation will continue 
to provide them with a non-threatening 
environment in which they can continue 
to negotiate their identities as Hmong 
women in Canadian society. 

Daphne Abergel is a doctoral candidate 
in Sociology at York University working 
on"Mennonites" in Kitchener- Waterloo. 

food and money that make it possible for 
the Lao to maintain their ritual traditions 
in Toronto. 



New Experiences for Refugee Women 
by Joy Simmonds 

Latin Aqxican refugee women new to 
Toronto, have tremendous obstacles to 
overcome% settling here. Disorientation, 
uncmployrnent and an inability to 
communicate in English, prevent them 
from integrating into their new society. 
Over the past four years New Experiences 
for Refugee Women (NE.W.) has 
developed a unique programme that 
addresses these and other problems. 

The goal of the programme is to assist 
refugee women with their social. cultural 
and economic integration into Canadian 
society. To achieve this we focus on each 
woman as a whole person with many 
varied and interrelated abilities, experiences 
and needs. We see her as a woman fmt, 
as a refugee, a mother, a wife, a social 
bcing, a worker. Our three-component 
programme of English, Orientation and 
Employment has been designed to build 
on all of these. 

Who Are the Refu ee 8 Women at N.E.W.. 
The refugee women at N.E.W. come 
primarily from Central America, mainly 
from El Salvador and Guatemala These 
women have been forced to leave their 
countries due to the escalation of civil 
war. They have seen and experienced 
violent repression in the form of killings 
and disappearances of family members and 
in some cases have themselves been in 
prison and tortured. They have been forced 
LO leave their homelands and make the 
long and arduous journey to Canada. 

Many have been fortunate enough to have 
been sponsored by the Canadian 
government and so have come here 
directly. Others have had to go via the 
illegal and dangerous route through 
Mexico, crossing into the U.S., and 
slowly proceeding north to Canad& Some 
of our participants have taken years to get 
here and have lost family and friends along 
the way to illness, death and deportation. 
While still dealing with the emotional, 
psychological and physical trauma of the 
past, these refugee women arrive in 
Toronto and are bombarded by the demands 
of a new society. Most are mothers and 
wives and have the awesome 
responsibility of holding their families 
together. Marital and family problems 
often include abuse and violence. Many 
have limited work experience and those 
who have skills find that they are not 
recognized in, or transferable to the 
C a n d i  labour market. Financial crisis 
is common. Affordable housing is 
practically non-existent. The women 
often have less access to English classes 
than their husbands and children and so 
become isolated from Canadian society. 
The loss of community and familiar 
surroundings, coupled with an inability to 
fend for themselves leads to a loss of 
identity and self-worlh. 

N.E.W. Programme 
N.E.W.'s programme is six months long 
and is offered to refugee women in groups 
of fifteen. 

Reasons for Coming to Canada 
Tbe following results are fnnn research conduced by N.E.W. in July 1986. The total 
number d people surveyed m s  seventy-flve. The flgures reprosent percentages. 

I 
- - - 

Lives of family members in danger 54.6 
No longer wanted to live in a state of war 52.0 
Life in daneer 49.3 " 
Family members of friends: 

imprisoned 41.3 
tortured 37.3 
killed 22.6 

To join relatives 9.3 
To join husband 8.0 

I Othcr reasons 13.3 

The fmt foutteen weeks of the programme 
take place on the premises of NEW.. and 
involve classoom training, including: 

English as a Second Language WL). 
Orientation/lnformation/Life Skills. 
Employment Preparation. 

The final twelve weeks consist of on-the- 
job training and Canadian work 
experience. During the six months, each 
participant receives a training salary and a 
mettopass. 

English as a Second 
Language 
Intensive ESL instruction is provided to 
prepare participants to communicate 
effectively in day to day situations. 
Emphasis is on participants speaking 
English and role playing. Activities 
include field trips hto the community, I 
audio visual materials, and music. The 
programme is staffed by bilingual 
instructors and volunteers. 

Orientation, Information 
and Life Skills 
This component specifically addres 
sense of alienation and the loss of id 
and confidence experienced 
American refugee women in the 
settlement. 

Through orientation/inforrnation 
participants begin to 
historical. political and 
within which immigrants an 
have come to Canada. Th 
familiar with the basic i n h  
community and learn how 
utilize the resources. F 
to know legal rights and 
as a woman, a refugee, 
tenant. 

The life skills sessions 

Assessing personal 
American woman in 



Identifying personal needs and 
a~piratio~ls Service Delivery to 

Developing communications and 
assertive skills 

Southeast Asian Refugee Women 
Setting goals and making decisions. I 

Personal counselling is provided 
throughout this process. 

Employment Component 
The Employment Preparation provides 
participants with an opportunity to assess 
vast work experience, skills, education, 

Sessions prepare women to do job search, 
to conduct themselves in a job interview, 
to fill out application forms and 
employment contracts. Information is 
also provided on employment standards, 
labour legislation, employee rights and 
benefits and pay cheque deductions. They 
learn of possible entry-level employment 
opportunities and of their qualification 
requirements. 

and English levels. 

The work placement involves on-the-job 
training in an organization. Work 
placements are secured with the 
understanding that the participant will 
work and receive training for four months 
and will then be hired as a permanent 
employee. 

I 

The employment component has always 
faced somewhat of a dilemma The reality. 
of today's employment market, is that 
most of the entry level jobs currently 
available to participants in N.E.W.'s 
programme are found at the lower ends of 
traditional female occupations such as 
clerical work, community work, day care, 
home service and light manufacturing 
assembly work. Past experience has been 
that Latin American refugee women are 
primarily interested in jobs they can relate 
to and that have good working conditions 
and reasonable wages. It is inevitable that 
the majority of participants will find 
employment in traditional women's 
occupations. 

Joy Simmonds is the Community 
Liaison workxr at N.E. W. 

by John Van Esterik 

The delivery of senices to refugees in 
three counties of upstate New York 
occupied much of my time and attention 
for almost four years in the early 1980s. 
As an anthropologist who managed a 
I 
c 
mgramme of educational and 
:mployment services to refugees, I was 
interested in applying an anthropological 
malysis to the &livery of such services. 

The refugee population in the three rural 
counties of upstate New York covered at 
the time was mainly Southeast Asian. 
Almost half of the adult population had 
little or no education, the bulk of these 
being women. 

Women are responsible for household 
operations in all Southeast Asian groups. 
Thus, women were particularly affected by 
the limitations attendant upon large family 
size and low incomes. Southeast Asian 
women play important roles in the 
household, participating in all family 
decisions and usually handling the family 
budget and income. 

Yet, refugee women are especially 
disadvantaged in North American society 
since the majority of the women have 
much less education than local 
populations or refugee men. The women 
are responsible for the care of children in a 
society where child care is expensive and 
difficult to obtain. In their own societies, 
child care was often left to elderly 
relatives, friends, or neighbours, all of 
whom lived close by. 

The programme of services sought to 
provide educational and employment 
placement services to all refugee adults in 
the three-county area. But it was soon 
discovered that refugee women faced 
problems that impeded the delivery of 
programme services to them. 

Education Backgrounds 

Many Southeast Asian refugee women 
were very poorly educated and therefore 
unprepared for living in the modern, post- 
industrial society they were entering. 
Rural Southeast &ans often prefer to 
have males formally educated than women. 
Yet, refugee women wanted and expected 
to work and earn money. It became very 
apparent that a one entry-level salary 
family could not afford many consumer 
goods in the new society they had entered. 
Refugee women seeking employment had 
to face the problem of limited educational 
backgrounds and their continuing 
responsibilities of homemaking. 

A few students i n  the Beginning Class, 
St. Paul's Methodist Church, Ithaca, New 
York. 

Day-care Services 

The English as Second Language (ESL) 
classes were held in space provided by two 
churches in the largest urban centre 
(population: 27,000) in the counties. A 
problem that arose immediately was day- 
care services. No provision was made for 
day.care. 



The programme sought to solve the 
problem by planning class time8 so 
refugee women could uade off babysitting 
chores. Elderly relatives suffering their 
own disorientations in a new land were not 
prepared to care for two or three young 
children. Besides, refugees did not live all 
together and were not necessarily 
neighburs or, for that matter, friends. As 
a result, some private sponsors paid for 
professional day care. A classroom space 
with a day-care facility was donated, and 
two day-care workers were hired. 
However, none of these "solutions" was 
satisfactory. 

Travel 
Anolher problem was getting children to 
the day-care centre, since New Yo& law 
rcquired infant seats for any young child 
travelling in a car. Some refugees did not 
have cars and walking with three or four 
children through winter snows was not 
very convenient. This was usually solved 
by breaking the law and canying several 
children in a car owned by one of the 
refugees. 

Child Care in the Home 

In Southeast Asian villages, seven, eight, 
and nine-year-old daughters often take care 
of younger siblings. Of course, this is 
done in a context of open dwellings in 
proximity with the houses of relatives and 
well known neighbours. In housing 
projects even in small towns people are 
not always very friendly or understanding. 
In one case where both refugee parents 
worked, a number of complaints was 
raised against their leaving young children 
alone at home. At one point the state 
child abuse agency was catled in by a 
neighbur. State workers seemed 
receptive to cultural explanations but 
ultimately the law was obeyed. 

Training Courses 

Education involved mors than English 
language training. Some special courses 

were &vised to directly appeal to women's 
interests and concems. One of the most 
successful was a sewing class utilizing 
resources of the local vocational high 
school. Using patterns and power sewing 
machines appealed to many refugee 
women who in their home country weaved 
cloth and made their family clothing. 

to do piecewopk in the home. This 
course, however popular and well attended, 
was therefore dropped. Other courses such 
as housekeeping, food preparation, and 
health services, which had specific 
employment goals, were not as popular, 
but offered better opportunities for jobs in 
local restaurants, cleaning jobs, and other 
Service occu@m 

Some refugee women waiting for their 
sewing class to begin. 

Refugee women attending a popular 
sewing course. This course had to be 
dropped Nterwards because it could not be 
readily juswed for employment purposes. 

Unfortunately, it was difficult to justify 
the course for employment purposes. A 
cottage industry in sewing could not be 
supported because it was against the law 

On-the-Job Training 

With their poor eduational background, 
many refugee women had difficulty 
learning to read and write. It was soon 
discovered that even seemingly simple, 
labour-intensive jobs like cleaning required 
knowledge that many Southeast Asian 
refugee women did not have. Cleaning 
motel rooms, fraternity houses, and 
private homes demanded a knowledge 
about a wide range of products, techniques, 
and equipment these women had no 
experience with. The programme had to 
provide on-the-spot tutors and interpreters 
to lead the refugee woman through the 
job. Otherwise, even this minimum wage 
employment could be lost to the family. 

Summary 

*are barriers for women to access 
services. These constraints in 
government and legal restrictions 
limited the development of c 
industries, traditional child 
to day care. The cultural c 
refugee women, including their 
literacy, education and job readiness, 
additional difficulties. 

Science Divisio