Help for battered immigrant women.

• Author: Capellaro, Catherine
• Position: National Network for Battered Immigrant Women - Brief Article

As new welfare and immigration laws make work authorization harder to obtain, advocates fear that battered immigrant women may end up prisoners in their violent homes.

Julie Denton of Regional Domestic Abuse Services in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, describes some of the problems she faces in serving Hmong clients. "The state doesn't consider learning English part of the employment plan," she says.

"Some Hmong women were not allowed to learn English by their abuser. We don't know if they're even going to qualify to work. They're already vulnerable."

Denton also worries about her clients' ability to find and afford child care in a difficult market. "One unintended consequence [of welfare reform] is that clients who normally would come into a shelter may decide to `hang in there' until their kids are in school, when finding child care won't be such a hassle--if they live that long," says Denton.

Most immigrants entering the country after August 22, 1996, will not be eligible for federal assistance for five years, according to Minty Siu Chung, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who works with the National Network for Battered Immigrant Women...