Vathsala Illesinghe: Immigrant Women’s Vulnerability to Intimate Partner Violence in Canada

Intimate partner violence (IPV) accounts for one quarter of all reported crime in Canada. A less known fact is that immigrant women are most at risk of experiencing this form of abuse. In her article "Immigration Policies and Immigrant Women’s Vulnerability to Intimate Partner Violence in Canada," published in the Journal of International Migration and Integration on 14 February 2018, Vathsala Illesinghe considered how neoliberal immigration policies create economic, social, and political conditions that increase immigrant women’s vulnerability to IPV. She further examined how the IPV experienced by immigrant women is often attributed to cultural and racial determinants, in stark contrast to Canada’s multiculturalist ideals.

Vathsala Illesinghe is a 2017 Trudeau scholar and doctoral candidate in policy studies at Ryerson University.

To learn her recommendations, read her article.