CANADA: Immigrant Seniors Face 'Rampant' Abuse by Families

VANCOUVER, Canada (CBC News), June 15, 2006: It's a myth that all members of ethnic communities take good care of their elderly parents, the head a multicultural group says, adding that governments need to intervene in a serious problem that has caused at least one man to commit suicide. Shashi Assanand, executive director of the Vancouver and Lower Mainland Multicultural Family Support Services Society, said Thursday some seniors face emotional, physical and financial abuse from their children who have sponsored them to Canada. Once here, those immigrant parents end up being isolated in their kids' homes where they serve as housekeepers and babysitters for their grandchildren, said Assanand, who was speaking at a conference on elder abuse. "There is no one to talk to about the shame, the fear that 'If I talk, my children will find out and they will be very angry with me,' " Assanand said in an interview. Several seniors' advocacy groups managed to get 32 communities around British Columbia to declare Thursday as World Elder Abuse Awareness Day and Assanand was speaking at a conference sponsored by the 80,000-member Council of Senior Citizens Organizations. She said elderly parents in ethnic communities that have historically bowed to seniors' authority suddenly find themselves living under their children's rules, she said. Indo-Canadian, Chinese, African and Eastern European families are among the groups Assanand's organization represents. The worst problem is that seniors are isolated in a country where they can't speak English, even to their Canadian-born grandchildren who may not speak their parents' language, she said. Such seniors become so lonely that they often become depressed. "I think it's so essential to recognize and not believe that immigrant populations or ethnic populations don't have seniors' problems. I've seen it for 30 years. . . and I've really seen serious problems (including) a client who committed suicide he was so stressed out." Patricia Baird has been hired by the B.C. government to prepare a report by the end of November on seniors' needs in the coming years. She said it's important to acknowledge the population is aging rapidly and that many future seniors will be from immigrant families whose needs must be met. "In 25 years or less there are going to be more people in the major urban centres of Canada, like Vancouver and Toronto, who were the visible minorities and they're going to be in the majority," Baird said. Most children who sponsor their elderly parents to Canada start out with good intentions and want to take care of their parents, Assanand said. She said her organization has produced videos on elder abuse in Cantonese and Spanish and is currently working on one in Punjabi. Assanand has also spoken about the issue on a Punjabi radio station to callers who weren't initially thrilled about having a hidden problem exposed. "A senior woman called in and she was whispering, making sure that the rest of the family didn't hear that she's on the radio talking about her issue," Assanand said. "It makes you realize how fearful people are." Elderly parents who may have sold all their assets in their home country before coming to Canada often find themselves financially dependent on their children in Canada, she said. "The immigration policies are such that it gives the sponsors so much power over the sponsored person that it becomes really difficult for them." Children who sponsor their parents from abroad are required to provide for them for 10 years, Assanand said. Too often, children tell their elderly parents to work for their keep, sending them to labour at farms for contractors who are also from immigrant backgrounds, Assanand said. "In fact, it's a very exploitative situation where people work for very, very long hours. They leave home around 5 o'clock in the morning and they don't come home until 10." It's not uncommon for adult kids, and even their children to forge the elderly person's signature on paycheques and deposit the money into their own bank accounts, she said. Assanand said her organization has been in talks with B.C. Housing, the provincial Crown agency that provides affordable housing to the needy, to help immigrant seniors in the most difficult situations. "I have to say it's a very, very hard sell," she said, adding government policies don't allow those under the sponsorship program to qualify. "It is a very serious problem and I think we and the government have to take a look at it." Assanand said seniors often come in contact with her organization once police or victims' services organizations become involved in a volatile situation. By Camille Bains © The Canadian Press, 2006