A woman who attends courses may be doing so in the face of family disapproval; her mere attendance at a program may be an act of courage on her part. Like other women who experience domestic violence on a daily basis, an immigrant woman in this situation spends a great deal of effort simply surviving, and may not be able to focus on learning.

• cultural mores she brings to Canada may discourage her from seeking help. Violence in her family may be compounded by the feeling of many immigrant women that seeking outside help to deal with family violence would only bring shame to her family and herself. If domestic abuse takes the form of preventing a woman from attending classes, she may feel that she is unable to take steps to end this abuse. As the Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women pointed out: "Discussion of violence within the family is still taboo in many cultures. Violence can be viewed as an illness, and marriage vows keep women in situations of violence in sickness and in health."

• racism erodes the self-esteem and self-confidence of many immigrant women. When a woman first arrives in Canada, she may spend her time and energy simply surviving and learning her way around her new community. "At first you don't notice the racism, then you begin to notice it and after a time you feel depleted." Like racialized women born in Canada, she may become a target of violence--physical, emotional, spiritual--because of the colour of her skin.

• refugee women face special problems not recognized by most educational programs in Canada. Women who have been displaced from their country of origin by war and other organized political and military violence have had to deal with extreme violence on a personal level. They have probably seen family members and friends killed, they may have been victims of rape (increasingly used as a tool of war), they may have faced sexual harassment and rape in refugee camps. Any of these experiences will affect a woman's ability to learn. Few programs designed for immigrants even acknowledge, much less take into account the experiences of refugee women. The women themselves will probably be pre-occupied with basics of life--housing, food and jobs--all of which represent safety, something they were denied in their country of origin. Educational opportunities for refugee women must take these realities into account.

Compiled by immigrant women from several countries